In all combat sports, weight cutting is a common occurrence. From collegiate wrestling to judo, athletes of all shapes and sizes are dehydrating themselves in an effort to meet the required weight for a lower weight class.
The advantages are obvious; it allows athletes to have more strength and larger muscle mass than their opponent, who may or not be employing the same techniques.
MMA fighters such as Tito Ortiz, Thiago Alves and Michael Bisping regularly cut weight successfully and it’s not uncommon to see them much large than their opponents on fight night.
Even the champions employ this technique – Georges St. Pierre, Anderson Silva and Jose Aldo put their bodies through extremes to obtain even the slightest of advantages. GSP, who fights at 77kg (170 pounds), cuts from 86kg (194 pounds) in the week or so leading up to the event.
This kind of weight loss may provide an edge on fight night but it can also lead to serious health problems.
Weight cutting is usually achieved via dieting in the weeks leading up to the fight, reducing body fat to low figures. A few days before the weigh in, which is typically the day before the fight, dehydration commences.
Fighters utilise a few different methods – the most common is sweating. Utilising sweat suits, they will jog at a slow pace working out the fluid in their body.
Sauna sessions also assist with this – some fighters use salt baths, which draw fluid out of the body. These techniques ultimately allow the fighter to weigh in under a certain weight limit, if done safely.
If done incorrectly, or too ambitiously, fighters start to experience symptoms caused by the body starting to shut down.
Headaches, tiredness, low blood pressure are just a few of the symptoms, and more drastically kidney failure and unconsciousness.
On the weekend, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson attempted to cut roughly 16 kilos in an attempt to make Middleweight for his fight against Vitor Belfort.
At the weigh-in, Joe Rogan announced that Rumble missed weight – by a colossal 5kg. Word from his camp later revealed that, in incredibly vague terms, a UFC doctor ordered Rumble to rehydrate due to medical concerns.
What those concerns were specifically we probably will not know, at least until he does an autobiography. It’s safe to say that if your body is shutting down, you might just be taking it a bit far.
What changes can be put in place to stop these potentially damaging practices? Two of the many ideas thrown around have been fight night weigh-ins and hydration testing. Will this stop the weight cutting phenomenon that has swept our sport? Probably not.
Will it go some way to preventing extreme weight cuts (like Rumble Johnson’s)? One would like to think so. I just hope that it does not take a death to make fighters realise the dangers they face.
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