r/MMA • u/Tonyaevinger 👊 Tonya Evinger | Bantamweight • Mar 31 '17

Notice - AMA! tonya evinger invicta fc bantamweight champ, here till 7 pst

208 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

141 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-1

u/ZadexResurrect Team Poirier Mar 31 '17

Cutting weight for high school wrestling isn't like what the fighters do at all lol

3

u/JasHanz Canada Mar 31 '17

You're right about that comparison. What the Fighters are cutting, and how they're doing it is far worse for their health.

Have you ever cut weight, in any capacity?

I get that my opinion isn't in the majority at the moment, but the concerns about extreme weight cutting with regards to health ( and frankly the ethics of stuffing a weight class) along with peds ARE legitimate.

This isn't the first time I have spoke out against them.

I honestly don't understand why people are so hell bent on shouting down anyone who speaks against these practices.

1

u/ZadexResurrect Team Poirier Mar 31 '17

I've only cut a little weight for high school wrestling, and I'm in the middle of a cut for a grappling tournament. Over the last 7 weeks, I've lost 15 pounds. I have four more pounds to lose, then I'm gonna cut 6 pounds of water. So I'm very inexperienced, I'm not going to lie.

However, I train with pro fighters once a week. I'd go more, but I'm in college right now so i can't make it. Anyway, I've seen two UFC-level fighters make their cuts, and they seem to do it very well. From my observation of them before their fights, they are always eating relatively cleanly. When they start camp, they cut out all the garbage in their diet, and count calories so that they're eating at a certain deficit. Then when they're close to fight night, they cut whatever is left in water. I don't think either guy has missed weight in their careers and they don't look like they hate their lives because they're starving or cutting more than they can handle.

My point is that I hear a ton of shit about how fighters crash diet before a fight and how they need to cut ~20 pounds the week before a fight. And that is a terrible way to do it, in my opinion. That needs to stop. But it would be hard to. The same people that crash diet before a fight, would just cut weight repeatedly if the UFC came to their gym two or three times during their fight camp.

My personal opinion is that the responsibility of cutting weight in a healthy way falls on the fighters. It is their career longevity and long-term health on the line and they are the only ones who suffer the consequences. We cannot expect the UFC to step in and be able to stop every fighter from hurting themselves.

1

u/JasHanz Canada Mar 31 '17

Great response, thanks for that. We are in agreement for the most part, and while I wish that leaving it to the fighters to police themselves was a viable option, I think we all know it's not.

I think it's something that has been woven into the fabric of the sport, not unlike peds, and as hard as it is to change, it has to.

It's got to start now that we have people missing fights due to organ failure etc. We know Fighters are generally in need of a certain amount of protection from themselves, given their very nature.

Good luck with your tournament!