Two years after the introduction of UFC early weigh-ins, Dana White has seen enough.
UFC 199 saw the first time the early weigh-in system was implemented by the promotion. Instead of tipping the scales in the evening, fighters were given a window between 9-11am in the morning local time to successfully weigh-in. The thinking behind it was simple – the earlier a fighter weighs in, the more time they have to rehydrate after cutting.
However, since the weigh-ins got pushed forward, the number of fighters missing weight has increased dramatically. According to a great piece by Mike Bohn of MMAJunkie, the number of fighters who missed weight between June 2014 and May 2016 under the old system was roughly half of those who came in heavy from June 2016 to May 2018. There were only 12 more fights in the latter period too.
With several big stars like Darren Till, Mackenzie Dern, Kevin Lee and Yoel Romero missing weight in recent months, White is ready to cut his losses with the early weigh-ins system. As he explained on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, “We’re getting rid of it.”
Dana also gave an update on Artem Lobov https://t.co/uYdx0KpuLc
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 5, 2018
“It fucked everything up”
White confirmed that the promotion are looking to go back to the old system. Their plan is to work with the athletic commissions in order to restore the weigh-in window that was in place prior to June 2016.
“Here’s what I believe, any time you change something, everybody looks to take advantage, as much advantage as they can of the situation. I think that when we started doing morning weigh-ins it was very good. Everybody was making weight, everything was great but then people start cutting it closer and closer and closer, thinking they can put on more weight because they have more time to recover. And the reality is, it fucked everything up. We’re looking to go back to 4 o’clock.”
“The other thing is, I don’t know any fighters that are morning people. Most of them stay up half the night and sleep half the day. So that might have something to do with the morning weigh-ins too. You have to get up earlier to make sure you’re on weight.”
Everybody wasn’t making weight when the weigh-ins were slightly later. Fighters still missed weight. Famed referee ‘Big’ John McCarthy doesn’t envisage this changing if we revert back to the old system. He has a far more simple solution to discourage fighters from cutting huge amounts of weight – miss it and be forced to move up a division.
No matter if the weigh-in is at 9am or 4pm the fighter goes to bed the night before in a dehydrated state. The problem is fighters trying to push the envelope of what weight class they want to compete in. This is why when a fighter misses weight they should be forced to move up https://t.co/1wng18saRb
— Big John McCarthy (@JohnMcCarthyMMA) June 4, 2018
It seems harsh, but look at what happened to Kelvin Gastelum. He was forced to move up after a few weigh-in mishaps at welterweight. In 2018, he could well be fighting for the middleweight strap in his next trip to the Octagon.
