it's the 11th of December 2015 Yang Xian Bing is cutting weight before his MMA flyweight matchup in a top fight promotion he is more than likely using one of the more conventional methods of weight cutting to reach the 125 lbs required to make weight each method designed to extract every last drop of expendable water out of the human body the pitter patter of sweat drops against a hotel saer room floor from Yang's increasingly dehydrated body he then suddenly begins to feel faint short of breath numbness in the face this isn't normal this isn't like the countless other growling voluntary weight Cuts he has experienced before he is having a stroke his cornermen call off the weight cut and in a panic he has rushed to the ER where he undergos extensive rehydration through the use of IVs his family receives bedside updates on his condition but he is slipping away he had taken the weight cut too far and he has pronounced dead from heart failure a direct result of dehydration and heat stroke all in an effort to make weight for a fire from a leading organization's battle against this intrinsic problem to Chris cyborg crying in a scolding hot bath and TJ draining down to the very bone I I got no body fat the fact is this sport has put an emphasis on taking any action necessary in order to gain marginal advantages against opponents I want to take the next 30 minutes to tell you the worst weight cutting stories this sport has known The Haunting and disturbing skeletons that emerg the other side of this process and I also want to explore the psychology of why athletes feel the risk is so worth it in the pursuit of Combat Sports [Music] greatness I want to start this video with perhaps one of the most infamous weight Cuts in MMA history not only because it serves as a great example of what the rest of this video will discuss but because it paints a very Grim picture of what this subject entails so allow me over the next 5 minutes to discuss the very dark and disturbing story of one athletes descent into weight cutting hell the story starts in the wake of Demetrius Johnson's departure from the UFC a man who had dominated the flyweight division for over a decade the UFC had in their eyes finally rid themselves of a man who single-handedly stunted the growth of the division he ruled over who knew being the best in the world was a bad thing it left the newly crowned Henry cejudo merrily at the top of the 125s TJ Dillashaw the reigning bantamweight champion in the division above had been begging to take on DJ in a champ versus champ super fight for almost a year but DJ had felt that there was no upside for him and no money on the table so refused to take the fight but with the belt now firmly around Henry's waist and DJ ostracized from the company the UFC got their way and the champ versus champ super fight was put together dropping down a weight class in attempt to become a double Champion is a particularly incredible feat on TJ's part considering most athletes choose to go up in weight when attempting to solidify a legacy scarer too was the fact that TJ was already a shredded 135 pounder seemingly no spare flesh to shed naturally when the fight was announced the first cloud of Doubt over the matchup was whether it was even possible for TJ to make the way in the first place it was reported that even at his walkaround weight of over 150 lb TJ was just 8% body fat there was over 25 lb to lose and no room to budge TJ despite the lingering question marks upon his overzealous plight into the realm of starvation Would Waltz into a 12we long arduous training camp one that would strip away the weight required to meet the limit and supposedly at the same time make him a more effective Fighter the footage that came out of this Camp was worrying to say the least it again despite the horrific nature of a gaunt and chiseled TJ the man himself couldn't have been more positive about the numbers that he was generating and his health leading into fight week I got stronger I was putting up more weight so the last week before I left before my fight I was snatching and cleaning uh more weight than my last Cody fight and I was lighter so my power ratio was insane it almost is unheard of a cloud of hot Steam condensates on a plane of glass warm streaks of water droplets split through the murky coating giving onlookers a glimpse at an eerie fac of a man TJ was hunched over bones protruding through Tan's skin it was the most important part of fight week the day before weigh-ins and TJ was cutting every last droplet of water he could from his increasingly dehydrated body I got no body fat [ __ ] 24.6 in a surprise to almost every fight fan TJ would step onto the scales forcing A Smile as he miraculously made the seemingly impossible flyweight limit and well it didn't need stating that he looked horrendous frail and unbelievably skinny whilst it was strange seeing such a wasted TJ he still had another 24 hours to hydrate and to return to some level of normaly before the fight there were huge question marks over what his performance might look like inside of the eight walls of chain link fence but we were soon to find [Applause] [Music] out it's time the bantamweight champion of the world the Challenger TJ you [Applause] got be Undisputed [Music] UFC after 12 weeks of a ruthless and draining