Massachusetts Athletic Commission Loses Mind, Pushes Double Weigh-Ins

From a piece on Sherdog:

The newly formed Massachusetts State Athletic Commission has approved placeholder regulations that limit the number of pounds a fighter can gain between a pre-fight weigh-in and fight night.

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The Massachusetts "double weigh-in" provision calls for a fighter to be weighed in no more than 36 hours before his fight and again on the night of the fight. The fighter cannot weigh more than 1.0625 times his initial weight on the second weigh-in.

The formula means the higher the weight, the higher the allowable weight gain. For example, a fighter contracted to fight at 135 pounds can’t come in higher than 143.4375 pounds on fight night, 170 pounders cannot exceed 180.625, 205 pounders cannot exceed 217.8125 pounds, etc.

According to the regulation, fighters who don’t make weight "shall … forfeit the fight and be subject to further penalties and sanctions, including, but not limited to, forfeiture of their purse, a fine, suspension and/or revocation of their license."

The regulation also gives the commission discretion to give a fighter who comes in heavy the chance to lose no more than one percent of his weight. It does not specify how soon before a fight the second weigh-in takes place.

The article does say that this rule could change following a public hearing and advice by medical professionals.

There is a huge concern here where the danger of weight cutting lies in if a fighter is not able to re-hydrate fully before the fight.  Someone getting in the cage or ring with a dehydrated brain is on the short list of things that could result in a combat sports death.  From Sports Injury Bulletin:

‘Changes in the volume of the brain, the intracranial CSF (especially the subarachnoid space) and the intracranial blood may influence the outcome of closed head injuries,’ the researchers explain. ‘After an impact to the head the brain will travel further within the cranium before it meets the skull if the subarachnoid space is enlarged than in the normally hydrated state. Consequently it will accelerate to higher velocities and this may increase the likelihood of contusion injuries after blows to the head such as those sustained in boxing, football and rugby’.

Although the researchers acknowledge that their study was too small to be definitive, they conclude that dehydration causes changes in the volume of intra-cranial compartments that may put sportsmen and women at increased risk of brain damage from contusion injury (bruising) and internal haemorrhage after head injuries.

‘Some sportsmen and women, eg boxers, rugby players and footballers, are especially vulnerable to serious head injuries whilst dehydrated.’

Basically what that says is that if the brain is dehydrated, there is more room in the skull and the brain will travel farther and gain more momentum prior to meeting with the skull.  This, in turn, leads to a higher likelihood of bruising and hemorrhaging in the brain.

So what we have is an increased likelihood that fighters may not rehydrate fully after a weigh-in, or they may start trying to shed some weight prior to the second weigh-in on the night of the fight and without adequate time to recover they could enter a fight while still partially dehydrated.

Also, the idea that the commission would say that they find it acceptable for a fighter to possibly cut up to 1% of their body weight on the night of a fight is insanity.  I do not want to see someone desperately trying to dry their body of .15-.25 pounds shortly before entering the cage.

Hopefully medical professionals can step up and attempt to prevent this method of double weigh-ins.