Lately, the UFC has been enduring a scourge of unfortunate weigh in misses. Fighters like Darren Till, Mackenzie Dern, Kevin Lee, Yoel Romero, and many others, have all recently missed weight for high-profile bouts, thrusting many fights into jeopardy as a result.
While there are certainly many problems with the way weight cuts in MMA are carried out, many fans feel the primary issue is the early UFC weigh ins. As it turns out, UFC President Dana White feels the same way, and plans to abolish these early weigh ins.
White broke it down on latest episode of The UFC Unfiltered podcast.
“Yes, I do think it’s [the early weigh ins], and guess what? We’re getting rid of it,” White said. “We’re looking at taking the weigh ins back to the way they used to be. So when the guys weigh in there, at the [evening weigh-ins], that will be it.”
“Here’s what I believe,” he continued. “Every time you change something, everybody looks to take as much advantage as they can of the situation. I think that when we started doing morning weigh ins, it was very good. Everybody was making weight. But then people started cutting it closer and closer and closer, thinking they can [cut] more weight because they have more time to recover, and the reality is, it fucked everything up. So we’re to going back to, at 4:00, when we do the weigh ins, those will be the real weigh ins.”
“The other thing is, I don’t know any fighters that are morning people.”
What do you think of Dana White’s decision to nix morning weigh ins?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/5/2018.