(repost from classic forum for a broader response) 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?
I'd have to agree, it would be much safer if everyone competed at their optimum weight, get rid of as much body fat as is healthy and weigh in as is. Brain injuries are worse when dehydrated.
one thing I've never done in any of my fights. alot of people in alot of combat sports (wrestling and boxing specificly) do this and I'm not sure it actualy helps like they think it does. my grandpa and I would always just get into really good shape and THATS the weight I would fight at. I always felt totaly healthy and it helped alot. Hopkins did the same thing at middle weight,look at his middleweight resume:deal
To make weight and the ability to rehydrate has become one of boxing's most important weapons/abilities. For example: Taylor, Pavlik and Abraham all walk around with a weight between 180-190 - they are natural lhw. With same day weigh-in they wouldn't fight at middleweight but at super middleweight. So the weigh classes just don't fit anymore compared to fighter's real weights...
Wrong, were did you hear that? Nowadays, Hopkins might fight at his natural weight but not when he was the king at 160...
when he was middleweight champ he never got above 170-175. only haveing 10-15 pounds of extra weight isnt much at all. when he was in the gym he would spend the last few months at 165-ish
It's not really cheating as every fighter does it nowadays, and if not then they're idiots asking to get their ass beat by a bigger fighter.
Ya, idiots like Floyd Mayweather who go undefeated and dominate much larger people, right? As Floyd says, "Skill pay the bills", and that's the bottom line. I would prefer same-day weigh-ins, but that would hardly be fair to the people Floyd would decimate if they actually weighed the same as he does.
But do you realize it is snowballing? There will come a time when a better boxer with great skills is overwhelmed by another fighter simply because he fights at an improper weight for his body-frame. Look at Juan Diaz at Lightweight -- a good champion at his natural weightclass. Now a young DLH barges in. Gone is his title. It won't be long before money-hungry promoters use a mixture of weight-draining their fighter and older, smaller 'name' fighters to make money off prospects who never had the natural ability to come that far. If the rule stays, it will be more and more widespread.
Not necessarily. It depends if they keep pushing the weigh-ins back further and further. If they are kept around one day, you can only weight drain so much... and it does have an impact on performance the following day. If weigh-ins start going to two or three days, that will be crazy. I agree though, same-day weigh-ins are the way.
the mancini-kim tragedy helped spear the change. lots of guys have benefited from it (dlh, g-man, paz, williams, chico, gatti, etc...), to the best of our knowledge they're not breaking the rules, but i don't really like it either.
