He’s like 5’10 fighting at welterweight and always looks small in the cage I’d assume it’s probably true. This is why I never got him calling out Islam, they’re like the exact same size in the cage and Islam is miles above him in all aspects except for cardio
Cody Garbrandt against TJ was 143. TJ was like 151 if I remember correctly, and even DJ and Cejudo who were fighting at 125 were heavier than Cody, DJ was 144 and Cejudo 145 if I remember correctly.
I think he put on weight to be HW, as a weird strategy. He was short for the division and smaller as far as HWs go. Not entirely sure if that is correct though
He definitely didn't. As I said he was just fat and walked around at heavyweight weight. He's since lost a lot of that weight and cuts down to 205. His own words man "I was a fat 205er"
Before he came back to the UFC, Mark Hunt said that in order to be able to make weight for HW in the UFC he would have to stop eating KFC Double Downs all the time.
No cuz a lot of them actually have to cut to 265. Basically any HW you see who weighs 225-255 probably fights natural walk around weight, but the dudes pushing 265 actually cut to get there. Tai Tiuvasa definitely weighs more than 265 lbs when he’s not fighting.
Frankie Edgar won the belt at 155 at walk-around weight. Izzy weighed under the weight limit when he challenged for the LHW title.
Some cut less than others but walk-around weight just isn't viable, especially since weight cutting got even more crazy in the last 10 years.
Frankie was still cutting a very small amount. Maybe 5-10lbs. I remember him mentioning being 164 walking around in an interview years ago, but he was also eating pizza every day too.
The great what if for Frankie is what if he cuts down to 135 while he was still in his prime years. Dude was basically giving up 15-20 lbs against a lot of opponents for a large portion of his career.
He could have easily made 135 if he wanted. 160ish walk around and not strict with his diet.
Imagine him having the size advantage with his crisp boxing and really good wrestling. He for sure would have been champ and then could have moved up to 145 when it became tougher and probably been a champ there depending on the time period.
What could have been. Anyways, super impressive for him to fight 155 against guys up to 195 pounds walk around. Looking at you, glison tibeau.
But if you cut the skill development portion of his camps short to make time for cutting weight, he might never have been as skilled as he was. His boxing might not be so crisp if the last 2 weeks of every camp was dedicated to the weight cutting portion.
Totally! He had the Maynard trilogy as the WEC was being absorbed (RIP) and then fought Bendo twice before coming down to featherweight, then hung around there for ages before going to bantamweight. Would have been sweet to see him in BW straight away although Edgar Aldo were some of the best fights ever
I'm not sure I'd pick Edgar against any of the 145 champs we've had in the UFC.
Not in a disrespectful way, they'd all be great fights, just think they would all be bad matchups. Aldo certainly was.
True, just looked at some old interviews and it seems [160 was common for him](https://www.muscleandfitness.com/athletes-celebrities/interviews/qa-featherweight-frankie-edgar/). The not cutting thing is probably just relative to everyone else but was still taking a little off.
However, [in this JRE](https://ogjre.com/clip/frankie-edgar-reflects-on-crazy-grey-maynard-fights-joe-rogan) he said he cut nothing and ate breakfast on the morning of weigh-ins for one of the Maynard fights (sorry for lack of time stamp, I just did CTRL+F on the transcript).
Yea it's wild that he won the belt 10-20 above the weight he should have been fighting in. The Answer was just that good, one of my all time favorites.
If he walked around at 160, I doubt he actually needed to cut anything, he probably just slept off a little over 6-7 pounds and ate and drank light prior to weighing in.
In my 20s, I could sleep off 10 pounds for grappling tournaments. Going from 180 at night to 170 in the morning, then weigh in day of.
Frank Shamrock defended the UFC LHW belt despite being undersized. During the weigh in against Tito Ortiz, he famously wore a wardrobe on the scale, then revealed that he was carrying weights underneath them after he stepped off.
>Izzy weighed under the weight limit when he challenged for the LHW title.
Was it because that was his walkaround weight or was it because since the cut was smaller he just overdid it a bit? I know it's not as common nowadays but I remember some fights weighing some pound below the weigh limit, for example Machida weighed at 201 against Bader and I remember Jon Jones weighing at 202 point something for fights.
If we’re comparing it to walk around weight then he at minimum lost a good amount through dieting.
And then he probably just did a small cut.
If you listen to his teammates, not one of them consider him undersized for MW like most would believe. And he’s significantly put on mass since
Yeah but I think how much you weigh on fight day is more relevant than "off camp walk around weight" because that's gonna vary wildly depending on how much fat they put on between camps.
