Chael Sonnen Tells Story Of First Time Cutting Weight

They say everybody remembers their first time, and Chael Sonnen is certainly no exception. Weight cutting is one of the biggest topics of discussion in MMA on a constant basis, with rarely a card going by without at least one fighter missing weight for…

They say everybody remembers their first time, and Chael Sonnen is certainly no exception. Weight cutting is one of the biggest topics of discussion in MMA on a constant basis, with rarely a card going by without at least one fighter missing weight for a contest. This has more recently blossomed into discussions about whether…

Continue Reading Chael Sonnen Tells Story Of First Time Cutting Weight at MMA News.

Tyson Nam Told By CSAC To Move To 135lbs To Maintain License

Tyson Nam has been told by the California State Athletic Commission to move up in weight to 135lbs following his win over Ode Osbourne on Saturday. After weighing 126lbs at the Friday morning weigh ins, Nam gained 20.2lbs between then and the fight. Th…

Tyson Nam has been told by the California State Athletic Commission to move up in weight to 135lbs following his win over Ode Osbourne on Saturday. After weighing 126lbs at the Friday morning weigh ins, Nam gained 20.2lbs between then and the fight. This is a violation of CSAC’s weight regulations, representing a 16% increase….

Continue Reading Tyson Nam Told By CSAC To Move To 135lbs To Maintain License at MMA News.

Darren Till Announces Move To Middleweight

Darren Till has finally decided to make the move up in weight.

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Darren Till is finally moving up to middleweight.

The Englishman has received a lot of criticism for fighting at 170 pounds. Standing six-feet-tall and sporting a wide frame, Till holds a big size advantage over most of his opponents.

Till missed weight back in May when he fought Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. Till weighed in at 174 pounds and went on to defeat Thompson via controversial split decision at MAy’s UFC Liverpool. The victory earned him a shot at the UFC welterweight title.

A Foregone Conclusion

Tyron Woodley handed Till the first loss of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career at UFC 228 early last month via second-round submission. Now, writing a blog post for Paddy Power, Till revealed he will be moving up to middleweight:

“I’m a big dude for welterweight to be honest, so that’s probably going to be my last fight at that weight. Welterweight isn’t fully gone for me, but I’m going to be happy going up to middleweight now and I’ll be strong at that weight not having to cut as much weight.

“It’s not that I can’t make the weight. I’m just a big lad so I just have to be on such a strict, regimented diet and being honest, I don’t like doing it. People might say ‘he’s not disciplined enough’, but because I have to cut so much weight I can only eat the bare minimum of food and that’s not how I want to be training.”

Till’s decision is definitely a step in the right direction. Given his size, it’s arguable that the Englishman could fight as high as 205 pounds.

After a video made the rounds on social media showing Till pushing through a brutal weight cut, many agreed the best move would be for him to jump up.

It will be interesting to see how he fares against the elite competition 185 pounds has to offer.

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Dustin Poirier Wishes More Fighters Would Move Up Weight Class

Dustin Poirier wishes more fighters would move up a weight class.

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With all of the weight cutting mishaps lately, more fighters have considered moving up a weight class.

Lightweight Dustin Poirier is one such fighter who has already made the move. In his early UFC days, “The Diamond” found success in the featherweight division. However, Poirer felt he was being held back due to the brutal weight cut down to the 145-pound mark.

So he moved back to 155 pounds and hasn’t looked back since.

And that move back to lightweight just may prove to be the best decision Poirier has made in his career. Since returning, he has gone on quite a run, compiling a record of 8-1 (1NC) in the sports deepest division.

Having already made the move up in weight, Poirier knows that many other fighters would benefit from the same move. That’s why “The Diamond” is encouraging his fellow fighters to follow suit and move up in weight.

“Yeah, I’d recommend that to pretty much everybody,” Dustin Poirier told Nick Dwyer of Everlast.com.You’re just happier with training camp, you know? You can enjoy it more, you enjoy fight week more, it’s better for your body, your mind. It’s just better for everything. There’s a point when you do this long enough where you’re going to hate the process of starving yourself and being low on calories and nutrients all through camp and then having to sacrifice two or three months of hardcore dieting and then show up and still have 20 pounds to go, it just makes it not fun.”

“You should enjoy your job, you should enjoy the process of preparing for fights and being at your best and I just think that’s the way the sport should be moving,” he added. “Diego Sanchez just did it this weekend and I hope things continue to go that way. I know I feel a lot better.”

The sport of MMA as a whole has been plagued by weight cutting issues, seemingly now more than ever. The UFC seems to have a fight called every other event – or even more – due to a fighter’s health being in danger. It’s extended to the most high-profile of bouts in the octagon as well.

Poirier success after ditching his weight cut has been well documented, and the improvement is more than apparent. ‘The Diamond’ has been on a tear and most recently stopped rival Eddie Alvaveriz in Canada this July. He’ll face Nate Diaz in the biggest match-up of his career at November’s UFC 230.

Let us know what you think. Should more fighters follow Poirier’s advice and move up in weight?

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Joe Rogan Describes Why Weight Cutting Is Worse Cheating Than Steroids

Joe Rogan thinks that extreme weight cutting is worse than using ********.

