SideShowBob

Not sure how many people here are "fight fans", but I watch a lot of UFC, fight club, boxing and the like, and the one thing that you see more and more of is fighters essentially cheating the system.

It seems particullaly prevelent in UFC. A guy registers himself as a 155 pound lightweight fighter, but weighs about 175 pounds nautrally. The weigh in is always the morning before the fight, and prior to this they cut weight massively, just scraping the weight limit, then rehydrate themselves back up to 175 before the fight.

You could get a genuine 155 pounder who walks around at that weight fighting someone who should be in the weight division above, and I think its something that needs addressing.

Biggest probelm is you cant weigh them on the day of the fight, as if they failed to make weight you've got a packed house who suddenly dont have a fight to watch, but what I think they should do is enforce something less stringent along the lines of having a weigh in the day before, then having a weigh in prior to the fight, and if you're more than 10 pounds over the weight you were day before, you dont fight.

It could potentially cause a few upsets, but one things for sure, if a fighter broke the rules and didnt make weight once, they'd never do it again, the crowd would be furious with them!!

It would make for fairer fights, if anyones seen someone like Sean Sherk in UFC fighting lightweight its a joke, he must be a natural 175/180 pounds, and its no wonder he dominates genuine lightweight fighters.

Its happens in all the weight divisions, guys who dont do well fighting at their actual weight cut weight and start fighting in the lower weight division, and act all proud that they're dominating it, its stupid.

I suppose you could argue they could all do it, so all have the same "advantage", but its not supposed to be a contest between who can lose the most weight prior to a weighing in, they should play fair and fight as per their weight, or at least near it.

Its getting worse, one day someones going to do themselves some serious harm, and its robbing the fans of genuine fights, I feel for the guys who dont try and buck the system, but the governing body is doing nothing to reward them, so essentially they're just encouraging massive weight loss.

TelBoy

It's always been the same though mate. Wasn't there discussion about weighing fighters each day for a week up to the fight, to avoid this last-minute use of diuretics? What happened to that idea?

MrShades

To be honest, surely it's a SHOW rather than a competition - so does it REALLY matter that much?

If the fighters were all completely perfectly matched then it'd probably be MORE boring for the fans. If the rules are used to full effect, as you mention, then this gives the opportunity for some fights to be waaaaaay OTT - and hence, probably, more "entertaining" (in a blood splattering, neck twisting sort of way)...???

Not a fan myself, so can appreciate your point from a purist perspective - just thought I'd add to the debate!

Shades

SideShowBob

I think you're thinking of WWE!! the show aspect exists, but the main crux of it is pure competition, the best fighter wins.

The fighters have a great deal of pride, and none of it is there for show, not in the real fight formats, there's no room for show!! if you turned around to let your opponent sneak out and grab a chair to hit you with, you'd find you'd been knocked out by a flying knee instead.

Have a look at K-1 or UFC, there is none of the "look out, he's behind you" dramatics of the pure show formats like professional wrestling.

mad_dr

I guess that the way that it's seen nowadays is that "as long as everyone does it, it's not unfair, is it?"...

B9GLY

but if you are a 175lb guy then you are doing yourself no good to loose that much weight the day before a fight!!!! I cant believe that if you did that you would be 100% fit for the fight the next day! Maybe a couple of lb's but not a big amount, it wouldnt be healthy.

pwhittle

It happens in loads of sport. I used to race mountain bikes, and you'd get laods of very fit experienced racer on £2-3k bikes, racing in the Fun category, just so they can win. When I raced Stock Hatch, there were a couple of teams who turned up in their lorries, with a team of mechanics, and tons of spares, racing pro-prepared cars. The rest of us did it ourselves on a shoe-string budget (a large off would have ended my season), and it is one of if not the cheapest form of circuit racing. It's hardly in the spirit of things, but it gives people a better chance of winning than if they entered a more appropriate category.

Boxing is relative big money too, so it's no surprise.

SideShowBob

You do see a lot of the fighters that cut heavily looking rather weak in the ring, but some seem to take it in their stride (Tito Ortiz is a specialist!!), I imagine it does some harm to the body, it certainly cant be good for it, they dont drink anything, take diuretics, and do massive amounts of cardio in sweat gear to completely drain the body of fluids, then weigh in, then start hammering the fluids to rehydrate their bodies again.

It has become a speciality of some fighters, I suppose the will to win outdoes the will to win fairly, and pwhittle's example shows that as well, it'd be like showing up at a go-kart race with a F1 car.

Mr Bat

At the end of the day it’s dangerous. When you dehydrate yourself that much you lose a lot of the fluid protecting the brain, factor in getting hit in the head and you have a tragedy waiting to happen.

I personally think the drug abuse in the UFC should be tackled as well, or maybe it shouldn’t as there would be no fights.

SideShowBob

They keep going on about never having had a serious injury in UFC, but as the money grows, and the pressure to win mounts, and more and more people take it up, its only a matter of time before someone does themselves some serious harm.

Didnt realise that about potential injury to the brain, must be stupid to take that risk.