FACEBOOK TWITTER RSS APP PODCAST Opinion & Analysis : Amadi's Take AMADI: Dropping a weight class is a rash and dangerous move for fighters following a loss

Mar 23, 2010 - 2:11:18 PM

By: Jason Amadi, MMATorch Columnist

Ego is the most dangerous opponent for any professional athlete to have to face. Especially in combat sports. If you stay in past your prime, you are risking very serious and very permanent damage to your body.

Unlike any other pro sport, in combat sports, when you are faced with a loss, there is no actual team to absorb the loss with you. The fighter is the one left to figure out what went wrong, and how to cope. In MMA we often see fighters read off a laundry list of excuses, a la Tito Ortiz. Some fighters will blame their training and switch camps like Miguel Torres, and unfortunately, some fighters decide to move down a weight class.

Only one of those is extremely hazardous to your health, and that is the one I want to focus on. Sadly, when some fighters lose fights, they simply begin a new battle; but instead of being against another combatant, it’s against hydration.

The debut for the UFC on Versus was successful, with a number of stoppages and dominant performances turned in as usual. Jon Jones and Junior Dos Santos definitely stole the show with their respective main event and co-main event dominations, but after the event there is more talk about James Irvin and how absolutely grotesque he looked at 185 lbs.

Irvin had an almost two year layoff due to a suspension caused by painkiller abuse, but it was probably the domination at the hands of pound for pound ace Anderson Silva that sent him down a weight class. Ironically, it was Silva moving up in weight that sent Irvin down to Silva's natural weight class. I also find it ironic that going in to that fight, Irvin's big selling point was that he was a real 205 lb. fighter, and Silva was too small for the weight class.

Irvin is man who once competed at heavyweight, dropped down and looked shredded at 205 lbs., and then finally made an ill advised drop down to 185 lbs.. If you've never seen Irvin perform at 205 lbs. or missed his debut at 185, imagine Gerard Butler in the movie "300" and then imagine Christian Bale in "The Machinist."

This cut seemed completely unnecessary, but unfortunately we see this type of knee jerk reaction time and time again. Diego Sanchez had a dominant run at welterweight, but after two consecutive losses to American Kickboxing Academy's top 170 lb. fighters Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch, Sanchez cut weight and headed down to 155.

At lightweight Sanchez looked unlike his old self and never really dominated the same way he did at welterweight. He had a close decision against Joe Stevenson, an even closer decision against Clay Guida, and then got absolutely demolished against the 155 lb. king, BJ Penn. After that loss, Sanchez seemingly conceded to his body's wishes, and returned to 170 lbs. where he belongs.

Speaking of the American Kickboxing Academy, we saw a similar path taken by AKA's Mike Swick. "Quick" Swick has fought as high as 205 lbs., when he was on The Ultimate Fighter, but had a very successful run at 185 lbs. Unfortunately he outdid his fellow TUF alum Diego Sanchez, as it only took one defeat at the hands of enormous middleweight Yushin Okami for Swick to drop down to welterweight.

It wouldn’t be quite fair to call Swick's run at 170 completely unsuccessful, but recently Swick has hit an even worse snag at 170 lbs. than he did at 185 lbs., as he got lit up by Dan Hardy before being put to sleep by Paulo Thiago. Tough losses, but I guess Swick is okay with the defeats so long as can still see a grape travel through his body with an ease that only Mary Kate Olsen has achieved.

I suppose we should expect to see the formerly unflappable Miguel Torres debut at the WEC's new 125 pound division, since recently at 135 he's been, well, flapped. It's just an unfortunate side effect of there being so many guys who have turned dehydration into an art form like Thiago Alves, Anthony Johnson, or the world's first 200 pound lightweight, Gleison Tibau.

However, luckily in the case of James Irvin, UFC President Dana White has decided to intervene and say "no" to the "Sandman" performing at 185 lbs. ever again. However, you have to wonder if the dreaded "first death in MMA" has to actually take place in the Octagon the way that some fighters have decided to treat their bodies in order to gain optimum physical advantage.

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