Johnson makes required 205, fight vs. Belfort is on, weight not fair

The UFC has announced via twitter, that Anthony Johnson made the required 205, and the fight with Vitor Belfort will take place tonight as planned.

Anthony Johnson weighed in today at 204.2 pounds – tonight’s fight with Vitor Belfort is ON

Anthony Johnson has had problems making the 170 weight limit in the past. For this fight he moved up to 185, but, incredibly, again had major problems making the weight.

In the final phase of his weight cut, perhaps three hours before the weigh in, Johnson reports he lost feeling in his legs, and was unable to move. He was ordered by the doctor to rehydrate. At that point there was just one hour to the official weigh in.

Johnson stepped on the scale at at unprecedented 11 pounds over the 185 limit (an extra one pound is given for non title fights). He forfeited 20% of his purse directly to Belfort, had to make 205 today (which he just did successfully), and has put his further employment by the UFC in jeapardy.

There is over 12 hours until fight time, during which Johnson wil likely put on even more weight.

Johnson has expressed relief that he is still alive, but there is a widespread sense that the fight tonight will not be fair.

It took a large number of deaths due to weight cutting in high school and college wrestling before officials stepped in and instituted reforms to make the sport safer. This may be the incident that demands regulators and the sports leading organization to take steps to prevent further weigh cutting debacles, or worse.

Every state in American high school wrestling uses national hydration assessment tests. These tests analyze body fat percentages at the alpha weight and determine how much weight a wrestler can lose each week. When a wrestler reaches the minimum body fat percentage of 7% of their alpha fat composition it is illegal for the wrestler to cut any more weight. This system is meant to make cutting weight as healthy as possible and reduce the negative side effects of cutting.

MMA should not wait, as did wrestling over and again, for a death due to weight cutting to occur. This is an opportune moment to investigate what regulatory steps can be taken for our sport to control the problem of excessive weigh cutting.