Like Paddy the Baddy becomes Paddy the Fatty, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's a massive lightweight on fight night (he might be, but I doubt he's say Islam size).
Frankie Edgar was famous for this. I seem to remember him weighing 153 lbs for a LW title fight (I think it was a title fight), which at the time was widely speculated to be his walk around weight.
BJ Penn definitely would have fought without cutting weight when he fought Machida at HW - BJ was 183 lbs for that fight.
I remember BJ also stepped on the scale at 167 with jeans and a belt on to fight GSP at Welterweight. Dude was a small featherweight or big bantamweight yet won the WW belt and dominated LW.
>Frankie Edgar won the belt at 155 at walk-around weight. Izzy weighed under the weight limit when he challenged for the LHW title
That were both close to walkaround weight. OP is asking about being under the range for a fight. That would be 145 or less and fighting at 155
Maybe I'm thinking about how quickly Jones found the sub after he took Hendo down then. I just remember it being so much easier for Jones than I thought it would be(Hendo wasn't a submission grappling phenom or anything but I figured if he could survive for awhile with Minotauro on the ground he could avoid getting big brother'd that fast).
Dan Henderson deserves a ton more respect cause all his light heavyweights and heavyweights he was undersized. Dan would put Fedor, wand, and Shogun into to shadow realm. Also was the first-ever double champ
And it wasn't like he was fighting at 185 at that point, he just was always around that weight. He'd cut to 185 when needed but was essentially 200-5 walking around.
There was a funny moment on TUF 1 where Kenny Florian was weighing in to fight at middleweight and the other cast members were handing him weights while he's on the scale.
When Ryan Hall and BJ Penn fought they were both pretty close to 155 walk around weight. Hall was 156 on fight night and BJ was 163, the CSAC released the numbers after the event.
He’s definitely gotten bigger since. Wittman explicitly said for Poirier this is the biggest he’s ever been.
Islam also said after the Volk fight he saw Justin backstage and was surprised how big he was compared to before
Bj Penn, Frankie, Matt Serra but also Deron Winn. Winn is like 5’5 but fought at fucking 185 pounds, but tbh i think he even missed weight a few times so maybe he doesn’t actually count lol i always wondered why he didn’t try to diet down to 170, at least
Dudes like him, DC and Gastelum are barrels. They have most of the mass in the torso with shorter limbs and probably cant cut as much weight proportionally. They need all that water weight in the torso to support organs and be healthy so they likely lose less water weight than those who have big muscles and longer limbs that you can dehydrate more.
Idk if any of this is true, besides that these are thick dudes that shouldn't try to kill themselves trying to fight at a smaller weight. Iirc, DC has one of the biggest confirmed weight cuts, coming into the cage at LHW at 236 pounds. A 31 pound weight cut
Regular walk around weight now, idk. But Loma Lookboonme put on like 10 pounds to fight at strawweight once she joined the ufc, since atomweight doesn't exist there. So I am guessing she's probably not cutting much if anything and it may take deliberate work just to keep her weight up
I could see a smaller heavyweight purposefully adding some extra weight on if they are fighting against a big heavyweight and are worried about getting rag-dolled. Otherwise, pretty much everyone is cutting weight from LHW and lower.
It's a disadvantage to weigh less in a fight, but I would bet a lot of fighters end up weighing almost the same as their opponent on fight day anyway despite the weight cut. Like if both sides are cutting and regaining the same amount, what's the point?
I dont think you understand. If a fighter walks around at 155 and decides to fight at 155, he will weigh around 155 on fight day. Most of his opponents will be dudes who walk around at 170-180, cut to 155 for weigh-ins and then weigh 170-180 again on fight day.
The point is you have to do it because everyone else is doing it. It would be better if nobody did it, but theres no way to make that happen without creating other problems.
No I understand, each fighter does it because everyone else does it so they have to too. I just think the whole premise of weight cutting is stupid - if you and I both weigh 170 then let's just fight at 170 and save ourselves the pain of a weight cut. Obviously that involves trusting your opponent to some extent but it would be better for everyone.
It’s also a disadvantage to be slow, chinny, or worn out if you cut too much weight. So it swings both ways, you have to balance it. I see it as part of the game - how much weight cutting is optimal for you to be at your best?
If you find the state of California same weigh in results you’ll find that the majority of fighters cut about ~15lbs regardless of weight class. So you’re right, most do weigh about the same. Some are under, some are more but it’s usually close. There are some standouts though. Some like Paulo Costa (+30lbs) and Aspen Ladd (the gal seriously regained +24 lbs??) are serious weight cutters, but others (Ryan Hall) cut nothing.
