Dana White plans to get rid of early weigh-ins following recent string of scale fails

The early weigh-in experiment -- which has actually been going for two years now -- is nearing an end. Indeed, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White recently revealed plans to go back to a later weigh-in time, otherwise known as the ceremonial weigh-in.

According to his comments on a recent edition of UFC Unfiltered, White revealed that the string of scale fails over the last few events — such as Mackenzie Dern and most recently Darren Till, among others — has forced him to look into going back to the ways things used to be.

“Yes, I do think it’s that, and guess what? We’re getting rid of it,” White said via MMA Fighting. “We’re looking at taking the weigh-ins back to the way they used to be. So when the guys weigh in there, at the (ceremonial weigh-ins), that will be it. That’ll be the real weigh-in.”

A positive aspect of weighing in early was to allow combatants more time to hydrate prior to fight night, even if it meant sacrificing a few more hours of the weight-cutting process. But according to Dana, some fighters tried to take advantage.

“Here’s what I believe,” White said. “Any time you change something, everybody looks to take as much advantage as they can of the situation. I think that when we started doing morning weigh-ins, it was very good. Everybody was making weight, everything was great,” he said.

“But then people started cutting it closer and closer and closer, thinking they can put on more weight because they have more time to recover, and the reality is, it f**ked everything up. So we’re looking at going back to — at 4 p.m. PT — when we do the weigh-ins, those will be the real weigh-ins.”

While the process to go back to the old weigh-in process will have to go through various athletic commissions, White is confident it will get done. Something he believes will make the night owls happy.

“The other thing is, I don’t know any fighters that are morning people. Most of them stay up half the night and sleep half the day, so that might have something to do with the morning weigh-ins too,” he concluded.

I’d like to believe a fighter will make the effort to go to sleep early for the couple of days prior to fight night. Anyone think going back to a later weigh-in time will cut down the amount of scale fails for the promotion moving forward?