The numbers don’t lie

By makingweight - 03/21/2014 - Comments

canelo111By Daniel Hughes: There is a growing concern that the issue of fighters missing weight is now becoming all too common. The boxing world has certainly argued about the rehydration issue. Fighters draining themselves hitting the stipulated weight, then putting back 20 plus pounds by fight time.

The argument being well they made weight, unless you have an agreed limit or a second weigh in the fighter has done little wrong. The old days of the same day weigh-in, has left a window to exploit, many do some to great affect others not so. It is something that derives mixed views but the scales don’t lie you make it or miss it.

The issue can be resolved by a manager, promoter contractually covering themselves by agreeing, fighters can rehydrate to a certain agreed weight. The chances of the governing bodies stepping in and stopping this practice by imposing rehydration limit’s frankly none. The canvas is bare, however it is not the biggest issue.

The governing bodies need to really now crack down on missing weight more so than ever, serial offenders need to be dealt with severely. It was farcical here in the UK last week with the Fielding-Adamu fight, 168lb limit Fielding weighed in just shy of 175lb! The UK does not show the fighters in ring weights like HBO do, I would say Fielding 190lb plus on the night farcical.

The protection and interests of the fighter’s paramount 100% with that. Well what about those that are the other side of the coin? The fight generally goes ahead when a fighter handicapped by this unfair advantage gets financially compensated. The show goes on especially when the house fighter is the guilty party. The guy that trained right, treated wrong, cheated no more, no less.

For the younger fans the same day weigh-in was scrapped, to stop the issue of dehydrated fighters climbing through the ropes on the night dangerously weak. It has helped decrease the number of incidents of especially late injuries. The problem now being mismatches in ability one thing, size issue another. The school of thought, fighters waking up weigh-in time with no real intention to make weight, no excuses.

There are serial offender’s constantly missing weight something needs to be done. Boxing needs to protect also the other side of the scale, when the numbers do add up it’s those fighters I now have concerns for.



Comments are closed.