Where Are The Consequences For Not Making Weight?

[KnowledgeKnown]

Interesting article on what some think is a growing problem.

"Zach Arnold of FightOpinion.com, wrote a great article over at MMA Memories about the growing trend of fighters missing weight. It’s obviously becoming a problem for the sport with few consequences for its offenders.

Offender #1 is media darling Gina Carano. A serial offender when it comes to failing to make weight, Ms. Carano missed making weight for her last fight (against Kaitlin Young at Elite XC’s New Jersey event on CBS) by four pounds. Despite losing a small percentage of her fight purse, Carano was not heavily punished for her actions.

Offender #2 is Thiago Alves, UFC’s newest star to try to make waves in the 170 pound division. Except… he couldn’t make weight in his UFC 85 main event fight against the always dangerous and professional Matt Hughes. Alves missed making weight by four pounds and claimed that he hurt his ankle in training, which he says prohibited him from being able to train properly. Alves lost a percentage of his fight purse, but was obviously not heavily punished for his actions.

Offender #3 is the always-entertaining Nick Diaz, a man that Elite XC has spent many months marketing as a cornerstone of their company. Diaz has had quite a colorful career, which includes an encounter with Joe Riggs at a Las Vegas hospital, a failed drug test (marijuana) in the state of Nevada after he fought Takanori Gomi at a PRIDE event, and now an incident in which he failed to make weight for his latest EXC fight (against Muhsin Corbbrey) by more than nine pounds.

Of the aforementioned fighters, Diaz, from the known details, seems to be the only one who handled the situation correctly by approaching his opponent’s camp when he knew he would miss weight to notify them of the situation and offer them a percentage of his purse. That said, missing weight by nine pounds is largely unheard of. Diaz had a huge size advantage in the Corbbrey fight over the weekend, and it’s unfortunate that Corbbrey had to fight with his back against the wall in the biggest fight of his career to date. As unprofessional as Diaz can be, missing weight has never been one of his offenses. I don’t think we’ll see a pattern of this moving forward with him like we’ve seen with Carano and Alves, but he certainly needs to hit 160lbs in his next lightweight fight for EliteXC, or make the permanent move to welteweight.

As much as the fighters are to blame, the promoters and athletic commissions should be held accountable for not taking more action as well. Arnold has laid out a solid plan for dealing with it.

1) If you fail to make weight for one fight, you lose a third of your fight purse and get suspended for three months by the athletic commission.

2) If you fail to make weight for a second fight, you lose half of your fight purse and get suspended for six months by the athletic commission.

3) If you fail to make weight for a third fight, you lose your entire fight purse and get suspended for a full year by the athletic commission.

Ultimately, the ones who are hurt in these situations are the opponents and the integrity of the sport. A change obviously needs to be made."

I didn't write the above, I cut and pasted the article from below link. I do agree with this writers opinion. There should be more serious consequences for offenders.

Where Are The Consequences For Not Making Weight?

[hunterkiller]

It's simple, if you're marketable, there are no punishments (Carrano, Alves, Diaz), and if you aren't, you get the thick side of a back hand. (Lutter, Rudiger)

[Firemass]

This brings up a very good point, put Lutter in and that is far too many high-profile fights where someone is not putting the extra effort in to get in on weight.
In the case of Alves though, if you have an injury (which I see you mentioned) and can only sweat off so much...what can be done? I don't think a suspension would exactly be fair there.

It's at risk of hitting on a grey-area but something needs to be done I do agree

[Frag x 3]

I think if you've failed to make weight for a second time, you shouldn't be allowed to fight that night and you should lose you're "show" money to your opponent. He just collects both of your checks for a night off.

[Dave420]

lol imo those rules are way harsh, most of the time ppl are just barley over their weight.

i think giving a small percent of their purse is enough.

[MYboyBISPING]

Only title fights are affected if someone cant' make weight a la Lutter. But from what i heard is both Carano and Alves had to pay a percentage of their purse to Katlin and Hughes probably like 12% for Katlin and Hughes to agree upon a catch-weight fight.

Plus nobody's gonna train hard for 6-8 weeks before a fight only to walk away because of weight. Its stupid of a fighter that know they will be fighting in 6-8 weeks not to make weight at least in the chao that Nick has started with KJ that Nick did notify the Muhsin Corbbrey camp he will not be making weight.

[Krellek]

how the hell do you miss weight by nine pounds? most of the little guys barely even cut that much total. Diaz probably got stoned and forgot he even had to cut weight

[hunterkiller]

Originally Posted by Firemass

This brings up a very good point, put Lutter in and that is far too many high-profile fights where someone is not putting the extra effort in to get in on weight.
In the case of Alves though, if you have an injury (which I see you mentioned) and can only sweat off so much...what can be done? I don't think a suspension would exactly be fair there.

It's at risk of hitting on a grey-area but something needs to be done I do agree

Lots of fighters get injured during training. No one comes in 100 percent. And Alves has a history of struggling to make weight. If you succumb to an excuse of being injured, tons of fighters are going to fail to make weight because of "injuries." His foot sure looked fine when he loaded that flying knee to Hughes shoulder and when he was dancing like a maniac on the way to the cage.

[Ifightforaliving]

Originally Posted by Krellek

how the hell do you miss weight by nine pounds? most of the little guys barely even cut that much total. Diaz probably got stoned and forgot he even had to cut weight

OK for the last time since people can't read. Nick fought less than 3 weeks ago at 171 he said he had to cut there from 179-180 he had less than 2 weeks to prepare because Gary Shaw wanted him to fight. He took the fight and after a week and a half trying to cut to 160 he failed and notified the camp. He actually said he got down to 165 but once that camp said they were missing weight also they did a catch weight of 168 and he came in at 169 which is the allowed one lb over. His opponent came in at 163.Its really hard to cut twice in 3 weeks to hit a lower weight each time if you don't think so try it. I don't give a fuck about Alves because he had 3 months to prepare. I am not condoning missing weight but he at least has a valid excuse. And I didn't see Alves having a problem walking or jumping in his fight so I don't know. But like I said you can't damn one and praise the other. They both missed,they are both wrong,but Diaz at least did the right thing and he had a valid excuse. Also it was his first time EVER missing weight

[littlequaker]

i really only see this being a problem with gina, the others arent repeat offenders