Ask someone to think of combat sports, and they’ll probably think of people running, jumping rope, or shadowboxing in gray sweats. But all of those iconic montages of boxers sweating it out before a big fight are supercuts of a dangerous practice called weight cutting, which involves athletes rapidly losing weight via extreme dehydration. In recent years, there have been mounting cases of athletes being hospitalized, or even dying, after attempting dramatic weight cuts. It’s not just professionals, either: Amateur fighters cut weight too. And regulatory and cultural changes at the amateur level may actually be the key to weeding out the dangerous practice.
For fighters’ safety, making weight is a crucial part of combat sports. The idea is that fighters of a similar size are able to have safer bouts, so before any fighter gets into the ring, they step on a scale to make sure they’re in the right weight class.
