Weight Cutting Issues At The Forefront Of UFC 177

Over the weekend I found myself struggling to fork over the money for UFC 177. Former champion, Renan Barao, had to be removed from the main event, promising young Olympian Henry Cejudo was forced off the card, and as a result of those situations a third fight on the card was canceled. In what seemed like minutes UFC 177 went from a maybe to a maybe not. At the forefront of all the problems … weight cutting. It was only a month ago that I wrote an article about weight cutting (you can read it here) and it seems like it is only becoming a bigger problem. Weight cutting issues nearly caused the cancellation of UFC 177, and if not for TJ Dillashaw’s willingness to take a fight against Joe Soto on just one day’s notice the UFC would have likely been facing their second straight pay per view cancelation. Taking a look at what went down over the weekend should help highlight just how serious a problem weight cutting can be.

Friday morning, while UFC officials were preparing for the UFC 177 weigh-ins, main event title challenger Renan Barao was having some trouble cutting weight. In fact, Barao was having so much trouble with his weight cut that he lost consciousness during the process, falling and hitting his head on a bathtub. In an interview with UFC commentator Joe Rogan, Barao said that he was cutting about 10 kilos (22 pounds) to get to the 135-pound limit when the incident occurred. This fainting episode obviously took Barao out of his scheduled match up with Bantamweight Champion TJ Dillashaw and put Dillashaw in a very tough position. This card was supposed to be Dillashaw’s first title defense as champion and the card was taking place in Dillashaw’s hometown of Sacramento, California. During the pay per view broadcast it was revealed that Dillashaw actually had around 750 friends and family in attendance to see the fight. Taking a fight on short notice is common in MMA but a change of opponents in a title fight with just one day’s notice is almost unheard of. How is this a fair situation for Dillashaw? If the UFC had their own existing regulations regarding weight cutting they may have been able to prevent issues like this from ever happening. Fight promotions like the UFC leave weigh-in regulations up to athletic commissions rather than stepping in and creating their own policy. It only makes sense to me that fight promotions would want to protect their product as well as the athletes. Having a former champion faint while cutting weight is not only bad for business it could easily have more dire consequences. Barao is fortunate that he wasn’t seriously injured in the incident. Unfortunately his incident was not the only weight cutting snafu that occurred on Friday.

In addition to Barao, UFC newcomer and Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo had a terrible time making weight. Cejudo had such an issue making weight that he was advised by doctors to stop the weight cutting process and begin rehydrating immediately. Cejudo was scheduled to take on Boise, Idaho’s Scott Jorgensen but the fight was cancelled after Cejudo failed to make weight and fell ill. Cejudo is an Olympic wrestler who competed at 55 kilos (121 pounds) in most of his amateur wrestling matches, so it is a little surprising that he has been having trouble making weight. Over the last year Cejudo has fought for a few different fight promotions but was never once able to make the cut down to 125 pounds. In his two bouts prior to signing with the UFC Cejudo missed weight leading to those bouts taking place at a catch weight. In those two instances Cejudo’s weight cutting troubles only hurt him. However, in his failure to make weight over the weekend for UFC 177 his actions impacted the card and caused Boise State University graduate, Scott Jorgensen, a good bit of frustration. Jorgensen is a consummate professional, never once missing weight in his 24 professional fights. Jorgensen had actually already finished cutting weight when he found out that his opponent, Cejudo, had withdrawn from the fight. While the UFC awarded Jorgensen with his full payout for the fight, including a win bonus, he was still frustrated to not be able to compete. A fighter like Jorgensen can spend three months preparing for a fight and the hours they put in are grueling. It’s regrettable that Cejudo would sign a bout agreement for a fight he should have known he couldn’t make the weight for.

As I have said before, weight cutting is here to stay. What more will it take for someone to step in and try to improve the process? Keep in mind, it’s not just MMA fighters cutting weight. Children from 10 to 18 are cutting weight for wrestling tournaments all across the country. I guess on a superficial level this weekend upset me because I wanted to see Renan Barao rematch TJ Dillashaw and I wanted to see how Scott Jorgensen would handle Henry Cejudo. On a human level this weekend upset me because I don’t want to see someone suffer a serious or potentially career threatening injury just to make weight. Remember, these fighters are an example to young martial artists who could be the future of the sport and the example they are setting is a stale, outdated one that needs to change.