weight cut in the pursuit of double Championship status TJ Dilla would be knocked out in just 30 seconds as he as he stepped into the Octagon that fateful night it was unmistakable to onlookers that he was not the ruthless killer that once dominated the 135 pound division despite TJ's claims of Peak Performance during training camp he appeared diminished smaller slower and alarmingly fragile it was even harder still trying to draw up any reasonable argument as to why this was all even worth it in the first place the toll on his body was evident likely shaving off years of his life in the ambitious yet punishing pursuit of Combat Sports greatness what psychological impetus drove TJ to conceive of a reality where he could safely make weight I guess we will never know but the truth soon to follow would clear up a fair amount of the lingering questions if you you don't know what we're talking about TJ Dillashaw tested positive for injectable EPO which is a serious performance-enhancing substance let's start off first and foremost I cheated right I just I don't want to run around that that's why even I announced it when you saw it was coming out like I didn't want to like create excuses it was like look this is what this is it I I I did it man it's it's it's hard not to not to hate yourself a little bit you know if TJ is to be taken at his word then his weight cut during fight Camp would be so extreme that he would become anemic from there he would seek out medication in order to combat his failing Health this said medication would have EPO within it a ban substance the same one that is most infamous in the world of cycling being linked to the Lance Armstrong Scandal TJ's descent into darkness was the direct consequence of his self-inflicted weight cut his subsequent peed use only exasperated the situation driven by a desperation to gain an unfair Advantage when his body was incapable of naturally making weight even with ban substances cing through his veins his condition on weigh-in day teet on the edge of disturbing and to me this first example of weight cutting going wrong will always stick my head not only because of the footage of TJ cutting weight that arises such visceral feelings but the fact that this whole thing was inspired simply so that TJ could claim another belt and call himself a double Champion that desire and that second belt so alluring that he put his body on the line and succumb to the siren song of cheating cheating in a sport where combatants are asked to literally put their brains on the line for the sake of entertainment this whole situation raises a fundamental question that Echoes throughout the rest of this video is the pursuit of victory at any cost especially weight cutting truly worth it TJ took himself down a path that would ultimately tarnish his legacy and it's a story that paints a detailed picture of the forces that rip and pull at these athletes greatness competition money Fame Legacy all a cacophony of painful thoughts circulating the minds of the world's greatest combatants it's really no wonder they feel so compelled to take such drastic actions when so much is on the line by the time TJ Dillashaw was suspended he had participated in over 20 MMA fights and countless wrestling competitions in his youth another sport that has equally High pressures on its practitioners to shed weight a multiple decade long career where he had been requ required to maintain a specific weight and so unwittingly the child that ran enthusiastically to wrestling practice was hurtling headlong into some rather disturbing psychological damage a life dedicated to the meticulous study of One's Own weight before we get to why athletes feel forced to cut weight I want to First explore one of the negative side effects of this process in this next segment I'll be discussing some negative mental health topics regarding body image and weight so consider this a warning if you want to use the timestamps to skip forward the culture of weight cutting often Fosters disordered eating behaviors among Combat Sports athletes the pressures of making weight can compel athletes to resort to Extreme Measures such as severe calorie restriction fasting or purging in a desperate bid to meet the required weight limit these maladaptive behaviors not only compromise athletes physical health but also contribute to the development of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa bmia nervosa and Bing eating disorder beyond the weight cut and fight camp athletes will continue to needlessly restrict calories or perhaps more infamously go the other way entirely overeating to the extreme all the constraint and limitation of fight Camp finally releases its grip and the athlete descends rather sadly into binge eating Patty pimer has been widely discussed as a victim of this perhaps because his overeating is more so obvious on his frame so obvious in fact that his glorified post-fight weight gain has become a part of his personality his most viewed videos on on his YouTube channel derived from him treating his overindulgence as a spectacle the sad fact is that this is symptomatic of an eating disorder one that has developed over years of trying to meet lightweight from his walkaround weight of 185 really I'm not mess I genuinely think I'm a food think I've got a