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The topic of extreme weight cutting continues to place a black eye on the sport of MMA. With high-profile fights affected by extreme cuts on a seemingly weekly basis, octagon commentator Joe Rogan has become one of the most prominent critics of the practice.

Rogan recently sounded off on weight cutting during his Joe Rogan Experience Podcast (via MMA Fighting), claiming that the draining cuts fighters are putting themselves through is cheating on a level above even that of ********:

“It is stupid,” Rogan said. “What it is is sanctioned cheating. It’s sanctioned cheating and it’s cheating at a much higher scale even than PEDs.

“If you get two people and they both weigh 135 [pounds] but they’re both totally hydrated and one of them has been doing ******** and one of them hasn’t been doing ********, the difference will be far less than if one person weighs in at 135 [pounds] but then balloons up to 160 [pounds] and then gets into that octagon at 160 [pounds] but there’s no PEDs involved. That’s a much greater advantage than someone whose doing some sort of testosterone thing or something. They’re compromised but the benefit of being so much larger might outweigh being compromised.

“Dude, if I was running s**t, I’d fix that first. That would be the first thing I would fix.”

The solution to such a sport-wide problem isn’t easy, but Rogan pointed to Asia’s ONE Championship, who experienced the death of flyweight Yang Jian Bing due to an extreme cut. Afterward, they implemented a system where fighters are weighed and tested for hydration levels every day leading up to a fight. It may be a stringent program, but fighters lives are on the line so Rogan believes every promotion should follow the path:

“People push it, they do push it,” Rogan said. “If you give them more time, they are gonna push it. If they know that they can rehydrate longer – which is the idea, that it’s safer because you can rehydrate from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. instead of from 4 p.m. on. I just think give them all the time they need. ONE FC has laid out the ground work. Look at what they did with their hydration tests and implement that.”

The problem of extreme weight cuts has been instilling itself in the UFC at a level more than ever right now, and a solution does not appear imminent. Perhaps attempting a system similar to that of ONE would go far in terms of solving the dangerous health threat it provides to fighters, who seem to always be willing to put their short and long-term health on the line for any advantage in a fight.

That lead to the death of a fighter in ONE, who changed their weigh-in practices in a huge way as a result.

But the UFC has not. Will it take the death of one of their fighters for them to finally fix the biggest threat to their athletes’ health?

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Kevin Lee Fears Death Is Inevitable With Current Weight Cutting Protocols

Kevin Lee thinks someone has to die before the UFC makes any changes to its weight cutting protocol.

The post Kevin Lee Fears Death Is Inevitable With Current Weight Cutting Protocols appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Weight cutting continues to be a hot topic in MMA.

Kevin Lee is the latest fighter to voice his concerns about the weight cutting problems the sport is facing and has been one of the biggest advocates for a proposed 165-pound weight class.

Speaking with MMA Fighting’s Luke Thomas on the latest edition of The MMA Hour, the “Motown Phenom” has no plans of quieting down.

“Everybody knows that this weight-cutting thing is a problem, but nobody is coming up with no ******* solutions,” Lee said. “Everybody is kind of waiting for somebody to die. And I don’t feel like that’s the right thing to do. I think you have to take at least one step in the right direction and then just see how it goes. There’s really no downside to it.”

The California State Athletic Commision (CSAC) and the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports (ABC) have been at the forefront of the extreme weight cutting dilemma instituting a 10-point reform plan in the last year and approving the 165-pound weight class. The UFC is yet to open up any new divisions including the super welterweight class Lee has been so vocal about.

“Most people, especially 155ers that I talk to, they all want it,” Lee said. “We all are about the same size. A lot of these [lightweights] are [185, 190]. … We’re all doing the same thing to compete against each other. It doesn’t make sense. If we can make it a little bit safer and we can make it a little bit more fair, that’s all I’m calling for. Just a fair, even playing field for me to go out there and compete with somebody without having to kill myself to do it.”

“There’s so many guys, there’s so much talent,” Lee said. “The talent is there. It’s the same thing they said about adding 125 for the women. Yeah, it’s gonna take some time to cultivate that, but I think it’s gonna even be easier, because you have so many guys in between these weight classes right now that could fill that up. Where it’s at is the talent is always gonna show up.”

The 25-year-old Lee currently fights in the lightweight division, a weight that he has had an increasingly hard time making. Lee’s struggles to make 155 pounds were on full display at UFC 216 last October, a weight cut that he said, “damn near killed him”.

“That’s what it’s gonna take,” Lee said. “It’s unfortunate. And people kind of gloss over it, too. Uriah Hall, who I train with, the man had a seizure cutting weight for fights. It kind of gets swept under the rug. And it kind of goes, ‘Oh, he was doing his own thing.’ … The man had a seizure getting ready for a fight. That’s not a joke. It’s more serious than I think people realize. And it’s my health on the line, too, along with it. If all I gotta do is just step up and talk about it and try and make some change happen, then that’s what I’m gonna do. But the rest of these mother f*ckers, they’re too scared. They won’t do it, because they don’t want to step up and say what they really feel.”

The “Motown Phenom” is under the belief that it’s going to take something tragic for the UFC to make any real significant changes to status quo.

Watch Lee’s entire interview here:

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