The Culture of Combat Sports and Cutting Weight

A Physical Advantage or A Death Wish?

Trixie Rosal

University of San Francisco

RHET 120 - Written Communications

Professor Chisako A. Cole

14 May 2018

Cutting weight is a very controversial issue in the culture of combat sports. While athletes, trainers, coaches and even commentators speak about this topic, I too would like to share some of thoughts. I chose this topic as it connects deeply with me in a totally different sense. Weight issues are definitely something I care about and for this essay, it was recommended that we write about our passions. To connect it to the sports culture, I understood that in some sports, athletes cut weight, which means to lose weight. The idea of cutting weight, did not really sit well with me as I also understood, the negative impacts it has on a person’s health. I, a person coming back from a world of a hectic cycle of starvation, purging and binge-eating, I know how grueling and unhealthy it can be. I definitely put my life at risk and I could have died. I do not wish that upon anyone, and for sports to encourage this sort of cutting weight practice, I do not agree with that. It is a topic that needs to be addressed, and addressed the right way.

Combat sports such as judo, wrestling, jiu jitsu, mixed martial arts and boxing divide their competitors into weight classes to allow fair competition between those of similar size, agility and power.

Despite the distinguished weight classes, athletes reduce significant amounts of body weight days prior to competition to qualify for lighter weight classes. Cutting weight is an universal practice used amongst many athletes who wish to gain an edge in their targeted weight class over their opponents to help them bring home the winning medal. Athletes endure rapid weight loss to drop a significant number in weight over a short period of time. For athletes to be able to achieve their targeted weight class, it is accomplished through a combination of aggressive and severe strategies they train their body to adapt to. Typically, athletes who cut weight before competition are known to be weight cyclers (Guilherme, 2016). Athletes are usually unable to maintain their body weight within their weight class limit as they would normally regain the weight immediately following weigh-in, rehydrating and feeding their bodies. Meaning it is necessary for them to reduce it again for the next competition, hence why athletes find themselves almost always needing to cut weight, and more weight as they grow older. Athletes follow this pattern of weight loss and regain, creating this idea of weight cycling.

An athlete’s weight loss before competition.

The body is in immediate need of fats and carbohydrates to converse into energy. But, there becomes an increase in count of stored body fat that store and conserve extra energy that are not being used. Fats and other foods, such as sugar, or glucose, is vital for body energy regulation, so it is important that dietary plans are taken lightly. Energy is conserved for when the sympathetic nervous system calls for it, or for instances like growing ill or going for a jog (Mittler, 2017). When chosen to starve or to decrease calorie intake, it one’s metabolism starts to slowly shut down. It is a defense of mechanism for protection and aids survival. So, when a person starves for a period of time, and then eats again, with a digestive system so slow, essentially taking longer for foods to break down, food lingers in the body, undigested, and so it shifts body weight to increase (Pegg, 2013). When simultaneously undergoing a calorie restriction, the body craves any calories it can attain, and it cherishes whatever food is being consumed. Not knowing when the body will eat again, because it tends to hold onto more food, more fat is stored, thus, also increasing body weight. Because athletes tend to use up a lot of their energy, it is crucial that they eat and maintain a diet that isn’t so restricting too continue the conversion of foods to energy. Weight cyclers gain more weight after a significant weight loss due to the body understanding it will probably starve again because of such cycle, so it holds onto more fats and sugar from carbohydrates that it can hold, preparing for when the athlete will starve again (Mittler, 2017). Meaning, when an athlete engages with weight cycling, the first time around, only so much weight will be needed to come off. The second time arounds, because the shutting down of metabolism and storage of more food, a lot more weight than the first time will need to drop, calling for even harsher methods to cut weight. The essentials in one’s diet.

Cutting weight produces an overall detrimental effect on the body. Although, cutting weight allows the athlete advantages and may even bring them to victory, it does lead to more harm than good. Athletes succumb to the dangers of cutting weight. One, because they do not have the reinforcement of their mentors who should initially be informed of the negative attributes of the practice. Mentors fail to understand what can array from cutting weight, jeopardizing their athletes with failure to understand the toxicity of the effects. Two, because athletes experience extreme stress from the sport. For competition, athletes would practice a regime of cutting weight to win a first place medal. Three, athletes believe they gain an edge, physically and mentally over their opponent, also believing that ultimately, they can win.

Cris Cyborg: Weight Loss Process (Click here to visit the rapid weight loss process Cyborg commits to, to cut weight and compete at every competition).

