Compilation of Fighters' Cage Weight

[Sakuraba7]

And raising every weight class will somehow, magically, eliminate everyone that is "between" two weight classes? Your plan will not stop weight cutting one bit - it will just lead to some guys not cutting as much and some guys cutting more.

If you're between 10 lbs, that is far less than 15 lbs. That is basic logic.

There are 10 lb increments between every weight class between 125 and 155 except for between LW and WW. That is the problem, it's a massive jump.

Body weight and weight-cutting play a FAR greater factor when you're small. Meaning 15 lb for someone fighting at 185 or 205 might not be a big deal but for someone on the lower end it is.


If you're dead center 130 lbs, or 140 lbs, or 150 lbs. You have the option to chose either class above or below; that's a luxury. When you're at say 163 or 165, you could theoretically choose 170 but fighters will NOT, they'll choose the division below than the one above. That is why so many LWs have trouble with weight, and that will continue until this massive jump is narrowed.


Edit: Never once have I claimed my idea eliminates weight-cutting. I don't give a fuck about weight-cutting, I give a fuck about fighters making it to the scales and for fights and title-fights to NOT get cancelled. My proposal has nothing to do with eliminating weight cuts, it's to do with making it EASY for lightweights to cut weight safely and make it to fight night.

 

[in the liver]

How the fuck does Cormier gain 31 lbs in 36 hours? Is there something i'm missing?

come on man thats less than a pound an hour

for what its worth im being extremely sarcastic lmfao

 

[GreatSaintGuillotine]

Added Dodson's weight (152.4 lbs) when he competed at Flyweight, will add his weight at Bantamweight when I can find the number.


Common sense and sex aren't mutually exclusive.

How the hell did Dodson cut that much weight to make 125?...christ that must have been brutal

 

[in the liver]

If you want to contribute, include your source for a fighters' cage weight and I'll update the thread accordingly.

Light Heavyweight
Daniel Cormier: 236 lbs
Jon Jones: 216 lbs
Alexander Gustafsson: 220 lbs

Middleweight
Anderson Silva: 202 lbs (or less)
Chris Weidman: 192-193 lbs
Luke Rockhold: 200-201 lbs

Welterweight
Georges St-Pierre: 188 lbs
Tyron Woodley: 190 lbs
Stephen Thompson: 182 lbs
Colby Covington: 182 lbs

Lightweight
Khabib Nurmagomedov: 170 lbs
Conor McGregor: 168 lbs
Eddie Alvarez: 171 lbs
Kevin Lee: 176 lbs

Featherweight
Jose Aldo: 164 lbs
Brian Ortega: 164 lbs
Chad Mendes: 160 lbs
Frankie Edgar: 155 lbs

Bantamweight
Dominick Cruz: 150 lbs
TJ Dillashaw: 150 lbs
Cody Garbrandt: 146 lbs
Renan Barão: 157 lbs

Flyweight
Demetrious Johnson: 137 lbs
(Formerly) John Dodson: 152.4 lbs

Women's Featherweight
Cris Cyborg: 170 lbs
Holly Holm: 147 lbs

Women's Bantamweight
Ronda Rousey: 140 lbs
Cat Zingano: 151 lbs

Women's Flyweight
Valentina Shevchenko: 135 lbs

Women's Strawweight
Rose Namajunas: 119 lbs
Joanna Jędrzejczyk: 130 lbs or 135 lbs
Cláudia Gadelha: 126 lbs
Jéssica Andrade: 132 lbs

cool list, thanks for taking the time

got any decent numbers for gleison tibau?

 

[acannxr]

If you're between 10 lbs, that is far less than 15 lbs. That is basic logic.

There are 10 lb increments between every weight class between 125 and 155 except for between LW and WW. That is the problem, it's a massive jump.

Body weight and weight-cutting play a FAR greater factor when you're small. Meaning 15 lb for someone fighting at 185 or 205 might not be a big deal but for someone on the lower end it is.


If you're dead center 130 lbs, or 140 lbs, or 150 lbs. You have the option to chose either weight above or below; that's a luxury. When you're at say 163 or 165, you could theoretically choose 170 but fighters will NOT, they'll choose the division below than the one above. That is why so many LWs have trouble with weight, and that will continue until this massive jump is narrowed.

