Midnight Mania! CSAC Cracks Down On Extreme Weight-Cutting

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The California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) is one of the more active commissions in the sport, and one of its big obstacles is extreme weight-cutting. Fighters routinely pack massive amounts of weight back on immediately after the official weigh-ins, resulting in their actual weight being well above the initial number on fight day. Seeking to lose and regain too much weight is rather unhealthy and can create unfair matches — two things CSAC is looking to avoid.

At recent events, CSAC has taken a step in the right direction by recording the weights of athletes on fight night. After taking in all this data, ESPN reports that CSAC implemented a new rule today that will cancel bouts in which one athlete is 15% heavier than the contracted weight. Initially, CSAC simply recommended fighters who regained 10% or more of their weight to move up a division, but those recommendations generally fell on deaf ears.

CSAC executive officer Andy Foster described the practice of extreme weight-cutting as “a health and safety issue” that qualifies as “sanctioned cheating.” Foster is aware of the risk that fighters will dangerously cut weight twice to work around the system, but he’s more hopeful that promoters will simply make more catchweight bouts or move the athletes up a weight class. He said, “Pretending like we’re bound to these weight classes like they’re set in stone and fighters can’t move up, frankly it’s not healthy.”

On the whole, it seems like a step in the right direction, if not exactly a bold one — 15% is a lot of weight. In addition, size discrepancies can still occur if the bout is moved to a catchweight and only one fighter makes use of the additional allowed poundage. That’s precisely what happened at UFC 241 when Manny Bermudez was given at catchweight of 140 lbs. at the last minute due to his brutal weight cut. Bermudez gained 17.7% of his weight back and walked into the cage at 164.8 lbs. His opponent, Casey Kenney, only weighed 145 lbs. — the two were two full weight classes apart! Even if Bermudez had stayed under that 15% number, the potential difference is huge.

It’s a complicated issue that will likely require multiple adjustments, but at least CSAC is one of the few trying.

Insomnia

Aspen Ladd — who regained 18% of her weight/24 pounds at UFC “Sacramento” — also appeared before CSAC today, appealing her knockout loss to Germaine de Randamie on grounds of discrimination. While I do agree that some referees tend to stop fighters earlier in Women’s MMA, Ladd was staring into space after getting dropped and showed zero reaction to the punch that was coming her way. There was no intelligent defense to be found.

In short, bad appeal is bad. And it was DENIED!

u/HaruSoul

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Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.