Weight Cutting in MMA

[Trien Chieu]

Weight Cutting is something almost all fighters, except Frankie Edgar, in MMA do, some more than others. Most fighters are at least 20 lbs, sometimes more than 40 lbs, lighter than their natural weight on the weight in day and put it all back on the next day when they fight. Consequently, some fighter weights way more than their opponent on the fight night due to weight cutting. Is this cheating? Should the rule change? For me, I think it should. The weight in time should be just couple hours before the fighting time. This way, fighters can't use weight cutting as a way to cheat. What do you think?
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/9...control-in-mma

[Banh Mi]

It's not cheating since the other guy can do the same thing. Weight cutting is not an easy task either, the more weight you cut the more tired you'll be.
Making the weigh in right before the fight will disadvantage fighter more than not. Fighters who stand in the middle of a weight division have it bad. Being too heavy to make a lower class, but too small for their natural weight class. Furthermore, a fighter that wants to change weight classes will face more difficulties, leading to a smaller pool of fighters. Things are good the way they are.

[Trien Chieu]

The current system is

Heavy Weight: 206 to 265 lb (93 to 120 kg)
Light Heavyweight:186 to 205 lb (84 to 93 kg)
Middleweight: 171 to 185 lb (77 to 84 kg)
Welterweight: 156 to 170 lb (70 to 77 kg)
Lightweight: 146 to 155 lb (66 to 70 kg)
Featherweight: 136 to 145 lb (61 to 66 kg)
Bantamweight: 126 to 135 lb (57 to 61 kg)
Flyweight: 116 to 125 lb (53 to 57 kg)

It should not be a problem for Flyweight to Lightweight as the difference from one class to the other is only 10 lbs (4.5 Kg). It should not be a problem for fighter to cut less than 10 lbs of weight. However, it could be a little problem for Lightweight to Heavyweight because the weight difference between each class is 15 lbs (6.8 kg). All they need is introduced 2 more weight classes to take care of the problem. The new system would be like:

Super Heavyweight: 206 to 265 lb
Heavy Weight: 196 to 205 lb
Light Heavyweight:186 to 195 lb
Middleweight: 176 to 185 lb
Light Middleweight: 166 to 175 lb
Welterweight: 156 to 165 lb
Lightweight: 146 to 155 lb (66 to 70 kg)
Featherweight: 136 to 145 lb (61 to 66 kg)
Bantamweight: 126 to 135 lb (57 to 61 kg)
Flyweight: 116 to 125 lb (53 to 57 kg)