In most cases, cutting weight is the choice of the athlete. Some mentors recommend their athletes to, but some does force it upon them (Pundyke, 2018). Almost all athletes have a choice, and as most of them choose to cut weight,  a handful of them do not. That percentage of athletes that have chosen not to cut weight may be coming into competition with an unfair disadvantage from their competitor who did cut weight, as they do not have that mental and physical advantage cutting weight is supposed to accomplish for an athlete. Mentors are equipped to guide their athletes to win in a sport and be the best at it, but not in a way that puts the athlete in danger (Orion, 2017). With insufficient knowledge of the effects from cutting weight, it definitely can lead to unknown harms that the athletes may be ignorant towards, not believing it could be because of the practice itself. The biggest risk that a lot of these athletes endure is hypohydration, which is severe dehydration, starvation and overexertion. Other health risks include the impairment in cardiovascular efficiency and increases the risk of acute cardiovascular problems. With the combination of heat stress and dehydration leads to hyperthermia, which is a life-threatening case of high body temperature. Rapid weight loss induces acute and chronic hormonal imbalance, can acutely promote bone loss and can suppress immune function, increasing the susceptibility to opportunistic infections. More chronic risks associated with weight cycling, which is the cycle of starving and eating again, include the possibility of incomplete attainment of full growth potential and the increased risk of becoming overweight or obese after retirement from the sport (Guilherme, 2016).

Heightened health risks includes one that every athlete stray away from: death. Rapid weight loss revolves around harmful methods that combat sport athletes participate in that jeopardizes their health. Some instances were far more extreme than others. There are recorded athletes who participated in combat sports, whom have died during the process of cutting weight before competition. In 1997, three death cases were due to extreme hydration and severe heart malfunctions as they cut weight. (Pallares, 2016). November 9, 1997, Billie Saylor, a 19 year old freshman at Campbell University, died of cardiac arrest after riding an exercise bike and refusing liquids as he tried to lose 6 pounds. November 21, 1997, Joseph LaRosa, at 22 years old, a senior at University of Wisconsin La-Crosse, died of heat stroke after dressing in a rubber suit and riding a stationary bike in attempt to lose four and half pounds. December 9, 1997, Jeff Reese, a 21 year old, died of kidney failure and heart malfunction while wearing rubber suit and working out in a heated room of 92 degrees (Litsky, 1997).

Harmful and aggressive methods include long periods of fasting (>24h), exercising in plastic or rubber suits, saunas and commit to a severe restriction of fluid intake (Guilherme, 2016). There was a cross-sectional study that was conducted at the Malaysian National Sports Institute that investigated elite combat sport athletes and their level of aggressive weight-cutting. The higher each athlete scored, the more aggressive methods they participated in. The relative score amongst the athletes soared at 92.5%, 62.2% of which referred to training with rubber or plastic suits and 27% to meal-skipping (Xiong, 2017). Some athletes may even resort to unnatural regimes like spitting in a bottle, vomiting, diuretics and starvation, attempting to force upon the quickening of the process for weight loss. Others may also see it as a lead to eating disorders (Pundyke, 2018). Ronda Rousey, a professional wrestler, speaks about how cutting weight led her to her bulimia disorder. With a practice so unhealthy, so unnatural, it needs to disappear from the culture of combat sports for the sake of all athletes.

So, is cutting weight ethically or morally correct for combat sport athletes to commit to? The practice of cutting weight is a betrayal in regulations of weight classes, a deficit and violation in the spirit of the sport, and a potential performance enhancer method. All three reasons help to assimilate a strong conclusion that cutting weight is a form of cheating, and cheating isn’t ever really ethically or morally correct in any case. No, cutting weight isn’t at all correct and should be completely banned from the culture of combat sports.

“Combat sports are divided into weight classes that allows for fairer and more evenly contested disputes between athletes of similar body size, strength and agility.” - G. Guilherme

Weight classes are regulations that were made in the combat sports culture. They are the divisions of competition that are used to match competitors against others of their own size. Similar to rules, they are guidelines that avoid any unfair advantages of one competitor over the other. These distinguished classes ensure that each game is fair between the two competitors, however, the definition of weight classes is defeated when athletes choose to forcefully qualify for a different weight class that obviously is not meant for them. Also, the lack of compliance to regulation in weight classes become more severe when  athletes choose to qualify for a different weight class to undermine their opponent, trying to obtain an edge and doing so, through cutting weight. It leads to the unwillingness to comply with the rules just for a bronze, silver or gold circular thing. Extreme cutting weight to qualify for lower weight classes was an endemic in wrestling (Cook, 2013). Having the practice so negatively impactful to the athletes, instead of getting rid of the practice in totality, cutting weight became remains encouraged. State associations created programs that help manage weight in athletes. These programs monitor athletes’ weight cut journey, meaning, athletes are still able to cut weight into lower weight classes, despite the regulations. Cutting weight goes against the regulations, and what worsens that is that some athletes resort to lying, manipulating others into believing they aren’t undergoing rapid and extreme weight loss so that they aren’t stripped of their chance to compete. Prior to competition, athletes are weighed and pinch tested, which determines one’s fat measurement.

