Weight cutting is stupid

I'm sure most of you already know what weight cutting is, where fighters dehydrate for weigh ins and then gain it all back in the span of a day. But in my opinion the process is really stupid, and should cease to exist as a whole. It basically just creates extra work and health risks for the fighters for no gain. As all fighters are doing it to stay competitive, Most people probably are not even doing it for an advantage, but because its expected as everybody does it. I think it's especially stupid as it is a problem that can easily be solved, just have the weigh in on the same day, or even before walking out. Therefore, fighters can not cut weight. I feel like more promotions should be taking measures to stop this as it benefits nobody involved. It does not benefit the fighters, as they have to put their body through an incredibly agonizing and unhealthy process. Furthermore, many fighters have been shown to have worse chins if they cut more weight. Everybody does it now, so the advantage they used to get by weighing more is no longer there. It does not benefit the promotion, fighters are not able to fight as much, and they also get injured more and have worse CTE. Causing there to be more pull outs. (For example, Khamzat Chimaev at welterweight was known to have really extreme weight cuts, and he has been pulling out of a lot of fights due to getting sick). It does not benefit fans either, as stated before it causes fighters to pull out more, but it is also arguably not what's advertised, do you wanna see 2 guys fight at 155 pounds/70 KG, well you will never get that at lightweight(except in cases where they take a short notice fight), as they all weigh more on fight night. They just force themselves to be that weight for a few moments on the scale. Also fighters would probably be better if they were healthier. So why do fighters do it? initially because it gave them a weight advantage, but now they basically need to do it to be competitive. The arguments against it are poor One that I have seen is that it would lead to issues where when fighters miss weight it messes up the whole event, as they have no time for a replacement. A simple solution would be to pick replacements in advance (something that they already do). But more importantly fighters who fight at their walking around weight will miss weight a lot less, as they wont need to cut. Another that I have seen is that it could cause certain weight divisions to get destroyed, as the fighters will all move up a division. However, fighters could either start fighting at their current weight class by taking time to change their walking around weight. Or, they will move up a division. Some people also propose having more weight classes to better match certain fighters walking around weights. The only division this would affect is the flyweight (and women's straw weight). As those divisions which are the lowest weight class, have fighters naturally heavier and no lower divisions to move up. However other promotions and even boxing belts exist with flyweight or even lower divisions, so it is absolutely possible for flyweights to fight without cutting. It took somebody to die for ONE FC to start to take measures against weight cutting, that should have been a wake up call for the entire industry but for some reason they are the only ones who changed. The UFC or Bellator or any other promotion for any combat sport should not wait around for one of their fighters to die before changing this practice. Its bad for everybody involved The solutions are simple, ONE FC already does hydration tests, but they could also have same day weigh ins. Or they could do both, either way it would make the sport safer, and reduce already existing risks like CTE. For example Kevin Holland has been one of the most active fighters, partially as he does not cut weight, so there are less health risks with him fighting more. submitted by /u/Yuuba_ [link] [comments]