Excessive weight cutting has to STOP, Khabib looks like death. Many fighters missed weight for a TS.

[Ultra O’Dia]

Welter, feather, cruiser.... pffft


Lightweight, Middleweight and Heavyweight

Find your spot.

 

[AC1D1K]

Its never gonna stop, you all know that. Theyre going to cut extreme amounts of weight, and most people do it without any health problems. So get real. Weight cutting is here to stay

benar

 

[johncola]

because people aren't all the same size and weight. I understand that weight cutting is a problem but the commissions have been working towards eliminating that as best they can in the last few years and will continue to make improvements to the system. I don't want to see a BJ Penn vs Caol Uno type fight ever again, or worse a Gleison Tibau vs Caol Uno type fight.

You haven't made a case specifically for weight classes. You've only made a case that people should be matched against each other based on their size. And I agree with that. But why do we need weight classes for that? Why not just weigh fighters randomly multiple times per year, and matchmake based on the results, combined with height and reach stats to increase accuracy?

Weight classes are no longer necessary -- there's a better way.

Btw, Penn/Uno is a strange example to use considering how competitive their 2nd fight was, and considering how there have been much worse size differences in fights.

 

[Congo66]

Weight classes are no longer necessary -- there's a better way.

Easy to say but enlighten us with how this works then. Just stating it over and over doesn't really work.
Weight classes exist in every combat sport, none of them seem to have found a 'better way' so I doubt you have either.

 

[Norman Khabib]

You haven't made a case specifically for weight classes. You've only made a case that people should be matched against each other based on their size. And I agree with that. But why do we need weight classes for that? Why not just weigh fighters randomly multiple times per year, and matchmake based on the results, combined with height and reach stats to increase accuracy?

Weight classes are no longer necessary -- there's a better way.

Btw, Penn/Uno is a strange example to use considering how competitive their 2nd fight was, and considering how there have been much worse size differences in fights.

but there are so many flaws in your idea. Undisciplined fighters (or unfortunate ones) will end up matched against considerably bigger fighters simply because they both weighed the same a few times a year. Can you imagine the kind of matchups Johny Hendricks would be looking at? it's bad enough he gets matched with MW beasts like Costa and even Boetsch. How do you decide when to weigh them? and if the fighter has no clue when they'll be weighed that will encourage them to keep their weight low so that they can gain a size and weight advantage same as they do now. The weight cutting will be even worse in my opinion because it won't just be leading into a fight, it will be all year round, and it's common knowledge that you can't train all year round. I think they need to keep the weight classes and build on that rather than removing them. If boxing isn't planning on changing their system I doubt MMA is going to buck the trend especially when you take into consideration how much boxing still influences MMA via the commissions.

 

[johncola]

Easy to say but enlighten us with how this works then. Just stating it over and over doesn't really work.
Weight classes exist in every combat sport, none of them seem to have found a 'better way' so I doubt you have either.

Click the link.

but there are so many flaws in your idea. Undisciplined fighters (or unfortunate ones) will end up matched against considerably bigger fighters simply because they both weighed the same a few times a year. Can you imagine the kind of matchups Johny Hendricks would be looking at? it's bad enough he gets matched with MW beasts like Costa and even Boetsch. How do you decide when to weigh them? and if the fighter has no clue when they'll be weighed that will encourage them to keep their weight low so that they can gain a size and weight advantage same as they do now. The weight cutting will be even worse in my opinion because it won't just be leading into a fight, it will be all year round, and it's common knowledge that you can't train all year round. I think they need to keep the weight classes and build on that rather than removing them. If boxing isn't planning on changing their system I doubt MMA is going to buck the trend especially when you take into consideration how much boxing still influences MMA via the commissions.

Do you even know what weight cutting is? The fight-week dehydration and starvation is what we're trying to remove. Year-round weigh-ins won't make fighters do that year-round. It'll make them watch their diet and stay in shape. That's a GOOD thing.

Of course some fighters won't, and as a result, they'll suffer the consequences and be at size disadvantages in their fights. That's better than the alternative of these guys going through particularly extreme cuts to make up for their laziness out of camp, like they do currently. I don't think you appreciate how unsafe these cuts are. Also, such fighters are likely to be shorter with less reach, which will factor into matchmaking, to reduce the likelihood of size mismatches. Past weight records could also come into play. They could even start measuring body fat percentage and muscle mass.

Boxing is old. MMA is new. It's easier to implement change in a new system, because the ways are less stuck in place. I'm aware that there'll always be resistance to change (as you yourself are showing), but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. If something is better, then it's better. Now it's just about showing people that it's better.