UFC's Weight Cutting Issue: The Elephant on the Scale

UFC 215 came and went without a whole lot of intriguing story lines. Unfortunately for the UFC the biggest story line might not be what happened, but what didn't happen. The main event of Demetrious Johnson versus Ray Borg was canceled because Borg was unable to make weight. There hardly seems to be an event anymore that isn't affected in some way by botched weight cuts, and it's become quite literally a heavy issue in the sport. Cards that end up lacking star power because of this is a bummer for the fans, but more importantly it highlights a serious safety concern in combat sports.

Weight cutting isn't a UFC-specific problem, or even restricted to MMA. Ask a high school wrestler how he manages his weight and he could probably pen a list longer than some of the literature studied in his classes. In Thailand a young and talented Muay Thai fighter named Jordan Coe recently passed away while trying to cut weight. In 2015 a young Chinese fighter named Yang Jian Bing also passed away while cutting weight for a fight in One Championship. That tragedy spurred on One Championship to re-evaluate their weight cutting system, and it's time the UFC did the same before another tragedy occurs.

In a sport where men and women are punching, kicking, elbowing, choking and submitting each other it seems ludicrous that the biggest danger is actually outside the ring, in a sauna, or a plastic suit, or out in the sun. The process of cutting such extreme amounts of weight can damage internal organs, make fighters suffer from dizziness and fainting spells, and also leave them dehydrated for their fight the next day which adds another layer of danger to an already dangerous job. Fighters will continue to cut whatever weight they feel they need to in order to get a competitive advantage, unless of course the system in place does not allow for such extreme measures.

Ultimately all the fighters would be safer if weight cutting just went away completely, but since that seems to be impossible, the UFC could at least look towards One Championships much stricter policy of monitoring fighters weights weeks out from the fight and requiring them to be within a certain percentage of their fighting weight. This doesn't solve, but helps, the issue of fighters competing closer to their natural weight.
In boxing weight cutting isn't as much of an issue because there seems to be a weight class every 6 ounces or so. The UFC wouldn't need to do anything that extreme, but a few new weight classes wouldn't hurt. How about a weight class every 10 pounds or so, in order to help fighters compete at a weight closer to what is natural for them. The UFC certainly has enough talent on their roster to justify weight classes at 125, 135, 145, 155, 165, 175, 185, 195, 215, 235+. Combine more weight classes with a more rigorously tracked weight cutting system similar to what One Championship is doing and all of a sudden you will have better events, with less missed fights, and most importantly a healthier and safer environment for fighters to do unsafe things to each other.