At a California State Athletic Commission’s weight-cutting summit last Thursday, the committee approved a plan to alter and add new weight classes to the unified rules of MMA. Something the committee focused on were studies about the risk factor for concussions being “increased markedly” after a steep weight cut due to a reduced amount of fluid around the brain.
Veteran referee and committee member “Big” John McCarthy recently commented on the news, explaining that the UFC doesn’t “have” to use weight classes.
“The UFC doesn’t have to use a weight class,” McCarthy said. “They don’t have to use the 170-pound weight class right now. They don’t use the 145-pound women. There’s weight classes they don’t utilize. They can do the same thing with any weight class they want. They’re a promotion, and they have a right to say, ‘We don’t want to use this weight class.’ This is not about the UFC. This is about MMA. And there is MMA going on all over the world where we’ve got weight-cutting problems.”
Do you think there should be more or less weight class restrictions in the UFC? Would more new weight classes thin out the divisions too much? Sound off with your thoughts in the comments.
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