According to UFC newcomer Sean McCorkle, from a post he made on the UG, the word is out from the UFC that if you miss weight even once you could be released. The UFC is no longer giving guys extra time to miss weight (second and third chances) and could simply cancel the fight instead of letting it go on as a catch weight bout. Currently, fighters who miss weight, depending on the state/nation where the event is held, will be given a few hours to shed the extra pounds and are re-weighed later that day. If they choose not to lose the extra weight, or are unable to, they are fined a percentage of their "show" (guaranteed) purse, which goes directly to the other fighter (who must first agree to fight at a catch weight above the originally agreed upon weight). In recent weeks former Ultimate Fighter winner Efrain Escudero missed weight and lost his fight, leading the UFC to cut him after the event. However, testing positive for PEDs apparently isn't such a big deal. Missing weight is inexcusable, but popping dirty is fine with time served. The UFC has several fighters on the roster who have failed drug tests in the past (Sherk, Bonnar, Leben, Sonnen, Marquardt, Belfort, Parisyan) and only Parisyan was released from his contract (though not for testing positive but for pulling out of his fight at the last minute). The athletic commission in charge of drug testing typically doles out 6-12 month suspensions along with five and six-figure fines for failed doping tests. Dana White recently said that the punishment from the commissions was more than sufficient and he would be wrong to tag-on extra measures. I am all for forcing guys to make weight--it is for the safety of the other fighter--but to me it seems the punishment should mirror the crime here and aren't PED's worse?
That's an interesting question. I'm going to go against conventional wisdom here. The whole "making weight" thing has become a joke. A guy weighs in at 170, then shows up for the fight at 200. That isn't fair to the actual 170 guys, and it can't be good for his long-term health. If anything, I would like the UFC to be even more hard-nosed about the issue. Hold a second weigh-in 1 hour before the fight. Allow a maximum 5-10 lb fluctuation from the official weigh-in.
^ I agree and we can really see the difference with the Japanese guys who come stateside with next to no weight cutting experience and get dwarfed the night of the fight against experienced cutters with wrestling or grappling backgrounds. I think eventually we'll see more weight classes as the number of fighters should at least quadruple in the next decade (perhaps increase 10x or more). We don't want to go too far down the boxing and wrestling road where there is a new class every 5lbs., though. Probably good enough to go from 135-205 every 10lbs. then jump to 225, 250, and SHW. But this isn't until 2020, at least.
I guess in the future it would look like this, possibly: 135 - Strawweight 145 - Flyweight 155 - Bantamweight 165 - Featherweight 175 - Lightweight 185 - Welterweight 195 - Middleweight 205 - Light Heavyweight 225 - Cruiserweight 250 - Heavyweight >250 - Super Heavyweight
McCorkle has also revealed that every fighter on a PPV gets a bump ranging between $1,500 to $100,000. Nice.
