UFC Could Be A Leader In Weight Cutting

or someone's going to die

Oct 16, 2019

I don’t want to be a downer, but I believe that MMA promotions won’t get serious about weight cutting until there is a death in a major promotion like UFC, Bellator or PFL. That might be a bleak outlook, but of those three promotions, only Bellator seems to pay more than lip service to weight cutting issues.

The thing about this is that the UFC could be a leader in the weight cutting if it were willing to invest the money. Sadly, we know the only thing the UFC wants to do with its cash is to keep it and invest it in anything other than the fighters.

What follows is my pie in the sky idea of how the UFC could fix weight cutting.

Step 1: Make the fighters employees. (And let’s be honest here, this is never going to happen unless the promotion is forced to take that step.)

Step 2: Get honest and accurate baseline physical/medical information on all the fighters via thorough medical exams.

Step 3: Establish an optimum fighting weight for all UFC fighters based on the outcome of these tests.

Step 4: Mandate the fighters compete in the optimum weight division. This is possible only if the fighters are employees. The promotion could make this a part of the hiring process. If a fighter balks at the designated weight, they could be released. If the UFC can force its independent contractors to wear uniforms — excuse me, fight kits — it can force employees to compete at a healthy weight.

Step 5: Monitor weights throughout the year to make sure fighters are staying on target so they do not have to go through severe weight cuts.

Step 5: Have fighters go through the same tests on a yearly (or more often) basis so that the promotion knows the fighters are healthy.

That’s an oversimplified 20,000-foot view of how the UFC could take the lead in weight cutting. It’s also a fantasy that will never become a reality because the one thing the UFC has stood against is making its fighters employees.

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Reading Time: M by John Sack

Probably one of the best pieces of writing that Esquire has ever published.

“…So he wrote to Harold Hayes, Esquire’s editor, who assigned Sack to cover “M” company, starting in Fort Dix, New Jersey and ending in Vietnam. The resulting piece—weighing in at 33,000 words—captured the low comedy and tedium of military life as well as the brutalities of combat. “OH MY GOD—WE HIT A LITTLE GIRL”—black and white type against a black backdrop, designed by George Lois, made for one of Esquire’s most memorable covers.”

https://classic.esquire.com/m-john-sack

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