Serhiy Sidey poses for the cameras during his weigh-in ahead of his BTC 4 fight vs. Avinash Chowtee on November 23, 2018. Sidey claims to have never lost more than six pounds of water weight following a weight cut. (Credit: BTC Fight Promotions)
It’s a question that still divides mixed martial artists.
You would think that the worst part of being a professional mixed martial artist is actually stepping into the cage and fighting another human being. After all, few people would prefer to eat punches and takedowns for a living.
But for many MMA fighters, the real fight is preparing for weight cuts.
“Weight cuts are always the worst part,” said Adam Assenza, a 31-year-old MMA fighter. “Fighting is the fun part, weight cuts are the crappy part.”
Assenza is a professional MMA athlete, currently fighting in the Lightweight division for BTC Fight Promotions. He holds a win-loss-draw record of 10-5-0, and he’s getting ready to fight in BTC 7: Annihilation in Ottawa on August 24th.
As with most of his other fights, Assenza is planning on weight cutting to prepare for the weigh-in.
“I usually walk around at 185 (lbs) and I fight at 155,” he said. “I’ll get down to about 175, and then I’ll cut 15 to 20 pounds of water the week of the fight.”
Weight cutting is done by fighters in order to qualify themselves to fight in a lower weight class. The process of weight cutting often involves the fighter dehydrating themselves through hot baths, saunas, and layers of towels during the days leading up to an official weigh-in.
“Most of the athletes will train at the weight they want to fight at,” said Dr. Shelby Karpman, an Edmonton-based doctor. “Once they stop training and get ready for the fight, they basically dehydrate themselves to get down to the weight they want to fight at.”
Dr. Karpman is part of the University of Alberta’s Glen Sather Sports Medicine Clinic. He has had his medical license since 1989. He has also been the medical supervisor for more than 200 fight cards since 1992. He says that he’s seen fighters lose tens of pounds in a matter of days thanks to weight cuts.
“30 pounds would be excessive, but we’ve certainly seen guys lose 20 pounds in a few days,” he said.
Weight cutting is not an easy, lose-weight-quick scheme, though. It takes a very stressful toll on a fighter’s body, and it can sometimes damage vital organs.
“Weight cutting taxes your kidneys dramatically,” he said. “Your kidneys are basically shutting down because there’s no fluid.”
This has resulted in some fighters being unable to fight.
“I remember one fight in particular, a guy didn’t show up for his fight,” he said. “I asked what went on and they said right after, he had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital and he needed dialysis because his kidneys completely shut down.”
Bad weight cuts can also result in fighters losing a lot of nutrients, including potassium. Because potassium is involved in smooth muscle movement, Dr. Karpman says that if a fighter’s potassium levels drop too low, their bowels will not be able to function.
“I’ve seen a case – and this is many years ago with extreme weight cutting – where a fighter’s bowels stopped working,” he said. “The fighter was taken to the hospital and the surgeon that he saw wanted to operate on him because he thought he had a [bowel] obstruction.
“I had to convince the surgeon to wait 24 hours, and I said that this is because the guy had lost all of his potassium. His bowels were paralyzed.”
Even if a fighter is lucky enough not to damage their kidneys or bowels, the pain of a weight cut is still an agonizing experience.
“It’s just very painful and not fun at all,” Assenza said. “It’s an uncomfortable feeling to be in for a period of time.
“You’re going to feel extreme fatigue, extreme dehydration, and you’re going to feel dizzy.”
The probability of experiencing these health scares has deterred some fighters from engaging in massive weight cuts. 23-year-old Featherwight fighter Serhiy Sidey, for example, has never cut more than six pounds of water weight due to the fear of seriously harming his body.
“I’ve seen my friends cut too much weight and get sick the day of the fight,” he said. “So yeah, that definitely discourages me.
“I’m already sacrificing my body enough in the cage. I don’t need to jeopardize my health by cutting too much water weight and messing it up.”
Sidey, who will also fight at BTC 7: Annihilation, believes that his small weight cuts actually give him an advantage in his fights.
“I haven’t been the bigger guy in most of my fights, but I always feel like I perform better,” he said. “I feel at 100% optimal health when it’s time to fight, and I feel like that’s a big, big difference compared to some of my opponents who might cut a lot more weight.”
From a medical perspective, weight cutting seems like a pointless experience to put one’s body through, due to there being no medical benefit to the practice.
“The vast majority of what you lose is water, and you’re putting a stress on the system losing that amount of weight in that short period of time,” Dr. Karpman said. “In a very short period of time, other than fighting at a lower weight class, there are no benefits to weight cutting.”
Sidey agrees.
“They think that there’s going to be an advantage. They think they’re going to be the bigger person,” he said. “But, from what the science shows and from what the experience shows, I truly think that weight cutting is not beneficial.”
Dr. Karpman questions why fighters even weight cut in the first place.
“If you’re fighting a guy at 175, but you need to get down to 160 to fight in a lower weight class, you’re both going to be losing weight to fight in that lower weight class,” he said. “But by the time the fight comes, you’re both going to be over 175. So, why aren’t you both just fighting at the 175 weight class?”
Assenza argues that the reason fighters don’t go up in weight class is due to the physical disadvantage they’ll be put at compared to the other regulars in the higher weight classes.
“As you go up in weight class, the guys get bigger, taller, longer, and so on,” he said. “I’m only about 5 ft 7, 5 ft 8. For me, I fought at 170 a few times. I fought a guy at 6 ft 3 at 170, and it’s definitely advantageous for the taller guy.”
Dr. Karpman remains unconvinced.
“People think they have an advantage, but your opponent is doing the same thing you are. So, I’m not sure where the advantage is,” he said.
But as long as most fighters are doing it, Dr. Karpman believes that weight cutting will exist.
“I think the culture is, if you lose all of that weight and then you gain it all back, you’re going to have an advantage over your opponent and you need that advantage,” he said.
That’s why Dr. Karpman believes that the first step to eliminating extreme weight cutting is through mandating new rules that limit the percentage of weight a fighter can cut off.
“That culture change may very well be bringing in rule changes that say that this is the maximum [percentage of weight you can cut],” he said. “And I think the fighters will be OK with that; if you brought in a rule change that said this is all you can do.”
Sidey is on board with this idea.
“If weight cutting was completely gone, I would have zero problems with that,” he said. “I would actually quite enjoy that.”
Ultimately, while the process is uncomfortable and questionable, Assenza believes that if a fighter pays attention to detail, a weight cut shouldn’t impact their performance.
“If you’ve done your homework and you’ve eaten the meals that you need to eat and done what you need to do to have your body as healthy as possible leading up to the weight cut, the weight cut shouldn’t be an issue at all,” he said.