Pick a side and eloquently state your case in favor of or against same-day weigh-ins.

Spence doesn’t rehydrate close to 170lbs, he’s in the 150’s to low 160s. Golovkin, Jermell, Lara (he could probably diet to 160) etc would go to 168lbs, and the big guys like Benavidez, Morrell, Plant would have to move up atleast to 175. So the size between fighters would definitely shrink. And taller guys would be mainly just that, taller, like Hearns and Fundora, not Zurdo Ramirez or Chavez jnr being straight up 2 weightclasses bigger in your own division.

 

They fought a lot in the 50’s. Nearly every month(though it was slowing down by then). I’d imagine it would be far worse today with how guys dehydrate themselves if they fought that often. Hearns for example is not worse than James Toney. Nvm the big weight cutters who turned into vegetables like Mcclellan, Colon, these guys barely had fights.

 

That's not an argument against same day weigh ins at all, it just highlights how far south of a natural division a fighter is currently able to get away with.

If anything it just underlines everyone else's thoughts on the matter.

If Inoue is naturally a lightweight, then Inoue should fight at lightweight. Tough tits that he is able to cut down to 122 with 24 hours notice.

 

this is my fan's understanding. will be pleased to be enlightened or corrected by greater knowledge/experience:

so they quit doing same day weigh in because the case was made and won that the fighters were not sufficiently rehydrated to ensure that the skulls did contain acceptable fluid levels and therefore the fighters' brains were bouncing around inside more than was acceptable and that decision was good in terms of per capita mortality.

so they decided to make the weigh in the day before and in this way the fighters could rehydrate to the point that their brains were bouncing off bone less and fewer fighters per capita would get killed. do i have that right? makes sense to me in theory.

so now i ask this:

seems to me like boxing at large has progressively made this practice into a science in order for one fighter to gain a size advantage over the other and in this fashion macro safety is dimininshed because you have actual welters fighting actual bantams . so is there still a net health benefit?

i decided to make this post because of how much bigger a man navarette looked when he beat down that poor little ****er he last fought (who never gave up, btw).

 

I vote for the same-day weigh-in. It will make the fighters respect their category, but not play tricks with dehydration just to pass and then regain some good amount of weight, thus having some advantage sometimes. That, I believe, will make things fair and also limit dehydration as a practice because no matter how mastered it is, it carries potential negatives and considering this is a fighting contest, things can become dangerous even.

 

I don't think there's really an easy answer. Both options have their pros and cons.

They switched to day before for health reasons, because fighters were draining themselves to make weight and come in too dehydrated, risking their health. But now we have a scenario where much bigger fighters are fighting smaller ones, which in itself poses possible health risks.

But I don't really think switching back to same day weigh ins will prevent fighters from cutting a lot of weight and blowing up, they'll still cut a ton of weight but just come in more dehydrated risking their health and still be bigger than their naturally smaller opponent, it's just the weight difference won't be as much as before and the bigger fighter now puts their health at risk as well as the smaller fighter he's beating up, so instead of 1 fighter at risk of brain injury you now have 2.

The argument that now bigger supposed weight bullies put their smaller opponents at risk as a reason for switching back to same day weigh ins is problematic because by that rationale that means we should ban fighters with big advantages in weight fighting smaller ones which means we'd never see a fighter like Pac or Duran jump up through weight classes and beat bigger men. Even someone like Hopkins who would weigh in the mid 160's on fight night might be forced to drop a division because the average middleweight probably weighs north of 170 even maybe closer to 180 for some fighters.

I'd also argue that the difference it weight does not give as big as an advantage as we may think. Apparently there was a study done on this in the early 90's which should no advantage the heavier fighter lost just as often as the smaller fighter. Now that was 30 years ago, so a more significant modern and larger study should be done, maybe one of the sanctioning bodies could finally put all that money they make to good use to fund such a study but I doubt that ever happens.

Even if you switched to a system where you could only rehydrate a certain amount the bigger fighter again will just treat that as a 2nd weigh in and come in drained hoping the size difference will offset any impairment in performance and again putting himself at risk.

 

It did, it underlined the exact problem with 24 hour weigh ins.

If Inoue would be a natural 135 pound fighter, and would have to face other natural 135 pound fighters, that's fair. That's tough **** on someone who wants to be a weight bully and fight in a lower unnatural division.

Someone felt bad for Spence earlier because he weighs the same as Golovkin naturally, again, tough ****.

 

Me pik no for 24hr weighns, no good. Me no likem.

 

No don't get me wrong, my core argument isn't against weight bullies. I'm more on the other side of the weight bully argument than you tbh, I was just saying that argument would be moot with same day weigh ins

My main reason for wanting same day weigh ins is because it annoys me when the WW champion is fighting above the MW limit come fight night. It just makes a mockery of the whole weight class.

I just refute the counters such as Inoue is a natural LW, far as I'm concerned that's tough **** he has to deal with it.

 

The 24-hour hydration loophole is as exploited as steroids these days.. you have some Fighters that are rehydrating over 20lbs.. I guess as a CW or HW that is somewhat acceptable but when you have supposed LWs , WWs etc doing it then it almost renders divisions pointless .. take Crawford.. by all accounts the guy starts camp at over 180lbs.. they drop down (with the aid of very clever steroid and diuretic regimes) to WW & all these multi-weights and get passed off as some pound 4 pound multi-weight champion.. when in reality if they were weighing in on the same day Terence Crawford would probably have to fight at MW/SMW .. they take so much off because they know they can rehydrate it back on over 24+ hours.. some Fighters choose not to do this and actually fight at weights closer to their natural frame.. Loma for example.. but just for comparison if loma was doing what Crawford was doing he'd be fighting as a f****** strawweight

 

It's not as simple as you're making it out to be. Lomachenko for example legitimately moved up and fought naturally bigger fighters and is a 3 weight title holder, while other fighters who have also campaigned in 3 weight divisions just moved up closer to their natural weight, the accomplishment is just not worth the same, yet they're making it seem like it is. Also, not all fighters cut such a huge amount of weight as efficiently as the rest, and some end up in horrible condition as a result. This leaves us with the ''weight bullies'' who have a big weight advantage over other fighters while being in top condition, and the drained fighters who are walking corpses. Haney was labelled a weight bully when he fought Lomachenko, but Spence was labelled as drained when he lost to Crawford. No middle ground according to some.

See where the problem lies ? Boxing dicussions are essentialy ruined because of this. A fighter can easily just be labelled a weight bully or drained depending on someone's agenda (Not suggesting that the two cases I mentioned are right or wrong, they're just examples), completely putting aside the truth just for personal convenience. And since this is Boxing, a sport that can be very easy to get attached to its fighters, the real truth becomes overshadowed by an illusion which now everybody believes is real. This always just results in meaningless arguments and false dichotomies, and it's actual poison for the sport.

Personally, I think the best possible action would just be to cut half the divisions and return to the original 8 along with Cruiser. Just abort all the Super/Junior divisions which are only 5-7 (or less) measly pounds apart and just keep Cruiseweight since it's actually needed. Let's see 157 lbs fighters trying to go to 135 instead of 140. That would go well.