Video reveals deeply troubling Till weight cut

The culture of extreme weight cutting in mixed martial arts is morally indefensible.

Darren Till missed weight by 3.5 pounds at UFC Fight Night 130, then got a highly-controversial decision over Stephen Thompson in front of a hometown crowd, and is now ranked #2 in the division. How is it fair or reasonable to get ranked in a division in a fight where you didn’t make weight for that division.

Till cited unnamed family issue for the failure. The sports book Paddy Power recently episode 5 of ‘Behind the scenes with Darren Till at #UFCLiverpool’ and while his private family matter rightly remained private, part of the indefensible weight cut was made public. In what rational world do you dehydrate yourself to the point of blindness a day before the most intense physical activity imaginable? And it’s happening in the name of safety – out of concern that fighters not face a much larger foe.

This isn’t sane, and should not be tolerated.

The single most unnecessary danger in the sport is extreme weight cutting. A safety measure, designed to ensure fighters won’t face a much larger opponent, has turned cancerous, killing several fighters and injuring countless others. What you see above didn’t kill Till, but you can be certain it injured him, that is caused damage to his organs.

Andy Foster, executive director of the California State Athletic Commission, crafted a 10 Point Plan to fix the lethal problem. It works. The ABC medical committee supports it. The ABC has adopted it. The UFC supports it and will continue to adopt further parts of it.

Some parts of Foster’s plan, like the addition of more weight classes, had already been in force at the Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletic Regulation. Director Mike Mazzulli, who is also the president of the Association of Boxing Commissions, is implementing seven provisions including licensing by weight class and a second-day weight check and dehydration tests (specific gravity) to ensure fighters are not 10 or more percent above the contracted weight class. Mohegan is a smaller commission than CSAC, making implementation of most provisions rather than all more suitable.

Mazzulli’s actions are particularly important because of his stature in the regulation community, and because Bellator MMA hires Mohegan to regulate overseas events, and is all for the new regulations.

Brazil’s CABMMA regulatory body, under the expert direction of COO Cristiano Sampaio, approved the full 10-point plan at the last ABC conference in July, and has begun implementation. Unfortunately, Mazzulli, Foster, and Sampaio are the exceptions rather the rule. Insanity like this will continue until there is the adoption becomes widespread. It will happen. The sole question is does a high profile fighter like Till have to die first? Or is temporary blindness sufficient?