EXTREME weight cutting is a common practice for fighters in combat sports of MMA and boxing, where fighters have to significantly shed weight.
To make the desired weight class, fighters have to jog around in their sauna suit or hop in and out of sauna room for hours, or sometimes, a few minutes leading to the fight just to make the cut–leaving them severely dehydrated.
This system has caused deaths among fighters in the past.
The most recent of which was the case of Chinese Yang Jian Bing, who died a day after trying to make the weight for his fight in the ONE Championship in Manila in December. His bout, supposedly against Filipino Eugene Eustaquio, was cancelled for failing to make the grade. The next day after the weigh in, he collapsed and was sent to the nearest hospital, expiring the day later due to heart attack.
The ONE organization must have felt it has to make drastic measures to prevent a repeat of the incident. One (death) is enough and it must act fast.
Weeks after the incident, the ONE announced the ban on weight-cutting by dehydration and introduced a new weigh-in program for its fighters.
The new system, which is definitely the first of its kind on combat sports, calls on fighters to undergo multiple weigh-ins and tests (physical examinations) before and during fight week, including three hours before an event begins.
This means that the ONE wants to make its fighters compete in their walking weight, which is their normal body weight.
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In some cases, fighters compete in a weight class that is 20 pounds lighter than their normal body weight because they want to compete competitively and look bigger than their opponent. That weigh-in system allows a fighter to vary his weight classes.
That’s why in boxing, there are so-called multiple division champions. The best case is Manny Pacquiao, who is the only eight-weight division champion.
By introducing what it claims to be an innovative weigh-in system, will it make the ONE the trendsetter in combat sports?
First and foremost, the ONE claims this new weigh-in program is for the benefit of the fighters.
But the ONE could not deny itself of engaging in a marketing blitz by making the move as a brand-building strategy for its organization when it said that the “ONE Championship has paved the way for MMA in Asia and we have always been at the forefront of innovation for the sport.”
ONE Championship CEO Victor Cui pushed it further by inviting other MMA organizations to follow suit.
“We believe that through the implementation of this new weigh-in program, our fighters will enjoy a safer and healthier life inside and outside of the cage. I invite the other two major global MMA organizations, Bellator and UFC, to follow in our footsteps to protect athletes and to eliminate the process of weight cutting by dehydration.”
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Obviously, however, the Big Boys are not budging, especially the UFC.
Just recently, UFC president Dana White has talked about the possibility of having a two-division champion.
When newly minted UFC featherweight champion Connor Mcgregor hinted his desire to fight lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos while keeping his own belt, White could only express his support.
“If anybody can, he could. He’s done everything he said he would. I’m interested. Normally I’d say if you move up in weight, you have to give up the belt. He wants to fight. He really likes money. If anyone can do it, it’s him,” White said on UFC Tonight on Fox Sports.
If allowed, it will be unprecedented on the part of the UFC and will totally contradict the ONE Championship’s newly introduced weigh-in system, which takes effect beginning with the ONE Championship in China on Jan. 23.
The ONE organization has a lot prove that this is going to work. Surely, the rest of the MMA world is watching.