Report: Aus AC will not do early weigh-ins at UFC 221
Jeremy Kennedy: “I’m not too happy about it. I guess there’s no early weigh-ins and there’s still no IVs [intravenous therapy] or anything like that.”
An athlete is in his hotel room and gets word that there’s a USADA tester in the lobby. He dashes to the team doctor in an adjacent room who hastens in fluids through an IV, and the dirty athlete tests clean. Yes, that happened; it was in bicycle racing.
That’s why USADA forbids the use of any IV over 50 ml. When the UFC secured USADA’s services to independently conduct random, comprehensive, out of competition anti-doping tests. The prohibition on IVs conflicted with the need for fighters to rehydrate rapidly after weigh-ins, which was frequently accomplished by a nurse with an IV. So a compromise was reached.
Weigh-ins were moved to the morning, so the fighters had an extra day to rehydrate fully. The consequences of dehydration in combat sports are severe – the brain sits in fluid and if there is less fluid there is more damage. The early weigh-ins also exposed fighters who were cutting too much, by sitting in a sauna all day.
Now there is a report from Canadian prospect Jeremy Kennedy that UFC 221 in Perth, Australia, the Government of Western Australia’s Combat Sports Commission will not allow early weigh-ins.
I’m not too happy about it, said Kennedy on The TSN MMA Show, as transcribed by Aaron Bronsteter for TSN.ca. I guess there’s no early weigh-ins and there’s still no IVs [intravenous therapy] or anything like that. That was the deal was they got rid of the IVs and moved the weigh-ins up, so we had a lot more time. But now the commission won’t let fighters weigh-in more than 24 hours before their fight.
We kind of drew the short stick there, but I’m just making sure my weight is right on point. I’m good to go with it. It’s something that you can’t control. You’ve just got to dial in everything else and make sure that you’re ready to rock
These last two weeks, the entire focus has been on my weight cut. The big thing is that everyone’s got to do it. That’s why I’m not too worried about it. I’m just making sure I get my job done and [Volkanovski] is going to have to do the same thing.
Jeremy Kennedy fights Australia’s Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 221: Romero vs. Rockhold on February 11, 2018, at Perth Arena in Perth, Australia.
