Darren Till was the latest, and honestly the more I have heard him talk before and afterwards I'm willing to believe it was an honest error. Dude seems genuinely remorseful and all but recused himself from being next in line for a title shot until he proves he can make weight which is pretty damn stand up of him in my opinion. Compare that to Dern who seems like she did not care even a little bit for missing weight and it's a huge difference. That said, more fighters are missing weight these days than ever before. Why is this? Are fighters cutting from bigger weights than they used to? Is the time frame of when they have to weigh in causing that big of a deal? Is USADA making it harder for fighters to game the system and use certain banned substances to make weight? Most importantly what can be done to stop it? Make people move up in weight after two misses? Harsh monetary punishments? Adding more weight classes?
Good question! Here are my thoughts. The fighters have blamed the new early weigh-ins as they have led to more misses than the last system. However I don't agree. For once I will blame the fighters. This is their problem. Too many fighters trying to game the system by cutting huge amounts of weight. Till has bragged about how big he is on fight night. This is not honourable or safe. OneFC has introduced year-round weight monitoring with a more progressive system leading into fight night where they meet certain benchmarks and can't exceed limits. This is an involved system that the UFC would not like to burden themselves with given how many fighters they have all over the planet. There are two no-work options for the UFC I can see- fight night weigh-ins or harsher penalties including the cancellation of the fight. Penalties and cancellations I believe are under the responsibility of the commissions. Fight night weigh-ins would change the game. But they are much riskier. Fighters determined to outweigh their opponents will intentionally not fully rehydrate which is dangerous. Also a miss could result in the fight being cancelled at the cage which could make fans irate. Missing weight is unprofessional and the UFC is just as bad for pushing the fights through. The commissions need to take charge of this issue because the UFC won't do much more without being forced to.
Looks like they are more than exploring it...according to Dana, they're going back to the late weigh ins
According to mmafighting quite a few fighters are not happy with going away from the early weigh-ins. Guys like Belal Muhammad and Eddie Alvarez seem to be a couple of the rings leaders. Alvarez went as far as to say the early weigh-ins were the best thing to happen to the sport. I am guessing because it gave more time to rehydrate before the actual fight. Any which way it looks like this is an unpopular move for the UFC with many of its fighters and honestly giving a few extra hours to cut weight would have never helped a fighter like Dern make weight. At the end of the day I agree with what most others are saying. Missing weight, whether because of the early weigh-ins or not is completely the fighters fault. Sometimes maybe they can't help it due to a personal event, other times maybe they are just cutting too much weight or just did not care to cut weight. No matter how it boils down these dudes are professionals and should be able to handle it.
Angela Hill and others are suggesting all day weigh-ins meaning before a certain time like 5pm you can do it. Most fighters want to get it over with sooner than later. Shame that fighters the UFC wants to promote get special treatment. The same people will still miss weight if their plan is to spin 10-15lbs. off in the sauna the day of.
If only the fighters had some way of collectively negotiating these policies with the UFC and the commissions...
I feel like more fighters are against the early weigh ins rather than for them. When they were implementing the early weighs in I was under the option that fighters would have an option to weigh in early or weigh in regularly...I think that is the best option, basically what speeds brought up...have to weigh in by 5pm. If you want to weigh in at 5 and give yourself less time to rehydrate...okay...if you want to weigh in early and have more time okay...but if you miss weight; that start your two hour window or w/e it is.
DFW, caught in a lie, doubles down, says there's "no debate" and that they are going back to 4 p.m. weigh-ins. Hmmm...
https://mmajunkie.com/2018/06/ufc-michael-chiesa-argues-dana-white-decision-early-weigh-ins Interesting comments on the whole weight cutting thing from Chiesa. Dude hit the nail on the head with the waiting for someone to croak comment. I honestly thought the Uriah Hall incident would be the eye opener of dangerous weight cuts but apparently not.
The UFC will continue with early weigh-ins (for now). http://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/23945166/ultimate-fighting-championship-staying-early-weigh-ins