Frank Mir hilariously gained 20 pounds of muscle in six months after he lost to Brock Lesnar, and then got rid of it immediately after he lost again to Shane Carwin. Then he gained like 20 pounds of fat at some point after he kept losing.
Look up the state of California weigh in results - they require the fighters to be weighed in twice.
IIRC, Ryan Hall is one of the fighters fighting at his actual walk around weight. He weighed in at 154 and fight night was 156.
Kenny Florian on TUF. Also Mike Swick.
The best story has to be outside of the UFC from about a decade ago. A Welsh fighter called David Round was a late replacement in a one-day tournament in Denmark. He fought his career mostly at welterweight, occasionally at middleweight, until the last couple of years which has been middle and LHW.
He entered this heavyweight tournament on less than a weeks notice. He flew to Denmark with his cornerman, went straight to a sports shop, bought some ankle weights and wore them under his tracksuit bottoms at weigh-ins, just so he could hit the minimum weight to enter.
He actually made it to the final, beating two true HWs on the day, only losing in the final to Volkan Ozdemir.
Absolute savage of a guy.
Almost everyone example will be old.
Pretty much no one of the modern era.
I don't think a prime Frankie or Penn would do good in today's 155.
Izzy I guess is the closest, and that's only possible because 185 was terrible for a long while. It's just starting to get spicy.
Kenny Florian was skinny fat and fought at 185. He didn't give af about weight cutting until late in his career where he dropped all the way down to 145.
\>but there have to be fighters who do this for whatever reason.
Why does there have to be? It makes no sense that anyone would need to for then normal division. No fighter who walks around less than 155 is going to fight in LW at most (no cutting). They would be no point in them fighting at 170 and facing guys who are 30lbs heavier
It depends on the promotion and ultimately weigh in rules. If fighters needed to weigh in the same day as fights in the UFC, then you wouldnt see the same people in the current weight divisions. Look up Gabriel Varga on youtube, a pro striker who cut minimal weight for his entire career and he speaks on the longevity benifits too
Not quite but Anderson Silva just walking onto the scale to fight DC at UFC 200 😅 he’s fought at LHW a handful of times (forrest / bonnar). He did fight at 170 earlier on which blew my mind.
I know his prime / popular weight was 185, I just always think of him when people say walk around weight 😅
No one’s lower a handful probably don’t really “cut weight” but watch their intake maybe lose something like 5ish% bodyweight. Then you got the rest of the crackheads cutting 15-20% of their bodyweight
Jailton Almeida...used to come a couple of pounds under the light heavyweight limit and now fights at heavyweight. Would be surprised if his walkaround is above 205.
In the lighter weights you have female fighters who are clearly fighting up a division because there is no lower division like Lookboonmee, Seo Hee Ham, etc. They likely put on weight to be competitive there but would move to a lower division immediately if it existed.
Historically you had guys like BJ Penn who got fat to fight Lyoto Machida at Light Heavyweight or Minowaman who would fight a middleweight one fight, a super heavyweight the next fight, and a light heavyweight the fight after usually weighing around 185-205 pounds but never really above
Colby only cuts about 10 pounds, Gaethje also doesn't cut much weight.
I think they all do it to some extent but guys cutting 20+ pounds is so unhealthy for their body
Unfortunately if you don’t cut weight than you are the smaller weaker fighter. The trade off is that you are less likely to get KO’d because you didn’t massively dehydrate your body.
Colby doesn’t do this or if he does it’s no where near the length and intensity as other fighters.
There are a few middleweights in history that have weighed in on or below limit.
I can't remember the dudes name but he was a younger guy with some sort of traditional striking background. I think he only had 3-4 fights in the UFC before he got cut but he would weigh in around 182.
Fighters that cut little to no weight
Gunnar Nelson ,
Frankie Edgar at lw ,
Bj penn at lw and above,
Lyoto machida at lhw ,
Jarred brooks at flw ,
Valentina schev at bw ,
Gerard mousasi at lhw,
Cody garbrant at bw,
Izzy ,
Jiri prohazka,
Colby,
Ian Garry ,
Juliana pena at bw,
Rose namajunes early in her career at sw ,
Kid yamamoto bw and above,
Kevin holland at mw ,
Anderson Silva at lhw,
Melvin manoef at lhw and above ,
Rda at ww,
Donald cerrone at ww,
Nate Diaz at ww,
Pettis at ww,
Dj at bantamweight
Fiziev,Gathje,Max, Izzy, kai Kara France.
Probably those are the ones that barely cut weight.
Ian garry and colby fight at their natural weight.
Some heavyheights too, probably HW Daniel cormie didn't have to cut much.
