Carano's Bargain

by jemaleddin on Jun 1, 2008 1:22 PM EDT

I think a lot of people are missing something in the Gina Carano weigh-in scandal. Yes, she failed to make weight, but she also failed to try to make weight. 3.5 pounds (or 3 pounds depending on if the clothing rule is true) is a lot to lose at that weight (and yes, weight is a more difficult thing to manage for women in general - not being sexist, just being realistic), but she probably could have done it. Since she had the deal in place to trade those 3.5 pounds for an eighth of her purse even before she went to the weigh-in, she had time where she could have been cutting weight that she instead spent cutting a deal.

I'm guessing that the thinking went something like this: Carano could attempt the cut and end up weakened in mind and body which would mean risking her win bonus - and therefore a full half of her pay. Or she could save herself a miserable cut and just get to where she could on the scale but come in as fresh and strong as possible, all for an eighth of her pay. That means making 75% more than if she lost the fight.

And I'd call that a pretty savvy deal.

Yes, you can argue that it would be better for her to have made weight. But was that a realistic option? Should she have spent the limited training time she had focusing on sharpening up her striking and jiu-jitsu, or going on a "Crash" (pardon the pun) diet? Now that we know the pressure she was under in having to agree to take this fight in order to keep her job with NBC, and recognizing that we don't know everything else going on in her personal life that might have been affecting her weight, it's easy to see that while the choice she made wasn't ideal, it may have been the smartest economic move available to her.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.

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Comments

Valid Analysis

What you’re saying is right on. If this is the case, then the weight limit should be enforced differently. I mean, the limit is there for a reason. If the fighters don’t abide by it, what is the point of having it? It just becomes some irrelevant number. In this scenario, Carano was buying some extra pounds which was to her advantage. She was certainly getting paid quite a bit more than Young last night. What if Young was overweight? She would probably been less willing to buy the extra pounds with her smaller bankroll. This is assuming that Carano and the powers that be would have let her make this same deal.

I really like Gina Carano, but she has to make weight. This kind of thing makes MMA look less legitimate. Of course, this is EliteXC. It doesn’t look all that legit at the moment anyway. I think they should at least start incrementally taking a bigger percentage of her purse. Maybe they should even take up to 50% of her win bonus if she wins.

by Cannon Jacques on Jun 1, 2008 2:34 PM EDT reply actions