With UFC women’s strawweight Mackenzie Dern missing weight for her most recent octagon performance by nearly eight pounds and UFC welterweight Darren Till having just missed weight for UFC Fight Night 130 by 3.5 pounds, the practice of weight cutting has become a prominent topic in conversation among fight fans. Now an interesting statistic concerning early morning weigh-ins has risen to the surface.
For mixed martial artists, making weight is simply part of the job. Fighters are required to hit their weight limits within a pound, or suffer punitive measures for missing weight.
Most recently within the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Mackenzie Dern faced a 30 percent cut in her fight purse for missing weight in a matchup against Amanda Cooper. Darren Till is set to suffer the same penalty for missing weight in his upcoming match up against Stephen Thompson.
As it turns out, the implementation of early morning weigh-ins may have had an effect on many fighters’ ability to make weight. Since the practice’s implementation back in June of 2016, a total 62 fighters have missed weight within the UFC.
Prior to the use of early morning weigh-ins, within a two year span, only 22 fighters missed weight for UFC match ups.
