Contributor: Josh Hall
Only days ago the MMA world was saddened to hear about the death of Brazilian MMA fighter Leandro “Feijao” Souza, who dropped in the sauna attempting to cut 33 pounds to make flyweight IN THE SPAN OF A WEEK. Souza never awoke, and it was confirmed post mortem that he had died of a stroke with 2 more pounds to cut. Souza’s aunt Elma Caetano told MMA Fighting’s Guillermo Cruz that two of his teammates informed her that he was taking the banned diuretic Lasix to help him with the weight cut.
Now that we have an idea of what happened in this case, how can it be prevented in the future? Any death that happens in the sport is a terrible thing, but if we don’t learn from tragedies like this they will become a more common occurrence. No fight is worth dying over, and the sport has a responsibility to the athletes to address it before the problem gets even worse.
There has already been a lot of research into the effects of weight cutting and dehydration, going back to before the days of the first UFC competition. To call it dangerous is an understatement, as there are countless studies documenting the adverse effects that dehydration based weight cutting has on the human body. I found one really well researched article that lays it out better than I can, and here are some of the hazards of weight cutting:
- reduce blood and plasma volume, this results in a decrease in the amount of blood pumped out by the heart, consequently the heart has to work harder in an attempt to maintain an adequate blood (oxygen) supply to the working muscles (Robergs and Roberts, 1997; Clarkson, 1998)
- decrease testosterone levels (Booth et al., 1993; Viscardi, 1998)
- increase blood lactate accumulation (Wilmore and Costill 1994)
- impair the body’s ability to sweat, resulting is an increased risk of overheating. (Armstrong, 1992; ACSM, 1996).
- “Dehydration results in reduced muscle blood flow, waste removal, and heat dissipation, all of which are necessary for sustained, high power muscle action in events such as boxing and judo.” (Armstrong, 1992, p.29)
- Taken to the extreme, rapid weight loss when achieved through dehydration can be fatal. Viscardi (1998) identifies that excessive dehydration can harm bodily functions, leading to kidney failure, heat stroke or heart attack, indeed in 1997, within a period of thirty-three days, three young American wrestlers tragically died whilst trying to ‘make their weight’ (Hickling, 1999).
All of these things should scare the hell out of MMA fighters, and yet weight cuts are only getting more and more extreme in the sport. In Souza’s case, he tried to cut a full 21.15% of his body weight in the span of SEVEN DAYS. The human body is simply not equipped to handle that sort of trauma, and even if he had made weight there would have been no way to function in that physical state. Where was someone, anyone, to step in and tell him how dangerous this would be? He should have known better, but he had a team of training partners and coaches that allowed this to go on, and many were cutting weight right beside him.
That leads into my next question: Why would his coaches ever recommend that he attempt should a ridiculous cut? These are the people who should absolutely be looking out for the best interest of their fighters, but it simply did not happen here. The head of Nova Uniao, Andre Pererneiras, had this to say on the death of this fighter:
“That could have happened to anyone,” Pederneiras said. “It unfortunately happened on a day that all the fighters were losing weight. But that has nothing to do with (him cutting weight). We will wait for more exams, but (the doctors) already said that he suffered a stroke.”
I don’t want to put all the blame on Pederneiras for the death of his fighter, but statements like that are beyond disturbing, especially when you hear the words of Feijao’s teammate and fellow coach Andre Santos:
“We don’t have much information yet,” Feijao’s teammate Andre Santos told MMAFighting.com, “but we do know that is related to his weight cut. He’s my student but he also trains at Nova Uniao for about a year. I wasn’t with him during this process because I have a fight scheduled in Russia, so he spent the night at Nova Uniao’s gym. His sister called me saying that he had passed out so I went to the hospital, but he was already dead when I got there.”
Another problem that exists here is that the promoter for this show was Andre Pederneiras, who is also the head of Shooto Brazil. When a coach is also acting in the interests of promoting a show, they have more to consider than just the safety of their fighters. That is a frightening conflict of interest, especially when someone dies under these circumstances.
The saddest thing here is that this death was totally preventable. We have a documented history in a combat sport of this exact thing happening before, and all the safeguards that came about as a result were totally ignored here. In the dangers of weight cutting listed above one of the sources spoke about the deaths of 3 college wrestlers in a 33 day span in 1997. Jeff Reese, Billy Saylor, and Joseph LaRosa all died in the span of roughly a month during hard weight cuts, and the NCAA was forced to take a hard look into the actual dangers of weight cutting.
