ABC medical committee recommending new weight cutting rules...

The ABC Medical Committee voted unanimously to recommend the new 10 point weight cutting rules proposed by the CSAC. The ABC will vote on it at the annual conference in July then if passed it will then be up to the comissions to adopt.

The 10 points are as follows.

1. Licensing by Weight Class – Requesting the athlete select the lowest weight class they intend to compete at. Following up with a series of questions related to dehydration and weight cutting will allow the Commission to better approve matches and track critical weight information. The Physical Examination associated with the Commission’s licensing application requires that the licensing physician certify that the requested weight class is safe for the athlete.

2. Changes to the bout agreement to obtain parity with boxing – Draft and approve a contract that fines the contestant that fails to make the contract weight 20% of his compensation equally distributed to the Commission and the opponent, as well as 20% of all bonuses (including win bonuses) to the opponent. This will force fighters to compete at weights closer to their natural walking weight. It will also reward fighters who take a fight against a larger opponent and lose.

3. Additional weight classes. 165, 175, 195, 225 with the removal of 170. This places each weight class below 205 at 10 pound increments. Along with licensing by weight class and ringside physician certification, the new weight classes· are essential so that each individual athlete has more options to choose a class that is suitable for them.

4. Implement policy changes to the way matches are approved with an emphasis on appropriate weight class. A formal request has been made to the Official Database of the ABC to add a weight class category as a required field and also a listing by the matchmaker of the weight the fighter was when the bout was offered

5. Weight Class restrictions for fighters who miss weight more than once. A fighter who misses weight more than once will be required to compete in a higher weight class until a physician certifies the weight is appropriate and is approved by the Commission for competition in the weight class

6. Continue early weigh-ins to allow maximum time for rehydration and mental preparation for
the combat sports competition.

7. A second weight check the day of the event to ensure fighters have not gained more than 8% of their body weight back in the 30 hours between the official weigh in and the event. Fighters who gain so much weight between weigh in and the fight may still be allowed to compete but may be required to move to the next weight class for future bouts.

8. Checks for Dehydration by specific gravity and/or physical by Ringside Physicians at both the official weigh in and the second day weight check.

9. Implement a 30-day and 10-day weight check for advertised high level title fights. The WBC has success with this approach in boxing, and it provides for safe benchmarks. While this “weight check” could be manipulated because a Commission inspector is not always available to supervise this, we can do it by Skype or other electronic means. While not perfect, this is simply a way for the Commission physicians to keep track of the fighter’s progress to the intended weight class.

10. Matchmaker and Promoter Examination and Education regarding weight cutting and dehydration as it relates to offering and contracting of bouts.

California is officially adopting this policy starting with UFC 214. It is also being voted on by the ABC this summer. This could have a massive impact on big weight cutters and could completely realign the divisions. 

Eh.  Personally, I think the addition of 225 is pointless.  And I say this as a fan of the heavier weight classes.  HW and LHW is thin enough as it is.  No reason to add what I assume will become the new Cruiserweight division.  Honestly they should just abolish Super Heavyweight like they do in Japan and make heavyweight 206 to 600.

This is however, the least of my gripes with this new ********.  If I want to watch a sport where there is an over-saturation of belts and they all mean absolutely nothing, I'd watch boxing or Russo era WCW.  The addition of too many weight class has the possibility of seriously hurting the sport.  Like, there is already a good number of belts and not every champion gets the attention they deserve.  Adding more will just devalue the worth of a belt to the point they are just a participation trophy.  Now granted it wouldn't be as bad as it is in boxing, where they have multiple organizations with belts and multiple weight classes, but my god.  And this problem will become more of an issue to Bellator and smaller regional promotions.  IMO, this is just another way to get rid of promotional control of belts and have some corrupt org like the WBC to issue out championships that are worthless.

Also, if you really want to make a fighter to make weight do what they do in Japan: punish any fighter that doesn't make weight by making any potential win a no contest and withhold any win bonus and performance bonuses.  Additionally, dock a certain percentage of pay based on the the amount of weight they missed (ex. missed by 2 lbs = 20% of your purse).


I will say, however, that the stuff about maintaining hydration levels is good.

The 225 weightclass is the only one I see as pointless. I 100% agree with splitting 170 into 165 and 175. 175 would be perfect for fighters like Gastelum, Hendricks, and Maia while 165 would be perfect for fighters like Masvidal, Cowboy etc. 

With a weightclass every 10 lbs there is no reason to not be within 8% of your weigh in weight. If ypu aren't you are in the wrong weightclass. 

Punishing fighters hasn't actually been a massive deterrent threatening a fighter with a NC just means he is more likely to pull out of a fight. I like that if you miss weight more than once you can no longer be licensed in that weightclass. 

I do not think these changes will cause an alphabet soup of titles either. There will still only be one truly recognized title in each weight class. 

Considering the positive feedback by all the comissions and the endorsement of the UFC this will be the way things are. Massive changes are coming that will shake the weight divisions completely. 

I have to agree with GreenHornet on the addition of weight classes. I'm really not a fan of adding more weight classes, especially 225 and 195. There just isn't the depth in 185/205/HW classes to add more to begin with.  If they want to do the other stuff so be it. But I'm not going to worry about any of this since we still don't have a unification of the previous ABC rules let alone adding these new rules/guidelines. 

The other stuff would require the addition of more weight classes. If you have an 8% max weight gain that means the biggest a fighter at 185 can be is 199.5 day of the fight. You know guys like Rockhold, Romero, and probably Weidman are way bigger than that. 

Just think of Cyborg. She wouldn't even be allowed at 145 in CA starting in July. The biggest she could be on fight day is 156.6 and she is often walking around at least 10-15 lbs higher than that. Even Rousey who is 150 would be forced to move to 145 to stay within the 8%. 

* Edited at 05.17.2017, 3:44 PM ET *

Bigj, I would rather they just fight up a class then add another class. So for example if a guy at 185 can't stay below 199.5 the next day, guess what he's a 205er now. Cyborg probably shouldn't be fighting at 145 anyways, and while there isn't anyone for her to fight at 45 there is even less at 55 so for her, i guess it's fight in states that don't adopt rules or it's off to Russia or Japan.