Who wins my fantasy middleweight super series?

I'm surprised to learn that about Marvin, as I always looked at him and thought he was about right for a middleweight.

That said, maybe it's just me, but everyone seems to look bigger nowadays.

I mean, I know that, technically, that shouldn't be possible as weight is weight and a 160lber today should be the same as 160lber of 30-40 years ago.

Then again, I guess advances in nutrition, training regimes, sport science, as well as the more sophisticated "performance enhancing accessories" one might find today...ahem...must play some part, right?

 

I think the whole thing is effectively cheating.

Think about it, why would a fighter go through hell, making themselves sick in some cases, so they can make a weight limit?

Well, as you say, they do it so they can then go away and rehydrate over the intervening 24-36 hours, bulk up X amount of pounds, and enter the ring with an advantage.

A man who weighs in at, for argument sake, 147 then ends up being closer to 160 in the ring.

Everyone ends up one division lower than they really should be.

Spence jnr isn't really a welterweight, he's a middleweight - GGG isn't really middleweight he's closer to a light heavyweight...and so on.

The fact is, if fighters weren't allowed to rehydrate - and knew they would have to be on the weight limit 30 minutes before the ring walk - they would simply stop doing it.

They would walk around at their "natural weight" and the weight cutting/rehydration using 147 fighter would simply stay healthy and fight at 160, the 160 at 175 etc...

You wouldn't need to rehydrate because you would be fighting at your healthy, optimal weight and not cutting like a madman to qualify at a lower weight to then balloon up and have an advantage.

Obviously, if both guys are ballooning up it somewhat mitigates the advantage - but what if one guy is a genuine 147 pounder who doesn't need to cut a ton and is not going to bulk up, but his opponent isn't and does?

Now, you've got one guy at 147-148 and the other guy, who spent all yesterday blowing up, is now closer to 160 - and is comfortable at 160.

It's dangerous, more than anything, and is precisely why we are supposed to have weight categories.

I mean, am I aiming totally missing something here?

It's just a lot of posters, when I made a thread about this a year back, seemed unable to see the logic and claimed it would put fighters at risk.

But, how could it?

 

Do you not feel that those things i mentioned, like the improved sport science, training methods, nutrition etc...have had an impact?

 

Dangerous, but only because of the advantage they are trying to gain.

Stop allowing it, and they wouldn't do it - so it ceases to be dangerous.

 

Exactly, mate.

People wouldn't be able to cut weight to make a weight class simply to blow up and gain an advantage, so they would stop doing it.

There isn't a safety issue because everyone would simply fight at their real weight, without the dangerous cutting and then ballooning up.

That can't be healthy.

I've seen footage of some fighters, including those in MMA, making themselves ill, life deaths door sick, barely able to walk unaided, pale, gaunt.

For what?

To gain an advantage.

End it, and they wouldn't make themselves sick cutting weight.

I really don't know why it isn't the way it's down.

Having a weight class that only applies to a fighter 24hrs before a fight is simply illogical.

 

Oh, I don't doubt it, mate.

 

What do you dislike about him, mate?