Fighter Dies From Weight-Cutting

Ever since the introduction of weight classes fighters have been using the method of weight cutting to achieve an advantage over an size advantage over their opponents. Some fighters cut around 20 pounds off their natural walking weight dehydrating themselves hours before the weigh in to cut as much water weight as their body will allow. Although some methods of weight cutting are safer than others they all pose some type of risk in excess. Everyone knows the dangers but there is simply too much money involved to completely for fighters to eliminate it from combat sports completely. The majority of deaths that have occurred in boxing are all from the lighter weight classes mainly because the human body can only cut so much weight before it gives in and the lighter weight classes have smaller fighters to begin with. They are losing a much greater percentage of their weight as higher weight classes tend to cut less weight. This is the first time that there has been a death in Mixed Martial Arts due to weight cutting. 26 year old Brazilian fighter Leandro Souza died as he was trying to cut weight for his flyweight fight. Just two pounds off his target he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital before being pronounced dead. The problem was the his walk around weight was over 30 pounds from his weigh in weight.

Although many fans are against it, believing that fighters should just fight at their natural weight classes, close to what they walk around with there are no real clear solutions to the weight cut problem. I option that has been talked about a lot is that fighter must be a certain percentage from their weigh in weight some time before the weigh in so they cant dehydrate themselves to extreme levels. You could weigh them in a two weeks before the fight then one week before the fight and finally 24 hours before the fight to ensure that they are properly cutting weight at a healthy rate. Another proposal are same day weigh ins like they do with boxing which would discourage fighters from cutting too much weight, however the problem is that some fighters may choose to go the extreme route and try to make the limit even when they're still 30 pounds over. Right now it just seems like a problem that cant be regulated by officials and its up to the coaches and fighters to know how much is too much.

Posted by Allen Liu 43436897