Following Dana White’s announcement that the UFC will soon be rid of the morning weigh-ins, many fighters have come forward to bemoan decision and advocate for the continuation of the morning weigh-ins. Now, the morning weigh-ins even gained support from arguably its biggest victim, none other than lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was hospitalized following his UFC 209 weight cut and is reported to have even been fighting for his life:
“The doctor say, ‘you cannot fight. You almost die. How you fight? How you can fight if you almost die? … No way,’” Khabib recounted to MMAFighting last year. “We say no fight, 100 percent. No make weight. No fight. No nothing. You need to stay in the hospital for seven hours, we have to make sure your body is good.’ But I feel I almost died.”
In spite of this close call, Khabib has joined the growing list of fighters who have publicly spoken out in favor of the morning weigh-ins over the 4PM weigh-ins:
“If I had choice, I think morning weigh-ins is perfect,” Khabib said on Thursdays edition of Anatomy of a Fighter. “9:00 AM. I like morning weigh-ins. Because I make weight when we have 4PM weigh-ins and we have, like, 9:00 AM. In my opinion, 9AM is much better. Much better. Because we have time—almost seven, eight hours for recovery. And if somebody cannot make weight, this is his problem. But about 9AM? I think most fighters like 9AM.”
Dana White has disputed that most fighters prefer morning-weigh ins, claiming among other reasons, that his decision was inspired consensus opinion. When confronted with data from informal polling that allegedly shows that fighters overwhelmingly prefer morning weigh-ins, White countered, “Yeah, we talked to more fighters and they want 4 o’clock [PM] weigh-ins,” White said at the UFC 225 post-fight press conference. “We’ve studied it. The numbers don’t lie. We’ve talked to fighters. There’s a ton of fighters that want to go back to 4 o’clock and there’s a lot of fighters that don’t… It’s just not working.”
And in spite of the life the topic continues to have on social media, White insists that it’s a dead issue:
“No matter what, there’s no debate about this. We’re going to 4 o’clock.”
If you were a fighter, would you prefer the morning weigh-ins or the 4PM weigh-ins?
