 In the early UFC’s it seemed one of the driving philosophical questions behind whole concept of the show was, “Which Martial art was the best, regardless of size strength and weight?” Which art would reign supreme above and beyond the physical limitations of their practitioners? In the end, it all came to a crashing halt and it is a well known fact that size and weight play an integral part in the everyday workings in the life of the modern day fighter. In this day and age, the subject of weight is of great importance, as every pound is coveted, the very sweat they strive to drip to the sewers is the gaining of an equal measure of strength and power to the fighters. The art has evolved to a science, and anyway you look at it, “Cutting” has become the norm. Moving up a class, or putting on weight is the exception, the days of Royce Grace defeating anyone and everyone regardless of size are long gone. There is no way a small competitor can compete with an equally skilled but larger opponent in todays Mixed Martial arts competitions. For the most part, even an inferior fighter in terms of skill will be able to match the technique and speed of the smaller fighter, with an ugly dose of reality, strength. Does the whole concept of fighting boil down to a weight cutting contest with the winner the fighter who can successfully cut more weight, and still maintain his energy levels and muscle mass? It seems like it is sometimes, but simplifying it that far would be unfair to the fighters. The fighters train as hard as any athletes I have ever seen, and weight cutting is not just a product of the MMA world, it was fact long before the words Mixed Martial Arts were ever used in the same sentence. Cutting weight has been a practice long before the UFC implemented weight classes in their bouts. In the beginning of time, the UFC started with no weight classes whatsoever! They had fighters that were fighting opponents that were double their size. A shining example of this was Orlando Weit who was dispatched in under two minutes by a vastly larger Remco Pardoel at UFC 2 in March of 1994. Weit was soundly knocked out by Mr. Pardoel, who by all accounts looked like he was literally twice the size of Weit or more. Pardoel then went on to get defeated by a skinny little Jiu Jitsu man named Royce Gracie but that is another story all together. The UFC went on to separate the weights to Heavyweight and Middleweight with the cutoff being 200 pounds, Enter Frank Shamrock who went on a tear, and defeated the man who is considered by many to be the poster child for weight cutting, Tito Ortiz. The divisions did not stop there, and again they implemented another weight class with the cutoff at 170 pounds. It was then that smaller fighters such as Pat Miletich were able to step into the Octagon and compete at an even playing field. Mr. Miletich went on quite a run in the UFC winning seven straight bouts at his preferred weight, until Carlos Newton derailed him as the Welterweight Champion (Which was Formerly the Light weight Championship). Mr. Miletich moved up one division to the 185 pound Middleweight division (at the behest of others) and found a much bigger opponent in Matt Lindland waiting for him at the other side of the Octagon. The success in the Welterweight division would not follow him to the middleweight division however, and he was dispatched by the larger (But widely considered less well rounded) Matt Lindland. Mr. Miletich has not fought since. The UFC’s sanctioning in Nevada state was a huge step for mixed martial Arts in North America. The sanctioning brought with it more weight classes to the sport for the fans to fumble with, and that is where we sit today. Five weight classes are currently active in the Ultimate Fighting Championships and more that are vacant. At some point in the future, I expect to see the featherweight (145) divisions and Super heavyweight (265 +) divisions active in the UFC, but with Five Weight Classes to fill and employ, having more divisions would simply be more then one organization could comfortably handle at this point in time. In fact, how many organizations in MMA employ more then the UFC’s five weight classes? The Pride Fighting Championships, which could be considered by some to be the biggest MMA organization in the world, still has only two weight classes! The fights in Pride are sometimes ludicrous and seem to be thought out by the former UFC brass looking to get back into the MMA fold. A fight like Akira Shoji Vs Semmy Schilt comes to mind, Akira Shoji is a middleweight at best, he weighed in at around 200 pounds and is a little chubby to say the least. Semmy Schilt on the other hand is six foot ten inches tall and easily weighs over 250 pounds. In this day and age, I cannot fathom why a fight like that would take place. It was difficult to watch, and boy, did Shoji ever get the "short" end of that stick. Skill should be the most important factor and I am an advocate of skill and techinique over power one hundred percent, not that there is anything wrong with power. In one of my favorite fights of the year, Rodrigo Nogueira defeated a much bigger Bob Sapp at Pride Shockwave. He used incredible skill, vastly superior technique and a good gameplan to win the match, but there were times in the fight that the outcome was clearly indoubt. When I Interviewed the commentator of the Pride Fighting Championships, Bas Rutten, and asked him about fighters that fight outside of their weight divisions he had this to say: Bas Rutten : "I think it is Bullshit. I think way back in the UFC with Royce Gracie, nobody knew what grappling was, right now everybody knows. So size and strength does matter, and that is why we have weight classes. If a guy says “I am 180 pounds, I can beat that guy who is 300 pounds”, that is Bullshit.” Anyway you slice it the weight issue in MMA is a bone of contention. The subject of weight cutting has always been a touchy one with the blue corner hollering that the red corner cut too much weight, while the red corner bellows the same to the blue. Is it ethical to cut weight? Should a fighter be given more respect because he is at the bottom of his weight class as opposed the top of it? I will leave that for Bas Rutten to answer. Bas Rutten: “Look at (Rodrigo) Nogueira (230Lbs)….. Nogueira fights against Bob Sapp (350Lbs), Bob Sapp trains for maybe 6 months and he gave Nogueira a hell of a fight !!! And Nogueira, after that fight ( a win via armbar) … he is my favorite fighter, he is unbelievable.” I could not have said it better myself, and who am I to argue with The best looking fighter in MMA anyway? The last thing I need right now is a kick to the liver. Come to think of it, a liver shot from Bas Rutten would be very bad, but what if that Liver shot came from Bob Sapp? How bad would that be?..... “The Great Weight Debate” rages on...
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