Except making the difference in weight classes based on pound increments isn't consistent at all.

For example:
The difference between 145 and 155 is 6.5%.
The difference between 125 and 135 is 7.4%.

If you look at Olympic boxing and wrestling weight classes, with the cutoff points being the smallest weight that the UFC promotes, you'd only need six weight classes if you eliminated weight cutting.

Amateur Boxing:
+200 lb
-200 lb
-178 lb
-165 lb
-152 lb
-141 lb

Freestyle Wrestling:
-275 lb
-214 lb
-189 lb
-163 lb
-143 lb

And quite honestly, MMA doesn't have the depth to have as many weight classes as professional boxing does.

 

[acannxr]

Tibua was able to do the same.... at 155lbs. That's adding 20% to his 155 weigh in amount. If a LHW does the same percent, he would be 246. So by percentage, what DC does is not even close to Tibua could do. Mind you, Tibua was juicing... But still, 31lbs it a LOT, but not unheard of for a LHW.

cool list, thanks for taking the time

got any decent numbers for gleison tibau?

Your wish has been granted:

Added Tibau's weight (181 lbs) when he competed at Lightweight, a 14.4% cut (Cyborg still has the record).

 

[Sakuraba7]

Except making the difference in weight classes based on pound increments isn't consistent at all.

For example:
The difference between 145 and 155 is 6.5%.
The difference between 125 and 135 is 7.4%.

If you look at Olympic boxing and wrestling weight classes, with the cutoff points being the smallest weight that the UFC promotes, you'd only need six weight classes if you eliminated weight cutting.

Amateur Boxing:
+200 lb
-200 lb
-178 lb
-165 lb
-152 lb
-141 lb

Freestyle Wrestling:
-275 lb
-214 lb
-189 lb
-163 lb
-143 lb

And quite honestly, MMA doesn't have the depth to have as many weight classes as professional boxing does.

I never proposed additional weight classes. I claimed all the weight-ceilings below WW be raised by 5 lbs. So we get:
130 FLW
140 BW
150 FW
160 LW
170 WW

This eliminates the massive 15 lb jump between LW and WW. You're correct in terms of percentage inconsistency between the lower weights, but we have that already and as you pointed out it's unrealistic to add weight classes. My suggestion is to readjust them instead.

That at least solves one problem, which is the massive jump between LW and WW, where we see the most issues with making weight. I personally also believe the raise from 125 to 130 will greatly increase the talent pool at FLW because I don't believe 125 will ever attract a great talent pool, and I can elaborate on that if you wish.

 

[ConditFan]

You say cage weight, but alot of these aren't. Like khabib is 170 a few days before the fight here. That doesn't mean he is 170 in the cage. It's very misleading unless you look at every single source

 

[acannxr]

I never proposed additional weight classes. I claimed all the weight-ceilings below WW be raised by 5 lbs. So we get:
130 FLW
140 BW
150 FW
160 LW
170 WW

This eliminates the massive 15 lb jump between LW and WW. You correct in terms of percentage inconsistency between the lower weights, but we have that already and as you pointed out it's unrealistic to add weight classes. My suggestion is readjust them instead.

Except adding 5 lbs to Flyweight will put those smaller fighters at a greater disadvantage because Bantamweights will try to cut down to Flyweight.

Hydration tests would eliminate weight cutting, and no weight cutting would eliminate significant weight differences. From the weights I've gathered, most fighters are around the same weight, it's the ones that cut an absurd amount which creates these big differences.

 

[Sakuraba7]

Excepting adding 5 lbs to Flyweight will put those smaller fighters at a greater disadvantage because Bantamweights will try to cut down to Flyweight.

Hydration tests would eliminate weight cutting, and no weight cutting would eliminate significant weight differences. From the weights I've gathered, most fighters are around the same weight, it's the ones that cut an absurd amount which creates these big differences.

I wouldn't mind BWs cutting down to FLW at all. That's part of the appeal. Majority of the 125'ers are nowhere near the talent of the fighters who currently choose to compete at 135.

Let me elaborate further:
We know that amateur wrestlers cut a lot of weight. When they transition to MMA they generally pick the next weight class. But in collegiate and international wrestling, the lowest weight is 57 kg or 125.5 lbs.

