Massachusetts State Athletic Commission Approves Double Weigh-In Provision

This won’t effect any big name fighters until all the states use this type of weigh in. GSP and Lesnar will just choose not to fight in Massachusetts. I for one like the rule.

If Lesnar is 285 on a fight night this will not effect him much at all. That is only 4 pounds over his max allowed.

It will affect people like GSP though, who is mostly lean muscle mass.

Horrible idea. We just won’t see hardly any top fighters on Mass cards if this rule is in place, since most of them are bigger than these weight limits on fight day.

I personally like something close to this idea, but I’m not sure this is the right way to do it.

What I think is unfortunate is that there isn’t a global standard for this kind of thing. It means guys are essentailly going to fight in different weight classes depending on what event is held where.

It would affect almost all fighters. Virtually every fighter cuts 10+ pounds. GSP, at 185, is an average sized WW.

Also, unless they are weighing them right before the fight, guys will still rehydrate after the second weigh-in.

Tito has talked about putting on 5-8 pounds after same-day weigh-ins.

All the arguments against this are based on fighters being too stupid to put their health first.

Good luck getting promoters to come to the state with that rule.

Could you imagine buying tickets for Lesnar-Mir 3 at the Garden only to discover a few hours before the event that Lesnar had to forfeit due to missing weight? Better yet, imagine being Dana White and losing 500K PPV buys because the Massachusetts commission just declared your main event a forfeit.

Having unified rules is really important for the sport. Whenever I throw MMA on people are always asking about the rules. Can you elbow? Can you headbutt? Eye gouge? Sure the weigh in rule might not be that confusing, but what’s the logical next step? No elbows? Grappling Pants? Soccer Kicks?

We really need consistency.

I think about this a lot: has the skill level gotten to the point where the weight classes are too big? I don’t like the idea of smaller weight classes because it becomes too confusing and there would be a high number of shallow classes rather than a small number of deeper ones, but it seems like someone like Anthony Johnson or GSP has a huge advantage over most people in his weight class (most people, not all people) because of his size.

In the old days, it didn’t matter as much because smaller guys would often be BJJ guys and the bigger fighters didn’t have the skill base to defend subs and use their power to their advantage in every fight. Now that basically everyone has some BJJ defense, the weight classes come more into play. In other words, most people can defend/power out of submissions if they significantly outweigh their opponents, or at least it’s easier.

By this reckoning, the best fights are between people who naturally weigh the same. I think that’s what my fellow Massholes are going for, though I’m not sure how to do it best.

It seems like people like Mir are consciously putting on weight so that they fit a weight class, which may become more and more necessary. Like if I naturally weigh 178 lbs, I try to put on enough muscle to become a big welterweight. Does anyone know if this is common practice.

I guess, like many things, that just kind of sucks.

Leave it to my state to fuck things up, I really hope the UFC gets in these idiots ears and let’s them know just how stupid this is and change it before the UFC decides to put on their first show there.