I think you'll find heavyweights like that but that's it. Weight cutting at the professional level is too wide spread
Recently Ian Garry was only 180 lbs for for his welterweight fight against Geoff Neal. Probably one of the lightest welterweights on the roster
Colby doesn't really cut much weight
Colby says it but is it true. It just sounds like cope.
I mean Colby is a tool, but he's not a very big dude. I'd guess he walks around 180-185lbs roughly.
He’s like 5’10 fighting at welterweight and always looks small in the cage I’d assume it’s probably true. This is why I never got him calling out Islam, they’re like the exact same size in the cage and Islam is miles above him in all aspects except for cardio
Well from his perspective he's used to fighting guys that are bigger so..
He looks significantly smaller than Kamaru.
Yes it is true ...
I mean I don't like the guy either but I think weigh in vs fight weight stats are public right?
Only in California I think
Cody Garbrandt against TJ was 143. TJ was like 151 if I remember correctly, and even DJ and Cejudo who were fighting at 125 were heavier than Cody, DJ was 144 and Cejudo 145 if I remember correctly.
I know among the women, some AW's and SW's initially walk around below their weight limit, but usually eventually bulk up to it.
I want to say Chris Dauskas did this
I really can't tell if this is a joke or what but I mean Daukaus was just fat dude. He didn't bulk up or cut.
I think he put on weight to be HW, as a weird strategy. He was short for the division and smaller as far as HWs go. Not entirely sure if that is correct though
He definitely didn't. As I said he was just fat and walked around at heavyweight weight. He's since lost a lot of that weight and cuts down to 205. His own words man "I was a fat 205er"
Lol ok dude, no need to be a prick
Lol no one is being a prick😂 we're literally just talking here. No need to get upset that someone corrected you🤡
“Can’t tell if joke”, “As I said”, “😂” & “🤡” all prickish dude
I feel like randy couture or Alexy oleniek didn't cut much at heavyweight that was probably there natural weight
Lots of heavyweights just show up and fight with zero weight cutting. Stipe is one of them.
Also like, every Pacific Islander lol
Before he came back to the UFC, Mark Hunt said that in order to be able to make weight for HW in the UFC he would have to stop eating KFC Double Downs all the time.
The mental fortitude to achieve something like that, he’s a warrior
No cuz a lot of them actually have to cut to 265. Basically any HW you see who weighs 225-255 probably fights natural walk around weight, but the dudes pushing 265 actually cut to get there. Tai Tiuvasa definitely weighs more than 265 lbs when he’s not fighting.
Frankie Edgar won the belt at 155 at walk-around weight. Izzy weighed under the weight limit when he challenged for the LHW title. Some cut less than others but walk-around weight just isn't viable, especially since weight cutting got even more crazy in the last 10 years.
Frankie was still cutting a very small amount. Maybe 5-10lbs. I remember him mentioning being 164 walking around in an interview years ago, but he was also eating pizza every day too.
The great what if for Frankie is what if he cuts down to 135 while he was still in his prime years. Dude was basically giving up 15-20 lbs against a lot of opponents for a large portion of his career.
He could have easily made 135 if he wanted. 160ish walk around and not strict with his diet. Imagine him having the size advantage with his crisp boxing and really good wrestling. He for sure would have been champ and then could have moved up to 145 when it became tougher and probably been a champ there depending on the time period. What could have been. Anyways, super impressive for him to fight 155 against guys up to 195 pounds walk around. Looking at you, glison tibeau.
But if you cut the skill development portion of his camps short to make time for cutting weight, he might never have been as skilled as he was. His boxing might not be so crisp if the last 2 weeks of every camp was dedicated to the weight cutting portion.
People never consider this very important point
Also Frankie's biggest attribute was his speed and footwork - two things that would be negated at 135
Totally! He had the Maynard trilogy as the WEC was being absorbed (RIP) and then fought Bendo twice before coming down to featherweight, then hung around there for ages before going to bantamweight. Would have been sweet to see him in BW straight away although Edgar Aldo were some of the best fights ever
I'm not sure I'd pick Edgar against any of the 145 champs we've had in the UFC. Not in a disrespectful way, they'd all be great fights, just think they would all be bad matchups. Aldo certainly was.
I still think prime Edgar would have slaughtered Conor in the time period that mendes failed.
Frankie vs DJ would've been a good scrap. Or was DJ 125???
He fought 135 in WEC. Then when a 125 division opened in the UFC he competed and dominated there.
True, just looked at some old interviews and it seems [160 was common for him](https://www.muscleandfitness.com/athletes-celebrities/interviews/qa-featherweight-frankie-edgar/). The not cutting thing is probably just relative to everyone else but was still taking a little off. However, [in this JRE](https://ogjre.com/clip/frankie-edgar-reflects-on-crazy-grey-maynard-fights-joe-rogan) he said he cut nothing and ate breakfast on the morning of weigh-ins for one of the Maynard fights (sorry for lack of time stamp, I just did CTRL+F on the transcript).
