Making The Cut: The Advantages of Being The Biggest Loser

Almost every competitor in weight classed sports cuts weight, be it from boxers, to wrestlers and yes of course mixed martial artists. There are many sceptics on the art of weight cutting, yes people call it an art because it takes skill; knowledge and a whole lot of practice, but you will realize that if done right the advantages are with out question worth it. 

There was a question I touched on in the introduction of this topic, “Why would a fighter cut weight?” Well for people that do not compete in weight classed events they tend to think that this is not a very intelligent thing to do if you consider all the risks involved. Let me explain it to you like this, in MMA there are weight limits for certain classes and since the object of a weight class is to be the strongest and the heaviest in that particular class, athletes devised a plan to do so. This of course is achieved by cutting your weight down to a lower class only to add it back after the weigh ins.

It must be noted that for the most effective weight cuts, weigh ins should be performed the day before to give the fighter about 20 – 30 hours to recover and return to full strength.

Size

One of the most obvious advantages is size because it is easily visible to the naked eye. If weight cutting is done correctly that person should visibly be larger than a person who cut less or even did not cut at all.

“So what does this all mean in terms of MMA?” You may ask. Well it is pretty basic, besides the obvious intimidation factor that a person is likely to have, there should be a great advantage in three other areas namely the clinch; wrestling (take downs); and the ground game.

Size usually helps with defence, as trying to keep control of a bigger person and put on submissions such as a triangle from your guard is tougher on a bigger framed person than a person with the same strength but smaller stature. Even if the smaller person gets top position, it is drastically more difficult to keep a larger man on his back and prevent him from getting to his feet.  It is basically the same for the clinch, where you would exert more energy on trying to keep a bigger person immobile, be it in the centre of the cage or be it up against it, size plays a big role , pardon the pun. In terms of wrestling, ask anyone who has tried  to take down a significantly larger opponent it feels like their sprawl is going to squash you. 

Strength  

Here is one of the  main reasons why most fighters cut weight, to be stronger than your opponent. This needs no explanation as you would hit harder, clinch tighter, throw and  take down the person way easier. In terms of the ground game, you will be able to power out of submissions and crank them with even more power and ease.

It may only be an advantage in two areas but these two areas play a major role in which way the fight will go. No matter how you think about it, all things being equal, being the bigger and stronger person you should win the fight.

So the question now arises about people that are naturally small in stature, what should they do seen as though they make featherweight without cutting weight. Well the answer is get bigger, hit the gym push weights and even the playing field. It is actually easier to get bigger than it is to cut weight but this has to be done right else there will be severe consequences, all of this will be dealt with in the article about hints and tips on weight cutting.

Now you asking well if I am going to be way bigger and stronger then I might as well go ahead and cut as much as I can for my fight. This happens especially to misguided amateurs and this could be very dangerous without the correct knowledge. So the next post will be detailing the disadvantages of cutting weight, be it too much weight or incorrectly cutting weight it will be dealt with.

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