little bit I think I've got a bit of an eating disorder because of because of MMA sha Mal's own experiences shed light on why this happens to combat athletes the reason Patty the bades gets as big as he is cuz it's like you get this dis mental disorder IE strict as [ __ ] for about 10 weeks before that fight I was just eating so clean to where right after it's like I'll order two cheeseburgers a [ __ ] some appetizers and just eat until I'm so uncomfortable that's a lot dude it's sad it's like that's not but it is it it gives you this mental disorder from eating dude I see Fighters at the [ __ ] breakfast buffet eating P like eating shitty fight day cuz they made wait after the after WS that night they're eating shitty they I keep it clean eating disorder from cutting weight is a real [ __ ] problem weight Cuts happen twice or three times a year for most athletes meaning that eating a more healthy set of meals where nutrition and calories have a magnifying glass placed over it happens in short periods rather than being a lifestyle it's more of a cycle than anything so it's easy to see why a lot of MMA Stars fluctuate so heavily between Camp they don't see the need to maintain a healthier outlook on food beyond their 8 to 12 week camps this is juxtaposed with other sports where being more holistic about food and nutrition is seen in Long 9mon Seasons or even just year round therefore these bad relationships with food don't manifest so easily it's also no surprise that post longer growling career inside of the ring or octagon a disproportionate amount of these athletes gain massive amounts of weight those training camps and weight management periods a distant memory all that is left is to enjoy the very thing that was controlled for so long the psychological effects of weight class restriction extend beyond the Octagon in more ways than just eating disorders however that fixation on weight management and Body Image can consume athletes thoughts and emotions many athletes struggle with feelings of guilt shame and isolation as they grapple with the stigma associated with their body size and shape this struggle with body image is pushed further into darkness by the culture of MMA as a whole where a lack of knowledge and open discussion on this topic leads to insensitivity surrounding it I'm going to use my YouTube Buddy TJ loves fights as an example in this next bit he's a great YouTuber and puts out almost weekly content and is an all around good dude before talking about this next clip I reached out and asked if it was okay first and foremost and he agreed I want to absolutely say I'm not calling him out or anything like that I'm simply making a point about something I've personally been guilty of and something that making this video has taught me doesn't help the situation so in a video by TJ on the issue of athletes gaining weight after fights and in retirement he titled thumbnailed and and started the video with terminology that wasn't the greatest and in that very video he was showered with comments of people reflecting on their own issues with weight weight cutting body image and the psychological toll that comes with it and so imagine you're a person suffering with body image disorders and my boy TJ starts the video light-heartedly calling athletes who inspire you and you see yourself in fat as a joke when Fighters don't fight they can get really really fat and when I mean fat I mean fat I'm not saying we need to cushion the world and make everything safe for everyone but what I am saying is when discussing these topics or shining a light on them we all need to understand that specific terminology exasperates the issue I'm not calling TJ out I'm saying that this video shows we're all guilty of insensitivity because when I watched it a year ago without the research I've done now I didn't even blink an eye this is the world that those who serve Combat Sports live in a world with their body and size is under scrutiny memd and laughed about almost every second of their life whether it's their own mind social media social influencers or the very culture of the sport itself Paddy a man who clearly suffers uses it as a marketing tool which is just well ironic it's content that enables justifies and distorts and you can imagine that this relationship with food reaches its most destructive mentally during the waning weeks and days leading into the fight that looming Spectre of weigh and day Heralds in with it psychological distress and anxiety all in fear of failing to make weight the anticipation of the weigh in process can trigger intense feelings of apprehension dread and panic leading to heightened stress levels and emotional instability athletes may experience a pervasive sense of pressure and performance anxiety which can impair their ability to focus concentrate and perform at their Peak all during the most Vital hours leading into perhaps the biggest fight of their lives truly the final frontier in more ways than one the psychological toll of weight management in Combat Sports cannot be overstated athletes navigate a mindfield of body image Distortion disordered eating behaviors and psychological distress as they strive to meet weight requirements and Excel in their sport those people who treat Paddy as a spectacle or brush off his weight