Weight cutting in MMA (Link post)


How Does Weight Cutting And Hydration Work In MMA | Evolve Daily

After reading this blog post, I decided to link it as I feel it is another very important topic to touch on, being a blog that is dedicated to analysis and promotion of the sport to new audiences. Weight cutting may be something you have heard about, especially if it has gone wrong or resulted in a fight being canceled. I think this blog post by Evolve Daily does a great job of giving a general overview of weight cutting, specifically the methods used by athletes to cut weight. They also outline some of the dangers that can come from weight cuts, such as Kidney problems, Metabolism damage and potential brain health concerns.

In my opinion, weight cutting is going to be a part of the sport whether we want it to be or not, but it should be minimized to be as healthy as possible, even though it is never truly healthy in any form. Some promotions like ONE championship have introduced a hydration test that must be passed as well as increasing the weight limits for the common divisions, but even then, there are still issues with bad weight cuts and fighters failing to make the required number.

Another point that the blog raised is that weight cutting is essentially sanctioned cheating, and I partially agree with this statement. I think that in some cases when fighters are able to cut an abnormally large amount of weight such as an Alex Pereira, it borders on cheating, however if the fighter consistently makes the required weight across multiple events and competes, I can accept it. In situations such as Kelvin Gastelum informing the commission he cannot even come close to making the required weight causing the bout to be moved to a higher weight class. meanwhile his opponent Daniel Rodriguez was set to make the weight and was therefore more drained and underweight compared to Kelvin on the day of the fight, it is absolutely cheating. In an ideal world, weight cutting is not a part of the sport whatsoever, but I do not ever foresee a future where that is true.

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