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Making weight

By Zach Arnold | June 15, 2008

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I have a new article up at MMA Memories discussing this very topic. Feedback to the article can be found here.

Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

8 Responses to “Making weight”

  1. Vox says:

    Uhm….I tend to agree with your criticism of Gina (even tho I like her a lot as a fighter) and Thiago. They showed up at the weight ins and didn’t make weight. They should have been fined hard, definetely.

    But…Nick Diaz *did* talk with his opponent’s camp before the weight ins happened and came to an agreement with them and EXC…I see nothing wrong with that, at all. And the proof of this is that Moshin came over the original weight too.

    So…I see no problem at all with how Diaz handled this.

    The other two, I agree with you on.

  2. cyph says:

    The problem is that Moshin had no choice. If he doesn’t take that fight, he doesn’t get the money. Nick Diaz is Shaw’s boy, just like Gina and Kimbo. Who are they to say no to the unfair fight?

    There is no difference between letting someone know ahead of time that you’re overweight so the organization can save face by moving the fight to a catch weight versus coming to the weigh-in overweight.

    A 10 lb difference is ridiculous. Shaw should have had the fight at 170 instead of the ridiculous 168 lb catch weight. Who are they trying to fool? Furthermore, he should have had rebooked Diaz against a real welterweight, rather than the sham of a welterweight versus a lightweight with a catch weight of 168.

    We want to take EliteXC seriously, but Shaw and EliteXC makes it really hard for the fans to do so.

  3. IceMuncher says:

    The Alves coming in 4 pounds over is a big problem, and I’m sure he deservedly got a huge ass-chewing by the UFC brass. Having said that, the Carano and Diaz situations are significantly worse infractions.

    Carano needs to move up in weightclasses. It’s absolutely ridiculous that they continue to give her fights at 140, despite the fact that she’s missed weight in 4 of her 6 pro fights. Gary Shaw doesn’t care though, he’ll happily promote her even if she never makes weight for the rest of her career.

    Nick Diaz came in at 169.5 pounds, 9.5 pounds over the limit. 9.5 pounds. That is absolutely ridiculous, he weighed in a whole weight class higher than the fight was scheduled for. What makes it even worse is knowing he wouldn’t make weight, he didn’t even try to cut, flauntingly defying the weight restrictions of the fight just so he wouldn’t suffer the physical strain associated with cutting weight. That’s nice that he let his opponent know in advance, but now that same opponent has to fight a fresh fighter that significantly outweighs him. That’s a very ugly situation.

    I wish that the next time a fighter comes in overweight, his or her opponent declines the fight. Unfortunately they can’t, because they’ll be putting their career in jeopardy and they have that “fighter’s pride” that won’t let them back out of a fight over a measly few pounds.

  4. Matthew Watt says:

    That is the whole problem with this. Is Mushin does not take the fight, it seems like in the eye of the promoter that Mushin would be the one at fault. That is bull. The system should be set up that the one who did the infraction should be punished and only him, yet it seems like that this is not the case at all. Why is Mushin the perpetrator if he was not to take the fight?

    As for Mushin weight in over weight, I read a report that he had cut the weight and was at fight weight when Nick approached him about not being able to make weight. Seems like one fighter came prepared for the weigh-in.

  5. Ivan Trembow says:

    The Corbbrey camp was approached less than 24 hours before the weigh-in. He spent the weeks and months before the fight training for a 160-pound fight, preparing to be 160 pounds at weigh-in time. The fact that he was able to stop that weight-cutting process 24 hours before the weigh-in because Diaz was nine pounds overweight is a small consolation. This situation is a far cry from the fight just being scheduled at a catch weight of 168 pounds all along.

  6. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    The not making weight is ridiculous, but what it really shows is that Shaw’s sham weight classes are…

    um…

    a sham.

    Because no one is cutting to them, certainly not the fighters that he is recognized to have created those weight classes specifically for.

  7. Monkey boy says:

    I think that the current weight class system is a sham, as a whole. What is the point of saying that a weight class has an upper limit of, say, 205 pounds when every one knows that the fighter are likely to be at 220 or more on fight day? If I were king of the mma universe I would hold weigh ins on the day of the fight, and you fought in what ever weight class that you weighed in at. Cutting weight is bullshit, and dangerous besides. I am sick and tired of “welterweights” entering the ring at 190 pounds and up, and “light heavyweights” weighing in a 220 and up.
    bleh!

  8. Chuck says:

    I agree with Monkey Boy. Really I have very little to add, but the violations that Zach put up that should be are a little ridiculous. So you are saying that if a fighter weighs in overweight for the first time that his fight purse gets cut by a third and he/she gets suspended for three months? What? That sucks because the violations should be how much they were over by, not so much how many times they infracted (which is a good stick to go by as well). So a fighter weighs over the limit by nine pounds for the first time, and another fighter weighs over the limit by a half of a pound. So you tell me that BOTH fighters get the same punishment? COME ON!!!!!!!!!!! As Monkey Boy said cutting weight is dangerous and bullshit. If a fighter’s walk-around weight is 170 lbs. then he/she should probably only cut about ten pounds or so.

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