fluctuations as some kind of light-hearted meme worthy content are sadly missing a darker truth a truth that has buried its teeth deep into the sport the unfortunate fact is the men who take to the cage are more than likely the exact same ones who feel they are too tough to talk about these issues therefore it's no wonder this topic is left at the Shadows positive men mental health and a more holistic approach to Weight Management are important issues to be addressed and I feel like the more athletes like sha and Patty who talk about these things the more exposure it gets which can help amateurs newcomers and those Pros who feel like they are alone from TJ's descent into ill health hell to the long- lasting psychological trauma seen in pad and sha the question remains present why weight cut at all well the most obvious answer to that as simple as it is are the existence of weight classes unsurprisingly size and weight are some of the biggest advantages one athlete can have over another in the world of combat and when you are dealing with the most skilled practitioners in the world it only makes sense to have them face opponents who are of similar stature so that it becomes more about the Fighter's skill openweight tournaments worked originally when the sport was starting out only because expertise and knowledge was not as distilled as it is now which allowed room for the likes of the Gracies to be able to take on men much bigger than themselves but in the modern times while the consensus greatest fighter of all time Demetrius Johnson would more than likely get demolished by probably any of the heavy weights in the UFC so it goes without saying size and strength matters the aforementioned weight classes solve this very issue in MMA fighters have to choose between one of nine weight classes or in the case of the UFC eight for the men and only three for the females I mean there was four but we will get to that the jumps between these classifications are on average 10 lb but in some cases 20 lb this is a stark difference from boxing where there are many more legitimized weight classes that lead to Tiny jumps between weights weight cutting to reach those limits has been deeply entwined within Combat Sports really since its Inception and whilst there is no definitive starting or introduction of weight cutting into Combat Sports it seems that the two have gone hand in hand for a very long time and so naturally it begs the question if weight classes exist for the exact purpose of separating Fighters into Fair division why do Fighters still cut so much weight well in a sport where athletes have perfected every aspect of their craft over Decades of training game planning and conditioning searching every minutu of the sport to gain advantages over their opponent in any conceivable way then an easy conclusion is reached cut as much weight as possible in the shortest amount of time in order to rehydrate 24 hours after stepping on the scales to as heavy as possible upwards of 30 lb of weight Advantage look at Alex Pereira from just last weekend who weighed in at 205 and then within 24 hours was 236b it goes without saying that this massive weight gain between weigh-ins and Fight Night is incredibly advantageous Fighters will cut the majority of their weight during fight week and even most of that is done in the 24 hours before weighin using methods such as water loading and heat exposure to lose as much water weight as possible this very problem has become known in the Extreme as weight bullies Fighters clearly too big for their division putting themselves through the most growling weight Cuts in order to come into the cage much bigger than their opponent controversially people have pointed to men such as khabib and Hamza as good examples of this although khabib isn't even the worst case in his division people like Bobby green walk around as much as 190b only to step on the scales at 155 other more obvious examples are Paulo Coster and Davidson figero this problem unsurprisingly has been considered by some as cheating within itself and sometimes it's hard not to see that point it's saying at a higher scale one weighs in at 135 but then balloons up to 160 well that's a much greater Advantage than someone who's doing some some sort of a testosterone thing or something especially Darren till would put himself through literal hell even reported as going blind during his weight cut I was just like literally I couldn't even mood my body was shutting down and I was just going blind just so he could Tower over his opponents at Walter weight and run almost undefeated to the looking Unstoppable all the way there then in a shock to no one when he finally relented and moved to middleweight where opponents matched him in size did his career sour that's how much of an advantage size truly is one of the main problems that come out of these athletes seeking to lose drastic amounts of weight is the fact that fights are constantly called off because of missed weight those fighters who fly too close to the Sun athletes riding that dangerous line as they draw closer and closer to weigh and day and often a few calories here or too much water there and the athlete will in the best case Mis weight and lose 20% of their purse or in the worst the bout is cancelled entirely through hospitalization