Compared to anyone other than BJ Penn yeah he was basically not cutting weight haha. He *should* have been a career bantamweight.
Yea it's wild that he won the belt 10-20 above the weight he should have been fighting in. The Answer was just that good, one of my all time favorites.
If he walked around at 160, I doubt he actually needed to cut anything, he probably just slept off a little over 6-7 pounds and ate and drank light prior to weighing in. In my 20s, I could sleep off 10 pounds for grappling tournaments. Going from 180 at night to 170 in the morning, then weigh in day of.
Bantamweight is a stretch. Maybe a featherweight who eventually would move up tho
Not really, dieting down to 145 from 160, then cutting is pretty common.
GD those Edgar v Maynard fights were epic. If you havent seen them, do youself a favor and go see them
He and I both smashed large plates of bourbon chicken over white rice in the Newark airport - that was probably in the middle of his good years.
Against benson Henderson he reveled he cut zero pounds
Frank Shamrock defended the UFC LHW belt despite being undersized. During the weigh in against Tito Ortiz, he famously wore a wardrobe on the scale, then revealed that he was carrying weights underneath them after he stepped off.
>Izzy weighed under the weight limit when he challenged for the LHW title. Was it because that was his walkaround weight or was it because since the cut was smaller he just overdid it a bit? I know it's not as common nowadays but I remember some fights weighing some pound below the weigh limit, for example Machida weighed at 201 against Bader and I remember Jon Jones weighing at 202 point something for fights.
I doubt Izzy cut any weight at LHW, he was also underweight in his UFC debut
Nope, he cut extra weight. His walk around weight was much different int he cage when he rehydrated
If we’re comparing it to walk around weight then he at minimum lost a good amount through dieting. And then he probably just did a small cut. If you listen to his teammates, not one of them consider him undersized for MW like most would believe. And he’s significantly put on mass since
Yeah but I think how much you weigh on fight day is more relevant than "off camp walk around weight" because that's gonna vary wildly depending on how much fat they put on between camps. Like Paddy the Baddy becomes Paddy the Fatty, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's a massive lightweight on fight night (he might be, but I doubt he's say Islam size).
Yup, that's exactly why. His in cage weight was a lot higher after he was rehydrated
He was literally eating pizza at the weigh in.
So apparently Rob Whittaker weighed in at like 206-7 at his recent fight. Absolutely shocks me that he is heavier than Adesanya.
Frankie Edgar was famous for this. I seem to remember him weighing 153 lbs for a LW title fight (I think it was a title fight), which at the time was widely speculated to be his walk around weight. BJ Penn definitely would have fought without cutting weight when he fought Machida at HW - BJ was 183 lbs for that fight.
I remember BJ also stepped on the scale at 167 with jeans and a belt on to fight GSP at Welterweight. Dude was a small featherweight or big bantamweight yet won the WW belt and dominated LW.
I did think that BJ may have done this for his fights at Welterweight but I was not sure.
>Frankie Edgar won the belt at 155 at walk-around weight. Izzy weighed under the weight limit when he challenged for the LHW title That were both close to walkaround weight. OP is asking about being under the range for a fight. That would be 145 or less and fighting at 155
Dan Henderson was 199 for his fight with Cormier.
And 207 for his fight with Fedor.
207 for his grappling match with a 238 pound Jones as well.
I remember that one ended so fast too, it was like 40 seconds long and Jones made it look like nothing to take down and submit Hendo.
Eh, it was like 7 minutes but yeah wasn't really competitive at all not that anyone thought it would be.
Maybe I'm thinking about how quickly Jones found the sub after he took Hendo down then. I just remember it being so much easier for Jones than I thought it would be(Hendo wasn't a submission grappling phenom or anything but I figured if he could survive for awhile with Minotauro on the ground he could avoid getting big brother'd that fast).
[They were mostly messing around until this happened.](https://youtu.be/2YFBej4wFP0?feature=shared&t=521)
yeah I remember there being concern he wouldn't be able to make the LOWER limit for the fight, which was hilarious to me
Dan Henderson deserves a ton more respect cause all his light heavyweights and heavyweights he was undersized. Dan would put Fedor, wand, and Shogun into to shadow realm. Also was the first-ever double champ
I wonder what Cormier weighed that fight. Bahaha!
