Georges St-Pierre Praises ‘Smart’ Chael Sonnen For Best Weight Cutting Solution
As the weight cutting debate rages on in MMA, George St-Pierre praises ‘smart’ Chael Sonnen for his possible solution to the fiasco.
No one has been able to figure out the perfect solution to the weight cutting problem in MMA. Nor has anyone had that eureka moment that leads to a monumental breakthrough in the science behind the idea either. But GSP believes Sonnen is on the right track.
GSP stated that due to Sonnen’s many years of wrestling experience that he is uniquly credentialed in this arena. Further expressing he is on board with whatever the ‘bad guy’ says regarding weight cutting.
“(Sonnen) proposed to do a weigh-in the day of the fight,” St-Pierre said during a news conference in Australia that was captured by Submission Radio. “So what he proposes, basically – we have weigh-in the night before the fight, like we normally do. But now, because the weigh-in is in the morning, people say, ‘Oh, I have more time to recuperate,’ so they try to cut more weight.”
“And it’s sad to say, but sometimes I’m thinking, ‘Are we going to wait (for) someone (to) die out there to change things?’ I mean, it’s ridiculous. So what Chael’s proposed is very smart.”
St-Pierre’s concerns are legitimate. A recent example of the weight cutting fiasco is the soon to be welterweight title challenger Darren Till. Just days after his fight against Stephen Thompson a video surfaced of Till in an extream dehydration state stumbling on a treadmill. Thankfully Till was not seriously hurt but accidental deaths do occur in athletics.
Being that the UFC is the premier MMA promotion in the world they are usually always out ahead of such issues. But the weight cutting situation is a tricky one. Dana White and company have tried some ‘new’ innovations. For instance the early weigh-ins, however, those soon to be extinct as well.
“If you make a weigh-in the day of the event, a lot of guys will lose weight, but they won’t lose in terms of (dehydration) weight,” St-Pierre said. “You know that if you go in to compete the same day you can’t dehydrate yourself. If you weigh in an hour before your competition. That’s what they used to do in amateur wrestling in the United States and you know how many people miss weight? Zero. So, now, it’s very weird that in a professional sport, in a professional organization, at the highest level, that people miss weight.”
“I think they need to change not the individual, they need to change the system. I think the system can be made better. I’m not saying that Chael’s proposition is the best. But I think it’s the best that we know of right now. I think it would be the best solution.”
You can watch GSP’s full interview here (Courtesy of Submission Radio):