or the opponent refusing to fight an opponent who has failed to meet the requirements of the bout repeat offenders of Mis weights are either forced to move classes or even kicked out of promotions entirely but sometimes extreme weight cutting isn't the athletes Choice Chris cyborg entered MMA as a professional in 2005 and while she lost her debut she would ultimately go on a 16 fight undefeated streak up until 2016 along the way she would collect the strike force woman's featherweight belt and defend it seven times every single Championship win coming by way of finish to say that she was a wrecking ball inside of the cage would be an understatement her fighting style her tenacity and her viciousness grew her star power then came great speculation would we ever see her in the UFC the answer sadly was that there was no place for her the heaviest female division in the UFC at the time was £ 135 far too much of a weight cut for cyborg despite her great promise of being a star worthy to headline events for the UFC she simply couldn't make the jump that was until March of 2015 when it was announced that cyborg had signed with the UFC and that her debut would be done at a catch weight of 140 seemingly confirming that the UFC had no intentions of making a new featherweight Division and that they were simply testing to see how far cybor could cut weight but I don't think the UFC understood what they were actually asking of her the cut would produce some of the worst footage ever leaked of a wake cup looking [Applause] forward despite the horrendous cut cyborg would have two successful performances inside of the UFC finishing both of her opponents but in December of 2016 the UFC was notified of a potential usada doping violation by cyborg cyborg would immediately claim responsibility but state that it was medication to help her make the brutal cut to 140 and so her Story begins to be painted Not only was Cyborg put through what can only be described as torture all in an effort to call the UFC home but much in the same vein as TJ would feel like her only option was to cheat I won't repeat myself again and I won't try and justify what she did but it is yet another example of those forces that push and pull at athletes that so often are hidden from fans after drawing to the end of her suspension ESPN would release the footage I have just shown you in a mini documentary regarding Cyborg's weight cuts the UFC naturally horrified would finally relent and open the 145b division and at long last cyborg had a division to call her home and she quickly claimed the title Fighters such as Kayla Harrison who have fought at lightweight in the pfl for the longest time joined cyborg in a difficult place where they feel that are excluded from the premier organization simply because they are too big they faced the rather difficult decision either fighting an organization whether as less esteem and ultimately less money or sacrifice their own health in order to make the seemingly unreachable limits of a weight class they don't belong in Kayla at the time of writing this just made her debut and for whatever reason since Amanda Nunes and Cyborg have left the UFC the 145b division is gone once again meaning that the huge Kayla Harrison got on the scales at are disturbing 135 lb it's such a massive shame that the division cyborg pioneered for so heavily has now dissipated because the woman's featherweight division across the board has played host to some of the greatest fights this sport has ever seen it would be nice to see these female athletes graced with a division more suited to their stature but it seems the UFC has forgotten already what inspired them to open it in the first place and I dread to see the footage of Kayla cutting weight for the 135 lb weight limit this example of Cyborg and Kayla is to say the more divisions the more increments the better more Champions more competition and more options for Fighters options that pull them away from making decisions that could irrevocably damage their body why don't we have a 165 and 195 division for the men and equally why don't we have a 105 145 and 155 women's division it's totally lost on me and it's not like the talent pool isn't there for the longest time fans and Fighters medor alike have been campaigning for these divisions what's it going to take to get a 165 lb weight division the [ __ ] just happened people like Colby Covington Kevin Lee are either too big or too small for Walter weight and lightweight people like Jared caner in that sweet spot of light heavyweight and middleweight forced to cut all the way down to the lower weight class I see only an upside to the introduction of these divisions [Music] weight cutting is inherently a dehydration process at its core which leads rather fittingly onto my final point about the disastrous even fatal effects of this very act whilst Fighters are afforded time to rehydrate between the weigh-ins and Fight Night a plethora of Studies have shown that Fighters at the time of competition are still in a state of dehydration this dehydration leads to inadequate cerebral blood flow decreasing cerebral spinal fluid secretion cerebral spinal fluid being the fluid that literally cushions the brain from the skull meaning that when a fighter undergoes an extensive weight cut they