It wasn’t like he took four trips to the sauna. He was standing right there the whole time.

Ohio tried this during the Gracie Fighting event a few years ago. The UFC made then get their stuff together before coming there. NJSAC s tinkering with the system and the UFC hasnt been and wont be going back to that state for a long time partly because of that.

Same days weight ins like you saud dont work. The close to the time of the fight the less time a guy has to make weight if he miss’ at first. Which means more canceled fights. Most fighters are asked shortly after weigh ins what their weight is and fighter ussually put on 6-8 pounds in the first 2-3 hours after weigh in. How can you prevent that? You cant. Like i said having a second weigh in to monitor weight will only cause the fighter to cut weight a second time.

I realize Ohio, NJ or any State Athletic Commission that thinks its being progressive, and helping combatant safety with arbitrary rules to prevent weight cutting. But as I mentioned above, it doesn’t work.

What it is likely to do is drive promoters, like the UFC, away from their state. The UFC event in Ohio needed a special waiver from their dumb rules. Because every welterweight and up worth their salt, cuts more than 13 lbs.

This rightly caused charges of favoritism and so on, and a waiver may not happen again. Its still a dumb rule, and as a result the UFC and others might not come back until it’s changed.

But some of you guys, including the author of this piece, are way off the mark when comes to how to do weigh-ins.

While it’d be nice if fighters didn’t have to cut weight, that ignores the basic truth:

Any sport with weight classes, will have athletes that cut weight to gain an advantage.

There is next to nothing you can do to prevent it. Believe me, they’ve tried.

We’ve seen this in amateur wrestling. They use same-day weigh-ins in a futile attempt to prevent or discourage weight cutting. It does nothing of the sort.

In fact, it only aggravates the situation, makes it worse, and puts combatant safety at risk. Teenager still cut significant amounts of weight for wrestling meets. I’ve heard of teenage wrestlers having to cut over 20 lbs in 1 night.

Keep in mind, these are still kids, not 20-something guys. And they have far less time to recover from the dehydration they just went through. I’m surprised I haven’t heard of a kid dying from this. (This is partly why wrestlers have become so dominant of late in the sport, they’re super conditioned and can cut weight easily. In addition to taking guys down, and preventing TDs.)

We didn’t get get to weigh-ins 1 day before the bout by accident. Any rule set needs to take these things into account.

Fortunately, the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts does. The full day between weigh ins allows combatants to cut the weight they need to, while allowing enough time to recover and be fully ready for the fight.

It really is the best rule set there is for protecting combatants, while allowing combatants to use the full range of tools they have.

Its not that easy. Im sure many fighters would love to do that. 5-10 years ago many fighters did that. But all it takes is a few who cut weight and that has led to the way the sport is. There is no way to stop weight cutting. So you get a few guys who do cut weight and then everyone else is forced to do it to compete. Now everyone does. There is no exception outside of HW’s. When i used to train with Dustin Hazelette when he was new to the sport. He was 160 lbs soaking wet. Now he cuts from 180 to get to 170 and he dont even use size or strength when he fights. Its just part of the game. Whatever muscle he cant get by cutting weight will cut into the advatage of someone who cuts better.

As it is noone is going to quit cutting unless there is a way to make sure noone else is cutting. Some fighters would love not to have to sweat their ass off for hours in a sauna. But they are not going to come into a fight at 170 verses some like GSP who is probley 190 or more. If both cut the difference between a good weight cutter and a poor cutter is just a few pounds. Not that big of a deal.

When a fighter fails to make weight he should be punished. But the small amount of weight has very little effect on the fight. We see fighters go up in weight all the time and do very well. Of course the skills and match ups come into play. Beign smaller should make you faster and better conditioned.

Commissions have been trying to stop weight cutting for years. It wont happen because they cant do it. NJSAC is trying to do the same thing mentioned in the article with monitoring weight. BUt its to much of a hassle. Guys are all over the world a week out from a fight and you have them all looking for ways to have their weight monitored by someone in NJ. Even giving the week monitoring. You will still have fighters who cut weight. Now they will just be cutting 2 times. 1 cut for the commission 1 week out. Then cutting again the day of the fight. Then fighting dehydrated. Which is how football players all over the country die. performing, training, playing dehydrated.

Its important to have 1 set of rules everyone knows and plays by. There will always be someone better by 1 rules and someone else by another set of rule. No point in changing just because someone can or cant compete under the current rules.

PS. I dont put much weight into Franca missing weight. I feel the UFC knew he was over weight and just wanted him because he was a name that Tyson could beat. One of the few Tyson could beat. He was recently caught for Steroids and im sure they was the reason he was able to stay fit before and without them cant control his weight. I believe the UFC have meet him several times leading up to the fight and knew he was out of shape. He looked to have stretch marks like he had been around 200 lbs for a long time. But they wanted to make an example out of him and build Tyson at the same time.

A Prime Franca loses a decision. A fat out of shape Franca is to slow to punch of slip punches ad gets embarrassed. They used Franca just like they did Trigg. But im sure they knew there was a risk Franca wouldnt make weight. But as we saw the extra weight didnt help him at all. I also believe Alves KOs Hughes everytime they fight. Weight didnt help him either. Hughes dont like to get hit. When he does he shoots from to far away without setting it up. So he got what he had coming to him verses a striker who has good TDs