Day Before Weigh-Ins: A Failed Experiment

That's the point. These guys wouldn't be "drained" and would need to weigh in at their "natural fighting weight." They would have to be a complete idiot to come in dehydrated on the day of the fight. If you need to dry out like a raisin to make the weight, MOVE UP!!!!

No more cheating the scales. I completely agree with the OP and have felt this way for a long time.

 

:deal

 

:good

 

I'd like same day weigh ins too. I don't think the sport has gotten safer. It's just added another dimension to cheating. Everyone is playing all kinds of weight tricks with IVs and such.

 

Yep bring them back. Tired of all these weight drainers boiling down to pick on naturally smaller men.

 

Or a poor ass Indonesian fighting at minimumweight who spends a whole day spitting in a bucket in a sauna.
Boxers don't always decide in what weightclass they fight.
Sad, but true.

 

Many boxers abuse the change, taking it as an invitation to drain their bodies to an unhealthy degree in order to make a weight that is inappropriate for their age and body size. After the weigh-in, these emaciated fighters chug down large quantities of fluids and stuff themselves with food to a point where they are often a division or more over the contracted weight by fight time.

 

I think Canelo Alvarez is the biggest abuser of the weigh ins.

 

The improper use of diuretics and laxatives can also be extremely detrimental to metabolism and body chemistry, as are extended stints in the steam room. It's a dangerous game, and fighters who practice extreme weight-cutting techniques are literally flirting with death.

Chad Dawson used laxatives for 1 week before the weigh in for the Andre Ward fight. He was literally blasting water out his azz so he could make 168.

 

Why not keep the day before weigh in, but implement 30 day and 7 day weigh ins, with strict weight limits and stiff penalties ie forfeiture of a percentage of the purse to your opponent should you come in overweight at any point. Add in a rehydration limit with similar strict limits and penalties. Surely that would be a step in the right direction, and force fighters to stay closer to their fighting weight, or be hit where it hurts, the wallet.

 

Wouldn't that just encourage weight cutting before each weigh-in? :?

 

Not if the limits for weigh in is rigid, and the penalties stiff. 30 days out likely being the key. Say 168 max at 30 days for a 160 fight. The body has a full month then to adjust to being well within a weight that can be cut more safely.

 

Yes, but that only works if you weigh them every day for 30 days.

Otherwise, like I say, they'll simply cut weight every time they're weighed.

 

How so? I totally understand what your are saying btw. But, if you know that you will fight at 160 pounds....will be weighed at 30 days out and required to be 168, then again at 7 days out and required to be 162, and at 160 the day before.....no sane athlete is going to yo yo up and down in weight during the 3 weeks in between the 30 and 7 day weigh in. It would most likely be a detriment to their condition, cause some metabolic damage, sap their strength etc etc. Where a gradual boil to the regulated limits wouldn't. If that type of yo-yo'ing does indeed happen then do 30, 15, 7 and day before. Arbitrary numbers aside, the point is ultimately leveling the field and getting away from the massive cutters, and also long term health of the fighters, since large frequent cuts are damaging on several levels. Making the weight limits at the set days a reasonable number, relatively close to the weightclass max, and then a gradual progression to the final weigh in, plus a rehydration limit, with purse forfeiture percentages that actually are a deterrent to being overweight would be a step in the right direction, in my opinion at least.

 

:good