Historic weight cutting summit makes recommendations
“It’s a new dau. We really have to move forward. The industry is young and we have to move along with the industry and make sure we’re doing what’s best for the fighters.”
Andy Foster is the executive director of the California State Athletic Commission, and has an unparalleled perspective on the sport, having served as a fighter, promoter, judge, coach, fan, and regulator. At present mixed martial arts is intensely focused, reasonably, on PEDs, and Foster is addressing the issue aggressively.
However, Foster has identified weight cutting as biggest danger in MMA, and he is addressing that with characteristic aggressiveness as well. He organized an historic summit on the subject, just days after Chinese flyweight Yang Jian Bing died during a weigh cut in Pasay, Philippines. He was just 21 years old.
Among the prescriptions called for at the summit were the addition of more weight classes and a sport-wide IV ban
By Marc Raimondi has the story for MMA FIghting.
One of the first matters approved by the new MMA rules and regulations committee could be a major one.
Chairperson Sean Wheelock said Thursday at the California State Athletic Commission’s weight-cutting summit that the committee has approved a plan to alter and add weight classes to the unified rules of mixed martial arts.
The outline for the new divisions would be as follows, by division: 115, 125, 135, 145, 155, 165, 175, 185, 195, 205, 225, 265 (heavyweight) and super heavyweight. The 170-pound division would be abolished.
The 10-person committee approved this change by a vote of 9-0 with one abstention. The plan will now go to the medical committee, chaired by CSAC executive officer Andy Foster. If approved there, Association of Boxing Commissions president Mike Mazzulli will send it to the board of directors and it will be voted on by the ABC body at the annual meeting in August.
Of course, any changes to the Unified Rules of MMA would then have to be adopted by the individual state and tribal athletic commissions. A promotion like the UFC or Bellator would also be under no obligation to adopt them, but Jeff Novitzky, the UFC vice president of athlete health and performance, said he has spoken with UFC matchmakers Joe Silva and Sean Shelby and they are not against changes.
“It’s been very preliminary with them, but I’ve had no opposition from them on those proposals as long as it was done in a gradual manner,” Novitzky told MMA Fighting. “It’s something I think they’re constantly evaluating even before this weight-management issue came along.”
An overhaul of the weight classes could be the first regulatory salvo against extreme weight cutting, which Foster has called the biggest problem facing the sport today. MMA referee John McCarthy, a rules committee member, said an adjustment of the weight classes would not mean much, though, unless other new regulations were there to support it.
“The weight classes are just one small element,” McCarthy said. “If it’s just the weight classes, then it’s doing nothing. It’s not gonna change anything. It all has to be in conjunction.”
If stricter weight-cutting rules are implemented, encouraging fighters to compete closer to their natural weight, McCarthy said it’s important to give fighters more options with regards to weight class.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) bans IVs for athletes and USADA brought that rule over to the UFC starting Oct. 1. Novitzky said that since the IV ban UFC fighters have been arriving in town for fight week on average 5 percent above their weight class. Before the ban, Novitzky said, it was more like 8 percent over.
WADA bans IVs because they can be used to mask the use of performance-enhancing drugs. But the stakeholders in the room Thursday were basically unanimous that using IVs should not be a normal practice for rehydration.
“If you need an IV to rehydrate, you’re probably in the wrong weight class,” Foster said.
Added Bellator regularly affairs head Cory Schafer: “What does it say about this sport that fighters have to use something reserved for hospitalization to recover just from preparation?”
Mazzulli said that he would bring a ban on IV use to the ABC body in August for a vote. Foster said that he is considering an emergency provision in California to ban IVs right away and he could present that to the commission at its next meeting in February.
Novitzky’s experience with no IVs in the UFC has been a good one for the most part. He said fighters have told him they have felt better in the Octagon due to better weight management without the IV “crutch.” McCarthy said he has heard the same things. Novitzky said that fighters have told him that after a bad weight cut, a grazing blow alone could make them feel dizzy.
“It’s difficult,” Novitzky said. “There’s some extreme situations. Thankfully, they’re getting a little bit less for us since we put our IV ban on. I’m seeing real positive stuff. Nevertheless, it is definitely the fight before the fight. I’ve seen it firsthand.”
—
“It’s a new day,” Mazzulli said. “We really have to move forward. The industry is young and we have to move along with the industry and make sure we’re doing what’s best for the fighters.”