Big John: Weight Cutting In MMA Is A Risky Business
Former UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao truly landed himself in the promotion’s bad books last week, as he feinted during his attempt to make weigh for UFC 177. Barao was preparing to face TJ Dillashaw in California for the title that “Viper” had snatched from him at UFC 173. Unfortunately for the Brazilian slugger, he was unable to compete and replaced by Joe Soto.
Now a week removed from UFC 177, veteran UFC referee “Big” John McCarthy talks about weight cutting in MMA, check out what he said to MMAFighting.com:
“I don’t think fighters are truly educated as to exactly what they are doing to themselves, and I mean doing to themselves over the long term of their life,” he said. “You know, the weight thing is a huge problem in everything that it’s involved in, be it wrestling or MMA — any time someone is losing the weight that some of these guys do, draining their body of fluids, the electrolytes, it’s a problem for everybody involved. Not just the fighter, but the promoter and the promotion itself because you have situations where fighters don’t make weight.”
Obviously not making weight is a big concern, but you could argue that the threat to a fighter’s health is more prominent. The stress put on the body by being so dehydrated for such an extended period is extremely dangerous. McCarthy continued:
“You also have situations where fighters are putting themselves at risk in going into that contest. Because they’re doing everything in their power to cheat. I don’t mean cheat in a bad way, but cheat the system. As a referee I don’t train fighting like I used to, I train understanding people and knowledge of what occurs,” he said. “And one of the things that we’re getting into, with traumatic brain injuries and all these different things — CTE, which is occurring — and we’re learning a lot.”
“One of the things that we’re learning is, we don’t get a lot of heavy fighters, fighters that don’t cut weight, having traumatic brain injuries. But we do have a lot of lighter fighters who cut a lot of weight. They’re the ones that end up being our problem. And a lot of it we’re learning is because of dehydration and them cutting weight. They lose water, they try and replenish the water, they try to replenish the electrolytes in their body. Everything in our body is made of water basically. And when it drains it doesn’t come back in the same form and function that it was before you drained it. It takes time. And the weight-cutting and the weigh-in process and everything is one of the things that I look at that’s going to be a huge factor in what’s going to happen in the future. I think athletic commissions starting to change it.”
Let’s hope that McCarthy is right, and the athletic commissions come up with a new format. Just looking at Renan Barao at previous weigh-ins you can see how ill he is from cutting weight. Other high profile cases include James Irvin looking like a middleweight zombie, Johny Hendricks missing weight for a title fight against Robbie Lawler, and Charles Oliveira pulling out of UFC Fight Night 50 after weighing in four pounds heavy.
Aside from the fact it seems very unprofessional, I side with McCarthy over the health ramifications. How do you feel about big weight cutting in MMA?