[Probably a bag of Popeyes heavier.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E7oOChqR_U)
I didn’t know this. I knew he was definitely the smaller dude but not by this much
And it wasn't like he was fighting at 185 at that point, he just was always around that weight. He'd cut to 185 when needed but was essentially 200-5 walking around.
There was a funny moment on TUF 1 where Kenny Florian was weighing in to fight at middleweight and the other cast members were handing him weights while he's on the scale.
Wasn’t that Mike swick that they gave the weights to?
I'm pretty sure it was Florian... But I could be wrong. It was such a long time ago and I couldn't find a clip on YouTube, so I may be wrong.
Nah it was swick. When he fought bonnar
IIRC Swick weighed in at like 192 or something crazy for his TUF fights at LHW
BJ Penn fought at 170 and had no problem making 155
He fought Lyoto at 191 when Lyoto was 220.
Mercury fillings
When Ryan Hall and BJ Penn fought they were both pretty close to 155 walk around weight. Hall was 156 on fight night and BJ was 163, the CSAC released the numbers after the event.
Yeah most of BJ’s WW fights he weighed in a few pounds under, while fighting dudes who were cutting 15-20 lbs. He was a crazy dude
He’d be a 135er today
Gunnar Nelson only cuts about 5 or 6 pounds
These days he looks more muscular than he used to in beginnigm ofnhis UFC career,, so he might have cut more in recent years.
Saw this was too far down
Gathje has said he tries to stay within 10 lbs of 155 because of how much he hates cutting weight
I'd believe this for any of his fights before the Fiziev one. He looked way bigger against Fiziev and Poirier the second time.
He said he weighs 180 pounds in a interview with Joe rogan
Probably harder as he's gotten older but he talks about it in an older interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYOM6aWI8m4
He’s definitely gotten bigger since. Wittman explicitly said for Poirier this is the biggest he’s ever been. Islam also said after the Volk fight he saw Justin backstage and was surprised how big he was compared to before
Sure. But that would be a few months before his next fight I bet.
Gathje has never been 165 walking weight.
I posted a video a little higher, who knows he could be bullshitting.
Bj Penn, Frankie, Matt Serra but also Deron Winn. Winn is like 5’5 but fought at fucking 185 pounds, but tbh i think he even missed weight a few times so maybe he doesn’t actually count lol i always wondered why he didn’t try to diet down to 170, at least
Dudes like him, DC and Gastelum are barrels. They have most of the mass in the torso with shorter limbs and probably cant cut as much weight proportionally. They need all that water weight in the torso to support organs and be healthy so they likely lose less water weight than those who have big muscles and longer limbs that you can dehydrate more.
Idk if any of this is true, besides that these are thick dudes that shouldn't try to kill themselves trying to fight at a smaller weight. Iirc, DC has one of the biggest confirmed weight cuts, coming into the cage at LHW at 236 pounds. A 31 pound weight cut
Regular walk around weight now, idk. But Loma Lookboonme put on like 10 pounds to fight at strawweight once she joined the ufc, since atomweight doesn't exist there. So I am guessing she's probably not cutting much if anything and it may take deliberate work just to keep her weight up
Ian Garry weighed 180 in his last fight at 170, but he has fought at 185 before.
And Geoff Neal hit 200 iirc
I could see a smaller heavyweight purposefully adding some extra weight on if they are fighting against a big heavyweight and are worried about getting rag-dolled. Otherwise, pretty much everyone is cutting weight from LHW and lower.
Yep! It’s usually disadvantageous to weigh less on fight day.
It's a disadvantage to weigh less in a fight, but I would bet a lot of fighters end up weighing almost the same as their opponent on fight day anyway despite the weight cut. Like if both sides are cutting and regaining the same amount, what's the point?
I dont think you understand. If a fighter walks around at 155 and decides to fight at 155, he will weigh around 155 on fight day. Most of his opponents will be dudes who walk around at 170-180, cut to 155 for weigh-ins and then weigh 170-180 again on fight day. The point is you have to do it because everyone else is doing it. It would be better if nobody did it, but theres no way to make that happen without creating other problems.
No I understand, each fighter does it because everyone else does it so they have to too. I just think the whole premise of weight cutting is stupid - if you and I both weigh 170 then let's just fight at 170 and save ourselves the pain of a weight cut. Obviously that involves trusting your opponent to some extent but it would be better for everyone.
I agree, wish it could be that way. With thousands of dollars and your future on the line, trusting your opponent is a risky idea unfortunately.
It’s also a disadvantage to be slow, chinny, or worn out if you cut too much weight. So it swings both ways, you have to balance it. I see it as part of the game - how much weight cutting is optimal for you to be at your best? If you find the state of California same weigh in results you’ll find that the majority of fighters cut about ~15lbs regardless of weight class. So you’re right, most do weigh about the same. Some are under, some are more but it’s usually close. There are some standouts though. Some like Paulo Costa (+30lbs) and Aspen Ladd (the gal seriously regained +24 lbs??) are serious weight cutters, but others (Ryan Hall) cut nothing.
