Many combat sports fans have a rough answer when it comes to what a weight cut is, but if you were to ask a fighter after they’ve spent three days sweating, they’d give you a very different answer.
The weight cut is widely practised, but also one of the least understood rituals in combat sports.
What is a Weight Cut?
To begin with, you firstly need to understand that there’s two weights a fighter has. Their walking weight, what they carry around day to day, and secondly, their fighting weight.
The gap between those numbers is what the weight cut will address before a fight.
A fighter will manipulate that gap in the days before a weigh-in, and they do that by water loss. This means restricting fluid intake, using saunas to sweat out fluids and wearing sweat suits while training.
The scale at which these are done can be frightening for those not familiar. It’s not unusual to see cuts of 10% or more in the days before a weigh-in.
A fighter with a walking weight of 185lb may compete at 170lb. As soon as the weigh-in is complete, the rehydration process begins. This window of opportunity could be anything from a few hours up to 24 hours.
The Fighters Dilemma
The weight cut is not a bad habit, it is a rational response to the structure of fighting that has existed for generations.
Should individual fighters opt out, they know they’ll put themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
For anyone following the sport through the Combat Press MMA Rankings, it is worth remembering that every fighter listed, from heavyweight down to flyweight, is operating within this same framework.
The rankings reflect performance in competition, but competition happens at the end of a process that starts long before fight night.
It is also a factor worth considering for those using free bets UK offers to wager on combat sports events.
A fighter who has struggled to make weight, missed the scale, or rehydrated in a compressed window may not be the safe pick the odds suggest.
Why Fighters Do It
The logic of this is very easy to see and understand. If you can drain down your body to a lower weight class, then rehydrate back up to the original weight, you will walk into the cage or ring as the bigger, stronger and heavier fighter.
With so many fighters doing it now, it’s actually on the verge of being something you must do to keep up, rather than something to do as an advantage.
Research published in the journal Sports by Barley, Chapman and Abbiss at Edith Cowan University noted that many fighters also consider the weight cut a psychological necessity.
It is as much a part of fight preparation as sparring, providing a sense of control and discipline in the weeks before competition.
What Happens to the Body?
During a severe water cut, blood plasma volume in the body drops, which reduces the heart’s ability to pump blood efficiently to your muscles.
One concern highlighted in the Edith Cowan research involves the brain specifically.
Severe dehydration causes the brain to lose volume and pull slightly away from the skull, increasing the space between brain tissue and the cranium wall.
A blow to the head in that state carries a heightened risk of concussion injury, since the brain has more room to move inside the skull.
The same research noted that shortening the time between weigh-in and competition could impair recovery from rapid weight loss and increase that risk during the bout itself.
The rules are tightening, and the science is getting louder. But as long as weight classes exist and fighters are motivated to compete bigger than they weigh in, some version of the cut will remain part of the sport.