Why are performance enhancing drugs illegal, not only in law but also in competition? Performance enhancers are illegal because if left unchecked, it would lead to athletes believing that they needed to take these drugs to "keep up" with their competitors. Simply put, if there were no regulations, a fighter may believe that he needs to take these drugs so that his opponent does not have an advantage.

FACT: MOST FIGHTERS BELIEVE THAT THEY NEED TO CUT WEIGHT TO ENTER A LIGHTER WEIGHT CLASS, SO THAT THEIR COMPETITORS DO NOT HAVE AN ADVANTAGE.

This belief is clearly evident in professional boxing and professional MMA where a fighter can completely dehydrate himself a day prior to competition and have enough time to rehydrate for the fight. Given enough time, fighters believe that the advantage received from fighting in a lower weight class exceeds the risk of a poor performance associated with the trauma of this weight loss. 

I am alleging that this practice of cutting weights puts fighters into the same position as performance enhancing drugs. It is either risk your health by severly dehydrating yourself to maximize your size advantage or risk being defeated by a more motivated dehydrator.

MMA should not be anything more than a physical competition between two athletes in a cage or a ring. The advantages that these fighters hope to bring to the event should come from training, enhancing their skills, their mind, and their heart. I do not believe that this should be a competition of weight cutters, a competition of dehydrators. For this process of dehydrating can be no less damaging than "performance enhancing drugs." It is a performance enhancing process, that has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FIGHT and puts the fighters health in jeopardy.

True champions have, and will continue to, transcended weight classes. The cream will rise to the top. Let us as fans ask the regulators to BAN DAY BEFORE WEIGH-INS and ask that the fighters weigh in the day of the fight, hours before. Let us ask that the fighters compete at a weight they are comfortable with rather than risk their health "cutting weight." Let us add a 230 weight class so that the Rich Franklins of the world feel safe to fight at 205, the Thiago Alves of the world feel better fighting at 185, the Sean Sherks of the world fighting at 170, and the Urijah Fabers fighting at 155.

Can you dig it?