Meaning when a collegiate or international wrestler transitions to MMA, they will most likely choose 135 lb because that's the only one available.

But then you may ask: What about Henry Cejudo??
Henry Cejudo competed at 55 kg or 121 lbs. The Olympics got rid of it after 2012 and raised it to 57 kg. This the lowest weight according to UWW and other national bodies.

Henry made the jump from 121 lb in wrestling to 125 in MMA.
The current/next generation will make the jump from 125 in wrestling to 135 in MMA.

Anything below 125 is "youth" or highschool level wrestling. Demetrius Johnson himself competed only at the highschool level, but he's a great talent. And he's one guy. This same dynamic will continue to repeat itself, because there will never be more than a few fighters at 125 lb MMA who will be great. Because amateur wrestling doesn't even support anything below 125 lb.

This is a novice weight-class that's intended for novice MMA fighters. All the pros are at 135. But it can change if you raise it to 130, thereby amateur wrestlers who are 125'ers can compete at 130. A defense of the 126 lb class is essentially a defense of class predominated by mediocre fighters without accolades. Why should it even exist?

 

[in the liver]

Your wish has been granted:

Added Tibau's weight (181 lbs) when he competed at Lightweight, a 14.4% cut (Cyborg still has the record).

basically weighs the same as colby or wonderboy. lol, damn


cheers man

 

[acannxr]

What about Henry Cejudo??

He also fought at Bantamweight five times and missed weight at Flyweight twice, which adds up to 50% of his total fights.

 

[Sakuraba7]

He also fought at Bantamweight five times and missed weight at Flyweight twice, which adds up to 50% of his total fights.

Further proving my point about fighters moving up from their transition from amateur wrestling to MMA. 125 will always be the ugly black sheep division.

The choice between 130 and 140 will be far better then having a 125 division, and 135 being the next one over.

 

[acannxr]

Further proving my point about fighters moving up from their transition from amateur wrestling to MMA.

A sample size of one hardly proves anything. A 125 lb division exists in Olympic wrestling, which makes it a lateral transition into MMA, the UFC just happens to be terrible at recruiting new fighters for the Flyweight division (there are presently 250 ranked fighters in the world at Flyweight).

Most of the wrestlers in MMA are competing at the same weight class as they did in their wrestling days.

 

[MMonk]

Khabib just 170?
I smell bs.

 

[bubbleboyjones]

If you want to contribute, include your source for a fighters' cage weight and I'll update the thread accordingly.

Light Heavyweight
Daniel Cormier: 236 lbs

That doesn't even make sense. DC weighed in at 224lbs at HW against Nelson(October 19, 2013) and yet Big John said he weight 236lbs with sweat pants on the night of the fight at LHW.

He weighed in at 235lbs against Mir which was 6 months before the Nelson fight ...so he was the same weight basically when he fight Rumble as when he fought Mir and heavier than when he fought Nelson?

 

[mrbaapt]

Rogan always said Tibau is over 200 in the octagon.

 

[Sakuraba7]

A sample size of one hardly proves anything. A 125 lb division exists in Olympic wrestling, which makes it a lateral transition into MMA, the UFC just happens to be terrible at recruiting new fighters for the Flyweight division (there are presently 250 ranked fighters in the world at Flyweight).

Most of the wrestlers in MMA are competing at the same weight class as they did in their wrestling days.

You don't think amateur wrestlers cut a lot of weight? Do you believe they're going to stay at 125 when making a transition to MMA? I don't believe so. They compete at 125.6 and that's without getting punched or kicked or choked. Any wrestler at 125 would move up to the next available division.

Do we have a track record of collegiate or international wrestlers from 125 staying at 125 MMA?

 

[RonnyB]

Eddie is almost always 173-175 in the cage. Where did 171 come from?

 

[Spath]

Anderson Silva might have been 202 lbs when fighting in LHW (weighed in at 198 lbs against Cormier out of camp, so that was his walking around weight), but NOT at MW. That’s pretty easy to assume.

Never had trouble making weight, never looked very sucked in at weigh ins like a lot of guys. Many fighters look terrible at weigh ins, clearly sucked dry. They obviously will be gaining more back as well.

Some examples:
Sonnen (MW)

John Hathaway (WW)

Luke Rockhold (MW)