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Extreme weight cutting for weigh-ins is not a new issue in MMA, but it's one that regularly ends up under the spotlight after a fighter misses weight badly or someone steps into the cage with an obvious size advantage.
There have been a few attempts at solutions, like the California Athletic Commission's law that limits fighter weight cuts to 15% of their fight day weight. ONE Championship uses a hydration test to ensure fighters aren't dehydrating themselves during weigh-ins to fit into lower weightclasses.
In a new episode of Believe You Me, Michael Bisping responded to a fan's question about extreme weight cutting. The fan suggested same-day weigh-ins, but Bisping explained why that was a bad idea. He said:
"I understand what you're saying, should they weigh in on the morning the day of the fight, or things like that. The problem then is it becomes unsafe. Because there's no rule that you can't cut weight on that day. And if you cut weight on that day then of course the brain doesn't have a chance to be protected by spinal fluid that it's normally floating in."
He also added:
"When you get hit in the face, you get hit hard enough, it's the fluid that the brain sits in that protects you from the skull. But if the brain hits the skull that's when the lights go out. And when you dehydrate yourself majorly it affects your ability to take a shot and affects your brain's ability to recover, or increases the liability of brain damage."
Bisping added that having weigh-ins on the same day of the fight guarantees that more fighters will be competing dehydrated without that essential protective fluid being restored to the brain. He admitted that the current system allows fighters to take weight cutting to extremes, but believes these fighters are now facing multiple performance issues in the cage during fights to make them think twice.
Watch Michael Bisping discuss the dangers of extreme weight cutting below:
Extreme weight cutting has resulted in fighters cutting over 40 pounds for weigh-ins
Under the California Athletic Commission's 15% rule, a fighter that steps on the scales at 155 lbs on weigh-in day shouldn't weigh more than 178 pounds on fight day (a 23 pound difference). However, there are many stories where fighters are cutting more weight than this.
Leading up to Paul Felder's last-minute fight against Rafael dos Anjos in November 2020, Felder reportedly had to cut over 25 pounds in just five days.
In Khabib Nurmagomedov's early days with the UFC, the Dagestani fighter was cutting as much as 40 pounds to make it down to 155 lbs. That certainly explains why Nurmagomedov missed weight in 2013 and also pulled out of a fight with Tony Ferguson in 2017.