have effectively lowered the amount of cushioning and so it doesn't take a giant leap of faith to figure out that the less cushioning on the brain of a fighter that is quite literally being punched elbowed kicked a kneed in the head is a recipe for not only negative results but even fatal ones this is manifested in multiple studies indicating that fighters in lower weight classes where weight cuts are more extreme and more prevalent have a far greater chance of exposing themselves to traumatic brain injuries the effects of which I've extensively covered in my CTE video the evidence from this study supports the long speculated fact that dehydration from weight Cuts is what has led to the deaths in combat sports disproportionately happening in the lower weight classes deaths in boxing apparently happen in the lower weight classes and one of the reasons is that when these guys actually enter into fights a lot of times they're still dehydrated they would dehydrate themselves pretty bad in the uh weigh-ins and they dehydrate themselves and it's very difficult to rehydrate the brain apparently ly it's not as quick and easy as it is rehydrating the body and even that takes some time combine all of these considerations with the fact that weight Cuts seemingly affect the practitioner's cardio and speed then it really pulls into question why athletes choose to cut these drastic amounts of weight even under the pressure of potentially fighting the aforementioned weight bullies it goes without saying that a dehydrated fighter is a fighter who is more vulnerable I honestly believe that if more Fighters understood the risks that they were exposing themselves to especially in terms of tbis and CTE then they would not want to actively pursue a weight class that is Out Of Reach for me there is no better example of this train of thought than one fight that took place at ufc249 and whilst it isn't as Extreme as death it's one that I think as fight fans we can all resonate with if you were to ask fight fans what is perhaps the greatest matchup that we never got to see I think it would be accurate to suggest that khabib Neega medov taking on Tony Ferguson is the greatest fight to never happen from its Beginnings as a fight that would have graced the prelims to its promise of being a top build headliner in the sports biggest stadiums the two greatest fighters of their time and of their division would Clash horns in beautiful and refined violence in December of 2018 khabib was announced to be defending his lightweight title against Ferguson at UFC 249 the fifth time that the pair had been scheduled to face one another but in a story that we are all too familiar with 2019 would change all our lives just a little Co was seemingly the final nail in the coffin of a fight that had transcended all rational levels of hype and what is perhaps the most cursed matchup in history was laid to rest the Sports World fell into silence as the pandemic shut down any chance for Life sporting events it was a weird time to say the least and I for one spent my usual MMA reserve Saturday night twiddling my thumbs and playing war zone anxiously displaced as if the UFC were a missing limb but within 2 months of shutdown Dana White would lead a Vanguard for the sporting world he refused to back down and on April 6th would announce not only the return of MMA but the return of all live sports UFC 249 was back but this time with khabib stuck in Russia Tony would be taking on Justin gatei for the inm lightweight title a week after this joyous news Tony fergon would release a rather strange and rather Infamous video that well surprised a lot of people there it is 155 okay I'm man Tony despite having a fight in just 3 weeks time would weigh in at 155 on the day that his original matchup with khabib was supposed to take place most just RIT it off as Tony being his rather peculiar self and moved on with their day but the fact was he unnecessarily put his body through hell to make an unnatural weight or to prove a point The Strain and harmed done to his body unimaginable or to do it again in just 3 weeks officially and for an entirely different fight even stranger still is that pundits met the video with admiration but Tony Ferguson stepping on the scale at 155 that tells you how disciplined this man is to get all the way down to the championship weight with nothing to game that is a a look that's a boss move people really couldn't see the foreshadowing that was playing out two weight Cuts in a month be damned though Justin didn't stand a chance or that's what people thought Tony was still regarded as the boogeyman that capricious and terrifying force that had haunted the lightweights for the last half a decade UFC 249 was just Tony's moment to affirm his position in the division and to reset up that fight with khabib 155 or so it seemed this is UFC 249 Ferguson versus gatei protect yourselves at all times follow my instructions you're going to keep it clean touch cloves let's do it that look I was saying it pretty gangster they decided to make weight anyway but then people that you know like Dana said this a couple other people said this like why would you do that when you know you're going to have make I talked to I talked to Tony yesterday and he said has had nothing to [Music] do he had to have