Gannon weighs in on the Great Weight Debate

I’m hearing a lot of “I hate weight cutting, we should have same day weigh ins.” From an athlete and coach’s perspective, I want everyone to realize that part of this statement is nonsense, and should be purged from your vocabulary if you’re going to have an intelligent discussion on the subject.

When someone says something like this to me, I quickly point out “Do you think the same day cut is any healthier for athletes?” The key point here isn’t the pros and cons of the day before cut vs. the same day cut, this can also be applied to a 1 hour cut, or even a “5 minutes before you step on the mat” cut. The common feature – they’re ALL “cuts” to an athlete. Every athlete that wants to win will do all the (ethical) things that increase their chances of winning, and there are optimal strategies for every weigh in time. These strategies are commonly known as “cutting.”

There is a 2-day cutting protocol that horrifies some people. There is also a 1-day cutting protocol, a 1-hour cutting protocol, and a “5 minutes before the mat” cutting protocol (which may involve strenuous exertion during dehydration which is obviously very dangerous). A lot of the “less cutting” options may look more “fair” to the uneducated eye, but are definitely more dangerous to the athlete (same day weigh ins give the brain less time to rehydrate, which is a major issue when your sport involves hitting people in the head) and are in reality not any more fair either. It ultimately doesn’t matter if the athlete is 20-30lbs over the listed weight class when they fight if it’s a completely level playing field and the other athlete is also the same size on fight night (or can choose to be if he puts in the work).

Every guy that is smaller than the other guys in his weight class can choose to drop a weight class (and fight guys the same size) or get a better strength and conditioning program that will make him top out the weight class he’s already in (and fight guys the same size). A lot of lazy athletes (and lazy coaches) use this an excuse. If you don’t know how to put an extra 4-5 lbs. of quality muscle on a competing athlete, hire someone who can. Or read a book or something, it’s easily done if you know what you’re doing.

And all those specific gravity urine and rehydration tests have already been gamed by anyone with anyone with access to Google, so you can’t bring them up as a panacea solution either. The only test that hasn’t been gamed yet is the humble scale, and that’s why we keep going back to it. It really is a fair system, everyone has pretty much the same ability to educate themselves (or get a better coach) and cut as much as anybody else.

What about unhealthy cuts? Unhealthy cuts actually self regulate themselves to an amazing degree. Unsurprisingly, unhealthy cuts are actually … unhealthy for you, and inconsistent with top-level performance. Even if he managed to sneak an extra 3 pounds in there with an atrociously unhealthy cut, he pays for it in his performance, and keeping those extra 3 pounds hurt him more they helped him. And if he did a healthy cut that didn’t impede an elite athletic performance in any way, it likely wasn’t enough to impact his health in a negative way (or at least no more strain than any of the other aspects of an MMA training camp). Quality coaches tend to steer athletes away from unhealthy cuts, both for competitive and ethical reasons. “But I know a coach that…” – you probably don’t. Cormier’s wrestling coach didn’t plan for him to run around eating candy bars all day, and then go to the sauna for hours to cut water instead of his gut, collapse due to kidney failure, and miss the Olympics completely. I could be wrong, but I doubt that was the plan. I think the plan was to use proper nutrition, eat healthy, and do a healthy cut that still let him perform at an elite level (which he did in fact do in his later MMA career).

Anthony Johnson is another great example. Everyone made a big deal about his massive cuts and the edge it gave him over the opposition. He was a good middleweight, but he’s a GREAT light heavyweight (the current #1 contender in fact). According to the actual numbers (not people complaining on the internet, but his actual wins and losses) those big cuts were holding him back from his true potential, not giving him an edge. Johnson was winning on his talent, and being held back by the weight cutting, not an untalented guy winning because of weight cutting. It’s counterintuitive to some, but that’s the way it works, and this story is repeated endlessly all over the sport if you keep your eyes (and your mind) open. Unhealthy cuts are bad coaching, both from an ethical standpoint, and from a win/loss perspective.

The main point I want to make is for you to realize that anyone that brings up any weigh-in timing plan to “eliminate cutting” is already displaying a massive misunderstanding of the game, and I want you to insert the words “cut” into every sentence they say so you have a more accurate understanding of what’s going on. If someone says “I want a same day weigh in to eliminate cutting and make the sport safer” I want you to hear “I want a same day cut to eliminate cutting and make the sport safer” and evaluate it on those terms. Same day cuts have (as noted earlier) serious health drawbacks in a sport where you get hit in the head, and you’re still cutting anyway, just with a different protocol. Apply the same system to suggestions of 1 hour and 5 minute cuts as well, and you’ll understand the game a lot better.

Sean Gannon has competed in numerous weight classes from 171 (Wrestling) to 265 (MMA) over a 25-year martial arts career. He has numerous championships across various fighting arts including six Golden Gloves boxing titles, the Massachusetts State Judo Championship (Black Belt Division), the NAGA World Championship (Advanced Division), a regional MMA title, and is a UFC Veteran. He is the former Head MMA Coach at the TapOut Training Center Boston, and is the current Head MMA Coach at the legendary Peter Welch’s Gym in South Boston.