10 Lessons Learned From UFC 177

6. It's Time To Crack Down On Weight Cutting Period

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH53TtjTue0 Anthony Johnson was once told to cease his weight cut by doctors, or risk damaging his liver. Back in the Olympics, Daniel Cormier had trouble making weight for his wrestling appearance and was lucky to escape with his health. In smaller promotions, fighters have died cutting weight. Yes, died. Leandro "Feijao" Souza died in September 2013 moments before weighing in for a Shooto Brazil event. With Renan Barao's failed weight cut shaking up the UFC 177 card, it's time to crack down on this troubling trend. Fighters will use every advantage they can get to win fights. That includes performance enhancing drugs, which is why they're so rampant, and the UFC is wisely moving to eliminate them from the sport. It also includes weight cuts - fighters will sweat out pound after pound of water weight to make a lower weight class, weighing in the day before, then re-hydrating and putting weight back on before fighting the next day. It lets them fight against smaller guys (though really half of most divisions are probably doing serious cuts), therefore getting an advantage if they're not too fatigued from the cut. It needs to stop. Either have weigh-ins on fight day, have to weigh-ins to monitor fighters progress, have doctor's sign off on an "allowed" weight for each fighter based on some sort of baseline reading, or come up with some other system, but fighter safety needs to come first - even when it's fighters putting themselves at risk.