The 'Making Weight' Comedy of Errors.

at 185 he’s half the fighter he is at 205…He said he had to drink a few extra bottles of water before the weigh-ins to make it up to 206 to fight Fedor because he actually is just under 205. Yet for him cutting that 19 lbs to get down to MW (where he could fight other guys who weigh around 205 is too hard on his body and hurts his fighting ability. So instead he fights at 205 where he is at his best, but has to face guys like Rampage, Shogun, & Rashad who are cutting from 215-225 and even guys like Forrest, Tito, & Bones who are cutting from 240 or more. Some guys have a freakish ability to cut weight and exploit the loophole in the system to gain an unfair size advantage over guys who can’t cut as much weight. Then the guys who don’t want to cut like Akiyama & Frankie are at a big disadvantage because when they fight at their optimal weight they are fighting competitors 20+ lbs heavier. Guys like Rumble, Bones, Anderson, & Maynard can cut ridiculous amounts of weight. But lets be truthful here, while weight cutting may be a skill (though a lot of it is also genetics), it is NOT a FIGHTING SKILL. I repeat, WEIGHT CUTTING IS NOT A MARTIAL ART!!!!. We’re not watching "The Biggest Loser" here, we’re watching "The Ultimate FIGHTER" and weight cutting is circumventing the weight class system which was created for the sole purpose of insuring that fighters DON’T have a significant size advantage over their opponents.

To me weight cutting is like cycling steroids…in a number of ways:
1) It’s unhealthy
2) It gives those fighters who do it a big advantage over those who don’t
3) the loopholes in testing that allow it to happen create a culture where fighters are pressured to do it because those who fight natural are disadvantaged.
4) some are better at exploiting the loophole than others. The ones who screw up their timing and low-peak (or cycle off) at the wrong time get caught like Rumble (or Barnett/Marquardt).The ones who master it don’t get caught and are rewarded with an unfair advantage like Bones & Maynard (or Overroids).

The spirit of weight classes is that guys are supposed to be fighting guys their own size. Otherwise it makes no sense to have weight classes at all. But knowing exactly when their weight will be checked and that they will have a full day to recover gives them a loophole by which they can circumvent the purpose of the law. In other words, you agree to fight at 205, but you know nobody’s checking at the time you actually fight, so you weigh in at 205 the day before and then fight at 225. The problem is so systemic that people don’t even question it anymore. "It’s not cheating if you can get away with it." And people say, "But if everybody does it, then it’s still fair, so what’s the problem?" .

The problem is: (actually there are 2 problems):
1) Not everyone is doing it and not everyone can do it and some can do it a lot more than others. And since weight cutting is not a FIGHTING skill, it should not be allowed to be a determining factor in competition, which it often is. We currently have a LHW champ who walks around taller, longer, and HEAVIER than our HW champion. So why does Bones get to beat up 205ers while JDS has to face 265ers??? Answer: Because Bones body type and wrestling background allow him to cut more weight than Junior can and still be healthy enough to fight. But make no mistake, Bones would be a better fighter at his natural weight of 240. He just wouldn’t have the same advantages over his opponents that he currently enjoys (like 20+ lbs and 11 inches of reach). He’d rather fight at 80% of his potential against guys 25 lbs smaller like Shogun than fight at 100% of himself against guys like Cain and JDS (let alone Carwin & Overeem).

2) We seldom get to actually see fighters at their best. Firstly because they are not fighting at their natural weight where they would have their optimal strength and energy. Secondly because they spend so much of their preparation time trying to gain this advantage (or just trying to keep up with their opponent’s weight cut so as not to be DISadvantaged), and that’s time they could be working on their skills & strategy, but instead it’s wasted playing a game that has nothing to do with martial arts, to do something that actually makes them LESS effective fighters, just so they can keep up with the Joneses (literally) and not be left behind as the runt of the litter.

Let’s not act like fat doesn’t play a role in a normal human physiology, because it does. Some people will never be able to go down to, say, 2 % body fat and others will. It’s just normal variations from human being to human being.

don’t try and cut 30lbs in 24 hours..or whatever crazy amount he tried to reach…i just shake my head at the fighters that do not give themselves an amount that is attainable to cut before the fight! i was joking about fighters fighting at walking weight..that ain’t never gonna happen..lol