felt something from draining his body just a couple weeks ago Tony took an inhuman amount of punishment but his his cardio is so much better than everyone else's even when he's get rocked to a ridiculous extent you know I thought Tony looked looked uh off tonight thought he looked slow and I and I would have to imagine that cutting weight twice in a month will affect you oh Tony's hurt he's hurt real bad stop fight G stop Tony Ferguson and he's the UFC zero lightweight champion when we look back at Tony Ferguson's career it's hard to exactly pinpoint where it all went so wrong his legacy Laden with injuries that was more than likely the direct result of unconventional and unusual training something that defined his personality something that undoubtedly made him the fan favorite that he is his unpredictable approach to the fight game had manifested as a 12-fight winning streak injuries be damned and naysayers also his brutal and bloody Ascension through the toughest division in the UFC immortalized I looked back on that time with reverence and Nostalgia blades Shades elbows and one line as all the boogeyman was what made this YouTube channel 3 weeks before his loss that ended his winning streak Ferguson in all his quirky and outlandish ways decided to take on the fight before the fight simply to prove a point to a man that was halfway across the world stuck in isolation we can't say for sure but two massive weight Cuts in the span of 3 weeks is enough to destabilize the athletic Perfection these Fighters so vly aim for just looking at the video you see a withered disheveled man with a gaunt smile piercing through that thin veil covering the obvious pain and discomfort he was in he showed up when kabib could not or at least that was his point the fact is beyond it he would have to keep dieting keep his weight low for another 3 weeks of the most important part of his training camp it was just simply absurd we didn't know it at the time but that weight cut video heralded in what is currently a seven-fight losing streak and whilst we can't just distill a losing skid so heartbreaking on just two weight Cuts I think that the weight cut was certainly the reason Ferguson took an ungodly beating courtesy of gatei and it was that beating that took years off of not only Ferguson career but his life also the weight cut a compounding factor that absolutely did not need to be there I like to imagine a world where the Ferguson that entered that Crucible wasn't a monthlong drained starved and malnourished shell of himself whil this is certainly an extreme example I think it serves as a microcosm to my wider point about weight Cuts eroding chins destroying cardio and affecting performances inside of the cage whether it's Fighters moving down a weight class and getting knocked out or fighters who move up in weight rejuvenated and seem to have a far better chin and output far better performances inside of the Octagon this fact alone tells me that weight cutting at the very least and regardless of the long-term effects certainly deteriorates performance inside of the Octagon but with all this said what can actually be done athletes contend with the pressures of competition daily and whilst we may tune in for just one battle we are more than likely oblivious to the ones that rage almost every second of their waking lives from fighter pay to separation from their family and long and arduous training camps there Still Remains the final frontier of a gruesome weake cup that reaches its almost most destructive all fight week long a week where they are pushed and pulled in every direction by meteor obligation travel and fans the fighter is abstaining from food and starving bloated as they water load this purposeful and deliberate destruction of their body go so violently against everything that they have enured for the last 12 weeks of fight Camp honing and crafting the body for Perfection inside of the cage all because they know five rooms down from them an opponent is doing the very same thing an almost inconceivable and downright nonsensical Behavior ingrained into almost every combat sport a behavior that would be given up if they knew their opponent would do the same when GM Bing passed away the CEO of one Championship would overhaul their weight cutting tests in an effort to combat the links athletes go to in order to step on the scales they would adopt a process that has been ingrained in the sport of American wrestling for a long time hydration tests Fighters when they weigh in must be hydrated tested through a refractor meter they would also move every single weight class up10 to accommodate this matter fly weights in the UFC weigh 125 on the scale in one they weigh 135 this change in policy has seen drastic weight Cuts fizzle out of the organization entirely whilst MMA on point has made a video of a year ago about some of the ways the system can be cheated one is activ pursued other measures to make sure these rules are being enforced and once there are always Bad actors out there trying to game any system the fact is categorically the massive weight cuts are gone athletes over at one speak for themselves you've talked a couple times I've heard you about their weigh-in program at 1fc which I think is fantastic and I think every every MMA organization should do it