I'm curious as to why it ever became the norm in boxing to hold the weigh-in a day prior to the fight -- if it is solely for promotion, the sport is doing itself a disservice over something trivial. A lot of fighters of all ages 'weight-drain' now -- you all know what it means and why it's done, it's a procedure that let's you compete in a lighter division by draining your body of fluids and then filling up when fight time draws near. It is, in my opinion, hardest on the older fighters who, when they naturally get bigger with age are forced to move up and meet the oversized young hotshots making a quick run through a division before quickly having to move up when their body fills out the slightest, but meanwhile they have a lot of 'names' under their belt. The older fighters who can't compete are labeled 'shot' and cast aside. Example: Oscar de la Hoya, a 5'11" fighter starting his pro career at super featherweight. If you look at the combined records of his first 10 opponents, you'll be shocked at how many victories and how few losses they have. And he took like 11 of them within 12 months. Very impressive, but it doesn't paint the whole picture. Oscar de la Hoya is an incredibly talented fighter, it's not that just anyone could do it, I'm using an extreme example -- he looked to be fighting his son at times. He dwarfed his opponents, and while Oscar looked drawn and was downed once in the first round (while we later found out he has an excellent chin) by someone who wasn't supposed to, he had enough sheer power and size to dominate his opponents -- even title-holders. The accelerated pace had a purpose -- DLH could not maintain making this weight for long. **** It kind of feels like cheating in a way. Especially when you start comparing to the old days, I'd hae to be honest and say even a green but oversized DLH would spell trouble for almost any Super Featherweight. It's not healthy for the fighters. Accidents could happen. (see Gatti vs Joey Gamache) It doesn't serve any purpose but to cheapen the sport and it could be solved easily. Does this bother anyone else?
Yeah, it does. I want to see competitions, fighters prove themselves. Their intangibles and their skills. Not slaughters because of physical advantages.
I like classic weigh-ins because they're more accurate, plain and simple. If like watching two welterweights fight, not a welter and a middle. Ditto for middles and lightheavies, and every other combination possible. It's also very annoying when you have reports of things like "DLH COMES INTO RING AT 180LBS FOR 154LB FIGHT". It's nice to know what the LEGIT weights are in the ring that night, even if they happen to be mismatched.
Yeah, it's BULL****. Ironically, it was introduced to make fights safer, to stop fighters dehydrating themselves. I think the fighters should weigh in in the ring before the fight. Penalties and contingency plans would have to be worked out in case a fighter doesn't make weight, but I'm sure there are a few workable options. It's getting to the point where the fighters are really two or three divsions bigger than they say they are. A welterweight should be a 147 pound man, not a 163 pounder !
Does anyone remember what fight(s) they started the process of the 24 hour weigh in? Was it a WBC idea?
It is bull****, but it'd be nice to at least know what a fighter really weighed when he stepped into the ring. If fighters weighed in at ringside during their ring walks, even if that wasn't the official weigh-in, we'd at least be able to tell who was fighting way below their weight class.
I think it was a BBB of C idea; and and a good in theory. Personally I think what should happen is there should be a number of weigh ins for big fights; three, two and one week before the fight and finally one on the day of the fight. The weigh ins would have target weight for each fighter to meet, so we know they are not losing a ton of weight for a few days before the fight. For example in a Middleweight fight, three weeks before hand the fights could weigh no more than 172lbs, then two weeks before, 168 then the last week, 164; before finally weighing 160lbs the morning of the fight. Any fight where this not possible (the majority) the weigh in should be on the day of the fight, and the matches should be catchweight, with each match being given the once over by the local commission, to make sure there are no weight mismatches.
The IBF had something were you couldn't be more than 7lbs above the weigh in weight on the day of the fight. I think that maybe a good idea Interestingly P4P no1 Floyd Mayweather has never weight drained and often fought at 10-15lb disadvantage because of that even at his starting weight class of 130 Corrales outweighed him by 10-14lbs
An excellent thread, and I agree with the majority of opinions here. They should just take it back to the old days of weighing in on fight day, plain and simple.
