Last Sunday at the UFC tournament there was a fight between not the very top opponents — Cody Durden and Jake Hadley. The fight went the full distance and ended with Durden winning by unanimous decision.
Why did Hadley lose the fight?
After the fight, Hadley, who was considered the favorite, admitted that he experienced serious problems in the preparation process:
“Lost a fight, a few things went wrong, I almost died during a weight cut, I saw God for a second. I was unable to recover and felt that it greatly affected my performance. Anyone who knows me will confirm that I never run out of steam that quickly.”
Weight cutting in MMA is a complex process: fighters lose up to 20 kilograms before a fight (some even more), coming to the weigh-in dehydrated. They dry out and flush out all the water from the body, and after the weigh-in they gain kilograms, entering the fight noticeably heavier (up to 10+ kg).
Hadley competes in the flyweight division, where the weight limit is 57 kg. Often bantamweight fighters come here who want to be larger than their opponents.
For example, this is what former UFC champion TJ Dillashaw did, who pulled off one of the craziest weight cuts in the history of the promotion when he decided to fight Henry Cejudo. Things didn’t go according to plan, and TJ was knocked out in the first round.
“I overestimated myself. I was sure that I could easily lose weight, because it was quite easy for me in the bantamweight division. I started to abuse my body. After six weeks, I began to break down, get tired, and could not get up for training.
Doctors checked everything on me, thousands of tests. My body eventually broke down and I started taking an illegal drug. But I didn’t use it to improve my skills, just to survive,” Dillashaw recalled.
Why are weight lifters dangerous?
Weight loss is, first of all, a process of dehydration of the body. The task of a fighter in a training camp is not only to prepare for an opponent, but also to shed extra pounds. This is a serious stress for the body, which tests the character and discipline of the athlete.
But sometimes even this is not enough, and fighters end up in the hospital, unable to withstand the weight loss. After all, their health is tested for strength — from the digestive to the cardiovascular system. Blood pressure drops, neuronal connections are weakened, and beneficial microelements are washed out along with sweat.
Fighters take a conscious risk by lifting a lot of weight, which can have serious health consequences. They come to the weigh-in exhausted, sometimes they cannot move without the help of their team, and some fall unconscious.
There are many such examples, and each time they provoke talk that the weighing system in MMA needs to be changed. For example, weigh-in immediately before the fight, and not the day before — so that the participants do not have time to gain weight.
Khabib Nurmagomedov is a great champion who has lifted a lot of weight. He was once hospitalized before another attempt to fight Tony Ferguson. The Russian fighter’s kidneys failed, and, as it turned out, these were the consequences of heavy weight cutting.
Find out more about how MMA fighters cut weight in our material.