This test tells an athlete, based on the amount of body fat they have, the lowest weight class they qualify for. In Hawaii, the High School Athletic Association promises that athletes cut weight in a proper and healthy manner, which is through the allowance for them to cut a percentage of their body weight every week if enough body fat is seen. However, Pundyke explains the methods she and her team used to cut weight. Pundyke would limit her eating, eating more in the morning and then cut down throughout the day, would practice with multiple layers of clothing to sweat more, and would do extra workouts after practices. On the last day before competition, Pundyke wouldn’t drink or eat until she weighed in for her tournament. She admits “in reality, many people don’t cut weight the healthy way,” and yet, athletes continue to do so to compete in a different weight class. Athletes also, go through a hydration test (Pundyke, 2018), which calls for all wrestlers and other combat sport athletes to provide a urine sample. The hydration test must indicate that the athlete is hydrated, and if the athlete does not pass the test, they cannot compete. This test is part of a process to ensures athletes are not cutting extreme weight by losing an abundance amount of water to improve their competitive prospects and wrestle in a lighter weight class (Cook, 2013).

Reference to how hydrated one is.

Glencoe High School in Hillsboro, Oregon, there were six varsity and five junior varsity wrestlers who were dismissed from competition after the school reported to their state’s athletic association that they manipulated their urine test (Cook, 2013), attempting to hide what may be called, cheating to make lighter weight than their limited weight class they were assigned to. There are regulatory outlines for these athletes to follow, and cutting weight not only puts the athletes in danger with their health, but make them become compulsive with lying and etc., to keep their lifestyle a secret. These monitory programs ensure athletes are healthy enough to compete, but there is a hidden motivation that pushes athletes to qualify under below their assigned weight class to win a medal. Athletes betray the regulatory outlines of the sport, and for what? To cut weight dangerously, putting their lives in danger and qualify for lighter weight classes and then lie about it.

“Some athletes also believe the practice is a form of cheating, as a way to get an unfair advantage.” - Doug Dupont

All sports appreciate the fairness amongst teams or individual competitors. However, with athletes given the choice to cut weight, most of which choose to do so, there are some instances where “an athlete unwilling to compete having rapidly reduced weight would face unfair contests against opponents who are ‘artificially’ bigger and stronger” (Guilherme, 2016), and that presents a violation against the spirit of the game. Czarina Pineda, a judo and wrestling competitor who stands as the 2017 State Champion in wrestling from Hawaii, believes that although cutting weight is very unhealthy for an athlete’s body, it is a strategy. “It’s not a disgrace to the sport if you love it. No pain, no gain,” she says very sternly as passion stem from the sports she play. Kalissa Pundyke, also from Hawaii, agrees that cutting weight gives the athlete a physical and mental advantage, but she suggests that the playing field between two competitors is fair. She refutes that competition is all about getting an edge over an opponent, but she does not believe anyone has an unfair advantage because there is no involvement of any enhancing drugs or practices that are unnatural. What Pineda and Pundyke fails to understand is what the spirit of the sport falls in line with: ethics, fair play and honesty.

“It’s one of those situations where everybody has to cheat, because everybody else is cheating.”

- Joe Rogan

Cutting weight screams violation to the idea of fair play. An interview done with Joe Rogan was done and the controversial issue of cutting weight enrages him. He fires angrily that cutting weight is cheating that everybody does. Cutting weight allows a fighter to pretend they are 155 pounds, when in reality, they are not. “I walk around and I weigh about 195 pounds. If I told someone that I really weigh 170 pounds, and they’re like, ‘Good, I weigh 170 pounds too, I’ll meet you here at this time and let’s grapple or fight or whatever.’ If I really do weigh 195 pounds, I’m going to have a 25-pound weight advantage over that person. So if I trick them into thinking that I weigh 170, and starve and dehydrate myself to prove it, and then when we actually meet I’m healthy and back up to 195 pounds, isn’t that cheating? Isn’t that lying? That’s what people are doing. When people weigh in at 155 pounds and then balloon up to 175 pounds totally shredded and ripped with giant, full muscles … It’s crazy! What kind of game are we playing? Why are we playing that game? Well we’re playing that game because everybody is playing it. The weight cutting game is part of the whole MMA game now. It’s deeply entwined and integrated into the sport that you cannot compete against the best in the world unless you’re willing to starve yourself and deplete yourself, and I think it’s f—ed” (Rogan, 2014).

