The dangers of rapid extreme weight cuts played a central role at this year’s Association of Boxing Commissions annual meeting with both medical and legal risks associated with the practice being discussed.
Jeff Novitizky, the UFC’s Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance, noted the following weigh in data (expressed as the percentage of weight over the fighter’s weight class when they arrive at the location of their bout during fight week) showing fighters are losing, on average, 6.2% of their body weight through rapid extreme weight cut measures in the week preceding their bouts.
Medical evidence at the ABC Conference suggested rapid cuts beyond the 5-7% range remain medically dangerous so while there appears to be some improvement since the UFC implemented their weight cut reforms, there still remains work to be done.
