Weight: Heavy On The Mind And Body

By Ludo
Ninjasplace.com


Every so often the issue of fighters who cut alot of weight comes up in the world of Mixed Martial Arts. Usually it occurs after a fight has been won and attributed to one fighter being significantly larger than the other fighter. Many times this issue surrounds fighters such as Gleison Tibau who cuts some twenty pounds, Thiago Alves and Anthony Johnson who cut twenty five to forty five pounds, and Brock Lesnar who at one time was cutting nearly forty pounds to make weight in their respective weight classes. But is this really an issue worthy of the conflict it sparks once in a great while? Lets delve a little deeper into the issue of cutting weight.

Absolutely one of the most hotly debated topics concerning mixed martial arts would be the issue of cutting weight, and how much is too much for fair competition. On one side, that being those opposed to cutting significant weight, you often have one of two main arguments. Firstly there is the root stance that the reason weight classes were even introduced into the sport were to create a level playing field, which is contradicted and even negated by those who cut obscene amounts of weight before a fight. Second in this side of the spectrum is more often than not assuming that all things are equal between two fighters, which can be the case more or less in many matchups, that the larger fighter will be the fighter with the advantage based on size and assuming therefore strength.

In the other "school" of thought on the issue there are also commonly two main points brought up in the never ending story that is this topic. Both interchangeable as 1a and 1b mind you, the first is almost always Skill>size. We were treated to no better proponent of this first counter in the debate than Cain Velasquez' domination of Brock Lesnar. Similar backgrounds in wrestling, both fairly new to mixed martial arts, the only things really separating these men were age, reach, and overall striking ability. However it took less than a full round for Lesnar to be effectively dismantled by the smaller, yet more skilled Velasquez. There is more on the topic but we'll touch on that shortly.

Second in the arsenal of those who either support weight cutting or don't consider it to be a major problem in the sport today is that weight cutting is done by athletes of most any sport. Wrestling, football, boxing, track and field, all these sports and more require weight cuts in some form or fashion. For some sports certain positions require an optimum weight, for some sports weight cutting is about gaining any advantage possible. A main selling point of this argument would be "it's accepted in most other sports, why not MMA as well?". While some might push for mixed martial arts to grow into something much larger than it currently is this could be a double edged sword. On the one hand if the sport is to become fully mainstream and widely accepted, it would behoove many to allow this to become accepted within it as well. On the other hand there has never been a modern sport quite like mixed martial arts before and some might say that is grounds for a new set of rules.

Back to the concept of skill over size. We have been given several examples of smaller fighters finding themselves at the top of their weight classes on many occasions, even champions. Jens Pulver and Caol Uno were known as the two best lightweights in the world once upon a time. BJ Penn won the UFC welterweight title from Matt Hughes. Minotauro Nogueira, Fedor Emelienanko, and Randy Couture all dominated the heavyweight division during their respective primes. Not to mention, Heavyweight being where size would count the most given that it is a weight class with the largest disparity between minimum and maximum weight allotments. Cain Velasquez, a man who weighs in well under the two hundred and sixty five pound weight limit is the current UFC heavyweight champion.

I have no doubt that this input will do much to quell the arguments that rage, possibly even now, concerning this issue. Hopefully though I have granted you some insight into it from both sides. Is weight cutting an issue for the sport of mixed martial arts? You decide.