(http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1011763/)
The NCAA did a total rewrite of their rules regarding weight cutting, and it has likely saved many lives. They identified and prohibited dangerous procedures, and you will recognize that some of those safeguards were totally ignored in this death. The following practices were banned entirely from the sport due to their health dangers:
- vapor impermeable suits (e.g., rubber suits or rubberized nylon)
- similar devices used soley for dehydration
- saunas (even off campus)
- steam rooms (even off campus)
- wrestling room over 75 degrees at start of practice
- hot boxes
- Laxatives (non-prescribed)
- emetics
- excessive food and fluid restriction
- self-induced vomiting
- diruetics
- artificial means of rehydration (i.e., intravenous hydration)
(http://www.ncaa.com/news/wrestling/2002-01-01/weight-management-education)
If you look at this list, you can immediately note that Souza finally passed out while in a sauna and was reported to have taken Lasix, an extremely dangerous diuretic, in the process of this ridiculous weight cut. While saunas are 100% legal in MMA, this does not make their use any safer on the human body. Diuretics are all banned in the sport, but in Brazil there is no testing for them pre-fight. We all know that many fighters are going to use whatever they can get away with to gain a perceived advantage, and the lack of testing for them is a failure on the Brazilian regulatory bodies. When we have established evidence of these dangers, the people that regulate competition have a responsibility to ensure that said competition occurs in a healthy environment.
Let’s take a quick look at the dangers of this particular diuretic and the risk that goes along with it. Furosemide (the active ingredient in Lasix) is used to treat heart conditions and fluid retention problems. It frequently will make people that take it physically ill, especially if taken for purposes other than treating the issues listed above. The following is from the section on side effects regarding the drug:
“Remember that your doctor has prescribed this medication because he or she has judged that the benefit to you is greater than the risk of side effects. Many people using this medication do not have serious side effects. This medication may cause a serious loss of body water (dehydration) and salt/minerals. Tell your doctor right away if you have any of these unlikely but serious side effects: muscle cramps, weakness, unusual tiredness, confusion, severe dizziness, fainting, drowsiness, unusual dry mouth/thirst, nausea, vomiting, fast/irregular heartbeat, unusual decrease in the amount of urine.”
According to the dosage Souza was reported to have taken by MMA Fighting, he took 7 Lasix pills in two days. If he was following the standard dosage for the drug, he would have taken 2-4 pills in that span. With the heavily increased dosage and the extreme temperatures from the sauna, there was no way for Souza to identify potential side effects, as he was intentionally bringing forth many of the symptoms listed above.
When all the factors involved are considered along with the history of weight cutting, Souza’s death should not be surprising at all. Weight cutting in this fashion is playing with fire, and he paid the ultimate price with his life. There is certainly enough negligence to go around in this case, but I hope that the sport as a whole will look at what led to this fighter’s death and make the necessary changes to prevent this from happening again.
I don’t have the answers on an exact fix to the problem, as many of the things that were changed in college wrestling are not practical for MMA. The first step though must be better fighter education on the dangers that exist cutting weight, especially in extreme amounts. Having better informed fighters will go a long way towards safer procedures. I would also like to see regulatory bodies look into random hydration testing in the week before a fight. When fighters are too drawn out, they should not be stepping into the cage in a weakened state. A dehydrated brain is much more susceptible to taking severe damage, and rehydrating properly in the time frame is not medically likely and an actual detriment to an athlete.
“Reestablishing bodily fluids, however, may take 24-48 hours; replenishing muscle glycogen may take 72 hours, and replacing lean tissue might take even longer. In short, weight cutting appears to influence the wrestler’s energy reserves, fluid levels, and electrolyte balances.”
(http://www.acsm.org/docs/current-comments/weightlossinwrestlers.pdf)
Random hydration testing (if done correctly) could force fighters to drop weight in a healthier fashion, and prevent fighters from ever attempting weight cuts like this one. History has shown that if this problem is left unchecked, more fighters are likely to die. Canceling a fight on a card because of an injury or illness is not a tragedy. A fighter cutting 31 pounds in 7 days and dying certainly is. No fight is worth dying over, and this is a harsh reminder of that fact.
Take action if you are in the sport. If you see a teammate doing these dangerous things, say something. You never know whose life you might save.
-Josh can be reached at [email protected] or @jhall282.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
