Massachusetts Takes Two

Whether you find the safety precautions already installed in mixed martial arts sufficient depends on your expectations. Relative to the groin-biting of the mid-1990s, it’s an amusement park. Relative to the damage still possible in a poorly-regulated fight, things have a long way to go.

I’m sure Massachusetts believes in the idea of a double weigh-in -- once 36 hours prior to the event, once the day of to make sure no athlete has gained moiré than 6.25% of their contracted weight. Fighters, particularly in heavier weight classes, have been known to come in 10-20 pounds heavier than what the scale records.

This is unfair if a couple of guys do it. Fortunately, virtually everyone does it.

The policy has nice ambitions, but it’s blithely ignorant of how foolhardy athletes can be. Few will actually be warned off enough to consider going up a weight class: instead, they’ll dry up some more on the evening of the fight and potentially enter the arena with lethargy and increased concussion potential because their body is crying out for water. Cutting weight is not safe, and perhaps some athletes wind up having an edge, but the solution is to put them in less danger, not more. And the compounding problem is that not all states will adhere to this, or any, policy --Thiago Alves might be promoted to fight as a welterweight in one state and a middleweight in another.

If Massachusetts is serious about doing radical alterations to weight classes, a better idea would be to conference in the Association of Boxing Commissions and petition for a uniform change across the board. The state does not operate in a vacuum, and there is little sense in policy varying so widely across the country.