Nik Lentz: I was ‘near death’ making 145
“The last couple cuts to 145 were like near-death experiences for me… (the final cut at 145) was really, really bad making weight, and I should have never even made it.”
The culture of extreme weight cutting is gradually receiving recognition as one of the biggest problems in the sport. And it benefits no one. Andy Foster, executive director of the California State Athletic Commission, has identified weight cutting as biggest danger in MMA. Foster, a former fighter, coach, promoter, and ref, recently 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.
On Saturday, Nik Lentz returned to lightweight from featherweight, and defeated Danny Castillo via split decision. The move up was spurred by increasingly brutal cuts.
The last couple cuts to 145 were like near-death experiences for me, said Lentz after the fight, as transcribed by Dann Stupp for MMAjunkie. I didn’t want to quit. So that was a problem. I felt like if I moved up to 155, it’d be like quitting on fighting, like a coward’s way out.
(the final cut at 145) was really, really bad making weight, and I should have never even made it; I should have quit.”
In an example of how hard it is to change a culture in a sport, Lentz remained suspicious of regulator’s attempt to range in dangerous practices.
It’s with people who don’t know anything about the sport and people who don’t know anything about weight-cutting that always manage to mess it up and make it dangerous, he said. I would really hope that if we’re going to start adjusting weight classes and adjusting how we cut weight and stuff, that real professional fighters and real professionals get in there to do it, and not just people in commissions that work for the government and don’t understand anything about fighting.
Lentz will doubtless be happy to learn the composition of the new rules and regulations committee that passed the new weight class proposal:
Randy Couture, retired UFC Hall of Famer
Matt Hughes, retired UFC Hall of Famer
Jeremy Horn, vet with over 100 fights
John McCarthy, referee
Rob Hinds, referee
Kevin MacDonald, referee
David Watson, ringside physician
Matt Woodruff, Georgia Athletic and Entertainment Commission director
Brian Dunn, head of the Nebraska Athletic Commission
Extreme weight cutting is hurting fighters badly, sometimes fatally. The solution is in eminently capable hands.