After a couple months in which weight-cutting in MMA has been under the microscope, UFC president Dana White says the company is looking to make a change.
Two years ago, the UFC moved to a system in which fighters weighed in for their fights the morning before they stepped into the octagon — typically from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. local time — instead of in the late-afternoon.
It was widely hailed as a move that would make fighters safer, as they would have more time to rehydrate before they competed.
“When someone is severely dehydrated, that includes lost fluid around the brain and there’s some research that shows that’s the last thing to replenish,” Jeff Novitzky, the UFC’s vice-president of athlete health and performance, told the Los Angeles Times back in 2016 when the move was made.
The problem is that while the move to early weigh-ins was pretty much universally applauded when it happened, data compiled my MMAJunkie.com has shown that it has resulted in nearly twice as many weigh-in misses over the past two years when compared to the previous 24 months.
This week, White spoke on the UFC Unfiltered podcast and said he was looking to go back to the system that existed prior to UFC 199 — in July of 2016 — when fighters stepped onto the scale later in the afternoon in front of a crowd instead of earlier that day.
“Here’s what I believe,” White said. “Any time you change something, everybody looks to take as much advantage as they can of the situation. I think that when we started doing morning weigh-ins, it was very good. Everybody was making weight, everything was great.
“But then people started cutting it closer and closer and closer, thinking they can put on more weight because they have more time to recover, and the reality is, it f—ed everything up.”
It’s unclear if and when the changes will take place, and various state athletic commissions may have something to say about White’s proposed move back to later afternoon weigh-ins.
Two years ago, the UFC moved to a system in which fighters weighed in for their fights the morning before they stepped into the octagon — typically from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. local time — instead of in the late-afternoon.
It was widely hailed as a move that would make fighters safer, as they would have more time to rehydrate before they competed.
“When someone is severely dehydrated, that includes lost fluid around the brain and there’s some research that shows that’s the last thing to replenish,” Jeff Novitzky, the UFC’s vice-president of athlete health and performance, told the Los Angeles Times back in 2016 when the move was made.
This week, White spoke on the UFC Unfiltered podcast and said he was looking to go back to the system that existed prior to UFC 199 — in July of 2016 — when fighters stepped onto the scale later in the afternoon in front of a crowd instead of earlier that day.
“Here’s what I believe,” White said. “Any time you change something, everybody looks to take as much advantage as they can of the situation. I think that when we started doing morning weigh-ins, it was very good. Everybody was making weight, everything was great.
“But then people started cutting it closer and closer and closer, thinking they can put on more weight because they have more time to recover, and the reality is, it f—ed everything up.”
It’s unclear if and when the changes will take place, and various state athletic commissions may have something to say about White’s proposed move back to later afternoon weigh-ins.
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