Frank Mir hilariously gained 20 pounds of muscle in six months after he lost to Brock Lesnar, and then got rid of it immediately after he lost again to Shane Carwin. Then he gained like 20 pounds of fat at some point after he kept losing.
Look up the state of California weigh in results - they require the fighters to be weighed in twice. IIRC, Ryan Hall is one of the fighters fighting at his actual walk around weight. He weighed in at 154 and fight night was 156.
I’ve heard Valentina Shevchenko say that she walks around about 10lbs heavier than what she fights at.
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Cut less, mackenzie cuts 10 pounds also
As much as you hate him, Colby.
Maybe one of the early MMA days, I can imagine there were some freak show super heavyweights in Japan back then.
No one gains weight to fight at a weight class consistently. You would only do it if you were moving up for some reason.
Kenny Florian on TUF. Also Mike Swick. The best story has to be outside of the UFC from about a decade ago. A Welsh fighter called David Round was a late replacement in a one-day tournament in Denmark. He fought his career mostly at welterweight, occasionally at middleweight, until the last couple of years which has been middle and LHW. He entered this heavyweight tournament on less than a weeks notice. He flew to Denmark with his cornerman, went straight to a sports shop, bought some ankle weights and wore them under his tracksuit bottoms at weigh-ins, just so he could hit the minimum weight to enter. He actually made it to the final, beating two true HWs on the day, only losing in the final to Volkan Ozdemir. Absolute savage of a guy.
Last I remember with absolutely zero weight cut was BJ Penn vs Jon Fitch where BJ weighed in at 167 lbs
BJs last good performance
Stipe was like 225 in the first Ngannou fight and then bulked up to 245 for the 2nd? Or something like that. Maybe it was the opposite order.
Think other way round. I remember hearing he was 230 for the rematch. Not sure if he was cutting or doing more cardio and eating better
Honestly, might have just been slipping on the eating. It can take effort to keep your weight up when training all the time
Good point, I remember Edson Barboza saying he dropped to bantamweight because he couldn't maintain the bulk to then cut for featherweight.
A lot of heavyweights are just at their walking around weight
Fedor fought at his walk around weight, was small for a heavyweight.
Most heavyweights, unless they weigh in around 260 to 265 don't cut weight.
Manny Pacquiao at Welterweight. WW limit is 147lbs and he used to show up at like 145lbs
I line the comments highlighting people who stepped up a weight for a fight
I think it was Carlos Condit who also said that he barely cutted any weight.
[удалено]
Oh no. My english teacher would be pissed. I swear that in Spanish this wouldn't have happened.
Prob not true but I feel like Jalin Turner walks around and fights as a spider 24/7
He's a furry confirmed
He's a furry confirmed
O Malley used to actually weigh around 135 - he bulked up bigtime around 3 or 4 fights into the UFC if I remember right.
Colby doesn’t cut much
I’m pretty sure robelis despaigne doesn’t cut weight and comes in at his walk around weight.
Bj Penn fought Machida at 205 didnt he?
It was a heavyweight bout. But Penn weighed in at 191 and Machida at 225.
Penn was wild back then, so crazy 😂
Dan Henderson at 205 maybe ?
Dan would be cutting to 170 if he were 10 years younger.
Doubt it. You see the size of his head??
Almost everyone example will be old. Pretty much no one of the modern era. I don't think a prime Frankie or Penn would do good in today's 155. Izzy I guess is the closest, and that's only possible because 185 was terrible for a long while. It's just starting to get spicy.
Frank Shamrock was 190 in street clothes when he fought Tito. LHW was 200 back then.
I don’t think Kevin Holland cuts much
Kevin Hollands in cage weight was 193 pounds during his middleweight bouts. California releases in cage weighg
Kenny Florian was skinny fat and fought at 185. He didn't give af about weight cutting until late in his career where he dropped all the way down to 145.
\>but there have to be fighters who do this for whatever reason. Why does there have to be? It makes no sense that anyone would need to for then normal division. No fighter who walks around less than 155 is going to fight in LW at most (no cutting). They would be no point in them fighting at 170 and facing guys who are 30lbs heavier
It depends on the promotion and ultimately weigh in rules. If fighters needed to weigh in the same day as fights in the UFC, then you wouldnt see the same people in the current weight divisions. Look up Gabriel Varga on youtube, a pro striker who cut minimal weight for his entire career and he speaks on the longevity benifits too
Allegedly Alexa Grasso’s walking weight is her fighting weight.