“I think that if someone wants to compete at 170 pounds, they should f—ing weigh 170 pounds.” - Joe Rogan

Ronda Rousey at weigh-ins and during competition.

Athletes cut an abundance of weight off before weigh-in, which is a day before competition. After weigh-in, athletes use that whole day to rehydrate and eat (Rogan, 2014). Athletes who cut weight actually do not compete with the weight they weighed in at, but an unfair higher weight because of how much they consumed the day before after weigh-ins, and how more abundance the foods will weight after starvation. “You don’t want to go in there and bully someone who is littler than you. You don’t want to go in there and hit someone who is 30 pounds lighter than you that you have some sort of ridiculous advantage over. That’s not in the spirit of elite-level martial arts. Elite martial arts should be people competing against people who are the same size as them” (Rogan, 2014).  Cutting weight is a very controversial topic, but it is a topic that needs to be addressed for the sake of the athletes. Athletes who cut weight jeopardizes their health and physique and it is a cascade effect, causing others around them to have their health jeopardized. When competing, there is an unfair advantage and there is cheating that comes to play. There is a definite violation in fair play, along with the deterioration of an athlete’s ethics and honesty.

“The screening wasn't for steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs, but to check on a form of performance enhancement more peculiar to wrestling -- whether the competitors had enough water in their system.” - Bob Cook

Studies have shown that strength and power are unaffected by rapid weight loss regardless of the duration of the recovery period following weight loss (Pallares, 2016) and that if the weight loss is quickly recovered, the effects on performance are not evident. That holds truth in a sense that cutting weight does not affect an athletes’ strength, agility and power negatively. What cutting weight does affect in an athletes’ strength, agility and power is enhance it, strengthening their athleticism. The World Anti-Doping Agency Code states that a prohibited methods must meet at least two of the following criteria: 1) enhances performance, 2) endangers an athlete’s health and 3) violated the spirit of the sport. Steroids, a performance enhancing drug, meets all three criteria and colleagues herein argue that rapid weight loss also clearly meets all three criteria to ban a substance or method from sport and, therefore, should be banned from the culture of combat sports (Guilherme, 2016). Taking steroids is highly similarized with cutting weight. “To quote the Anti-Doping Agency Code, this would ‘protect the athletes’ fundamental right to participate in a doping-free sport and thus promote health, fairness and equality’” (Guilherme, 2016). It is a form of performance enhancement more peculiar to combat sports (Cook, 2013). Combat sport athletes cut weight to gain a physical advantage over their competitors of the weight class they wish to qualify for. Athletes choose however much weight they want to lose, and they’ll endure dangerous methods and unnatural diuretics to accomplish it. Cutting weight enhances an athlete’s performance in a sense that they have the advantage of fighting well because they are able to beat their competitor who may look smaller in size and have less muscle mass. Essentially, a person who is normally 175 pounds compete in the 150 pound weight class. The person who cut 25 pounds is still 175, but the scale reads 150 pounds (Rogan, 2014). Also, weight definitely comes back to the person after rehydration and after eating. This 175 pound athlete competes with a 150 pound athlete who didn’t cut weight. Obviously, there is a clear advantage of the athlete who cut weight because they were able to  enhance their performance against their competitor.

Aside from cutting weight being an extremely dangerous tactic that athletes commit to that jeopardizes their health and sanity, cutting weight is a form of cheating in the culture of combat sports. It lacks compliance to the regulatory outline of weight classes combat sports have embedded into their culture. Athletes think it is okay to step out of those boundaries, believing it is ethical and moral, when it reality, it is goes against everything a sport stands for. It is cheating. There becomes an unfair advantage between the two competitors, betraying fair play, which is a essential part in a spirit of a sport. Athletes cut weight and become artificially bigger and stronger than their opponent, gaining that unfair physical advantage. It does not equalize the playing field between the two competitors. Cutting weight involves unnatural and harmful methods that enhances an athletes’ performance during competition. Any form of performance enhancement is considered to be cheating, according to the Anti-World Agency Code, as it should be. All three reasons help to achieve the idea that cutting weight should not only be addressed by a multitude of athletes, coaches and trainers, but it is a practice that needs to exit the culture of combat sports. It dangers athletes and is cheating, and cheating should ever be encouraged, let alone, allowed in a sport.