at the high level one everybody's healthy everybody's good everybody's fighting her natural division or natural weight and uh you know media obligations during the week are obviously a lot easier I'm not worried about cutting my weight or I'm not feeling miserable or whatever um and it's a lot safer thing in B our UFC uh you know pfl and all that stuff they're severely hydrated they're sunken in all that stuff you don't get that over in Asia they don't they don't allow you to do that I think that one has certainly led the Vanguard in trying to make sure that athletes are healthy and it shows they care and have love for the sport but trying doesn't mean the issue is going away as MMA on point made obvious there are more steps that can be pursued in order to make the sport safer and I think that Josh Barnett most recently gave a good solution for the matter you know the weight cutting thing that needs to be completely eliminated you know he needs to be same day weigh-ins if I wanted to watch people at 170 lbs fight each other at 190 why don't I just make it 190 you know it's just pointless and you will see that CTE would go down without weight cutting injuries would reduce I mean you're pulling all that water out and we already know you can't get it all back in your system well there's less water in the brain and that's a scientific fact they've done studies so you're going to get more concussions and you're going to get more more potential bru cruising and calcification of the brain from it hitting even harder because there's less cushion up there all the things that are there for the the health of the structure have been depleted so that you can make a weight class and go in there and fight at a weight you didn't weigh in at the UFC also has the performance Institute which is an absolute blessing when it comes to fighter Health dieting and weight cutting but it would be nice to see more weight classes as previously discussed it's strange to me that we haven't seen those aforementioned weight classes in between so that the Kevin Le's Colby Covington and gered caners of the world have a place where they more likely belong especially if weight cutting isn't going away it's obvious that this is a massive issue and that these organizations are actively trying to pursue change the fact is this sport puts an emphasis on weight cutting inherently gone of the days of open weight class one night tournaments weight classes exist and for as long as they exist Fighters will try and break that system that's just human nature but opening the discussion about the Lesser known physiological and psychological impacts is important many people commented on my CTE video saying everyone knows this what's the point of the video but the reality is many didn't professional fighters reached out to me saying they intend to spar less and not at all they had no idea what the impact really was of getting hit in the head that's the reality opening the discussion on every level from fans like me and you to the media to the fighters and the organizations themselves is important for me it's more about culture than anything xan Bing most likely knew that there was some risk associated with cutting weight would never have thought it would have cost him his life but when you're in a sport where weight cutting is the norm what incentive is there to do anything different for every Kevin Holland who doesn't cut weight there are a thousand khabibs or hamzat and most death may be the complete extreme we don't know the long-term effects of consistent and continuous weight Cuts over a long and brutal career and in a sport that already has its Associated brain damage risks this compounding Factor paints a grim picture of psychological and physiological damage it's especially frustrating when we see athletes rejuvenated when moving up to a weight class that more suits their stature the problem is the negative feedback loop continues athletes forced to cut weight because fighting at their natural weight means running into weight bullies or even still there is no weight class for those who sit Between Borders and are robber us of systemic bodily torture something needs to change but I doubt it ever will so the canel fights the damage psychological or otherwise will continue and perhaps even more deaths all for the sake of competition and I suppose there is a sport that exists I guess where there is no irreversible damage damage that etches years away damage that snuffs out life far too short through Relentless ambition there is a sport I guess where wedding ring doesn't grip on hopelessly threatening to fall off of a withered finger of a husband who knowingly and purposefully put himself through the very Act of destroying his body for that marginal gain but that sport isn't MMA that sport doesn't know the Limitless potential of enduring human Spirit the Ecstasy of Victory achieved in precise combat glimpses into the Unleashed Heart Of The Impossible comeback and the sobering reminder of mortality as the unbreakable man loses this sport is defined by its risks CTE Peds weight cutting but it is also equally defined by its glorious rewards so grueling a achieved perhaps that's why it's so beautiful perhaps that's why we as audiences and practitioners turn a blind eye to all of this [Music] [Music]