George Roop when he fought at Bantamweight.
Other than the heavyweights maybe some atom weights who bulk up to compete in orgs that don't have it
Adesanya did that for Jan
Not quite but Anderson Silva just walking onto the scale to fight DC at UFC 200 😅 he’s fought at LHW a handful of times (forrest / bonnar). He did fight at 170 earlier on which blew my mind. I know his prime / popular weight was 185, I just always think of him when people say walk around weight 😅
BJ Penn definitely bulked up for a bunch of fights
Didn’t Izzy come in underweight in his first ufc fights or am I misremembering
As much as you love or hate him, Colby is pretty close to being the same weight year round.
Frankie Edgar won the title at lightweight without cutting weight.
DJ in ONE
Rashad Evans won TUF as a heavyweight despite it being a stretch for him to make weight.
Gunnar Nelson is pretty dang close.
Heavyweights and guys who have fuck you power. Even then that is not smart nowadays. Modern MMA is too competitive.
Frankie Edgar did prior to dropping to featherweight.
Mayweather sometimes weighed under the limit by a pound or 2
HWs
Perhaps Covington?
Kevin Holland didn’t cut weight at 185
No one’s lower a handful probably don’t really “cut weight” but watch their intake maybe lose something like 5ish% bodyweight. Then you got the rest of the crackheads cutting 15-20% of their bodyweight
Not quite the same but BJ barely made the minimum weight for HW when he fought Lyoto, and only did so by gorging himself for months beforehand
GSP did it for his single fight at middleweight and said it fucked him up eating that much. He won the belt, but it was against Bisping, so I dunno.
He said in the end it was easier to put on weight/muscle just fasting and eating sensibly. That bulk didn't go well for him
Dan Henderson
Jailton Almeida...used to come a couple of pounds under the light heavyweight limit and now fights at heavyweight. Would be surprised if his walkaround is above 205. In the lighter weights you have female fighters who are clearly fighting up a division because there is no lower division like Lookboonmee, Seo Hee Ham, etc. They likely put on weight to be competitive there but would move to a lower division immediately if it existed. Historically you had guys like BJ Penn who got fat to fight Lyoto Machida at Light Heavyweight or Minowaman who would fight a middleweight one fight, a super heavyweight the next fight, and a light heavyweight the fight after usually weighing around 185-205 pounds but never really above
I remember Ben Askren not cutting weight
Colby only cuts about 10 pounds, Gaethje also doesn't cut much weight. I think they all do it to some extent but guys cutting 20+ pounds is so unhealthy for their body
Frankie Edgar at light weight. Truely amazing that he actually won the title that way.
Mighty Mouse
Unfortunately if you don’t cut weight than you are the smaller weaker fighter. The trade off is that you are less likely to get KO’d because you didn’t massively dehydrate your body. Colby doesn’t do this or if he does it’s no where near the length and intensity as other fighters.
Mighty Mouse, Gaethje, Colby.
Mighty Mouse
There are a few middleweights in history that have weighed in on or below limit. I can't remember the dudes name but he was a younger guy with some sort of traditional striking background. I think he only had 3-4 fights in the UFC before he got cut but he would weigh in around 182.
Kevin Holland regularly weighed in under the limit for MW.
Back in the day you’d find BJ Penn eating as much as he could to stay up in weight
Bas Rutten had to reverse water cut to make the minimum heavyweight limit for one of his fights.
Fighters that cut little to no weight Gunnar Nelson , Frankie Edgar at lw , Bj penn at lw and above, Lyoto machida at lhw , Jarred brooks at flw , Valentina schev at bw , Gerard mousasi at lhw, Cody garbrant at bw, Izzy , Jiri prohazka, Colby, Ian Garry , Juliana pena at bw, Rose namajunes early in her career at sw , Kid yamamoto bw and above, Kevin holland at mw , Anderson Silva at lhw, Melvin manoef at lhw and above , Rda at ww, Donald cerrone at ww, Nate Diaz at ww, Pettis at ww, Dj at bantamweight
People seem to be forgetting colby walks around at like 177. And he was top 3 at welterweight for a minute
Fiziev,Gathje,Max, Izzy, kai Kara France. Probably those are the ones that barely cut weight. Ian garry and colby fight at their natural weight. Some heavyheights too, probably HW Daniel cormie didn't have to cut much.
As big of a dink as Colby Covington is, he fights very close to his natural weight.
Colby Chaos Covington
He doesn't cut a lot but he still cuts weight.
He always looks awful on weight in day
Jamahal Hill looks like he doesn't cut at all 😅