Making weight in a championship bout - clear up!

[marc goddard]

Can not speak for what they decided to do.

[marc goddard]

Without a governing body, how are such protocols decided and agreed upon? Is it a case of promotions doing their own thing or have all the promotions sat down and decided that this is how things should be done?

Sadly, this is exactly the case! no one needs listen to me and indeed any promotion can do exactly as they please.

Thankfully those in the know dont.

[TapouT1]

I'd guess the commission didn't know the rules.

They didn't want sonnen to get the title cos then he woulda walked right into UFC n took there belt and been a dual champ :-)

[iandean]

That's not what happened at the Sonnen vs Filho WEC fight for their middleweight title, is this rule more recent than that match or did WEC not follow the correct procedure, or did it not apply in the state the match was contested?

Their second fight at WEC 36 was billed as a non-title fight after Filho failed to make weight in Florida. But after losing in that bout Filho gave Sonnen the belt anyway and after the following event the WEC scrapped their MW and LHW's divisions.

It is interesting to note that the last time i checked in the state of Florida there is no automatic 1lb allowance given on non-title fights.

[BakedBean]

Bradley can you confirm who exactly your sources tell you where at the scales as I have differing reports.

Ignore the question Bradley this answers it:



So what happened after this? Didnt seam as though anybody gave a shit?

[Jimmy Boogaloo]

i was gonna be there. got given the wrong fucking address and wasted an afternoon. not that the reporting would have been any different. I would have fucked it up like when Boulter failed to make weight for Pickett on FX3.

[Evzy]

Not my reason for posting! - my reason is to simply explain the correct procedure and what should be followed, hopefully others can now know so as to avoid any further confusion anywhere else - like many other details/facets it was simply not known or understood by those present.

I was not there on the Friday as explained so commenting on what other people may have said/did I do not know.

Thanks.

Apologies if you took my comment in the wrong way, it was meant tongue in cheek squire.

Does amaze me though how BAMMA didn't seem to know this, as mentioned its happened before in other orgs - WEC Filho etc, surely its common knowledge/common sense? Its almost like BAMMA is ran by people with 0 knowledge of MMA at times, they need to pony up some cash and hire a few people who work in the industry to give them advice on these situations, how to use twitter to hype a fight, how to announce an announcement etc..

[PointyShinyBurning]

What Marc is describing has always been standard protocol in boxing (a few examples) and is what all the credible sanctioning bodies do. If you think about it, it's the only way it can work. Otherwise I can remain champion forever (or at least escape losing the belt in a fight I have no confidence in) by signing the bout agreement and then failing to make weight.

In MMA where the belt is assigned by the promoter rather than by a separate sanctioning org all sorts of shady bullshit happens (like stripping a guy of a championship because he wants his fights promoted by someone else). I don't think I've ever heard of someone "losing their belt on the scales" in MMA, in the UFC I think only Travis Lutter has ever failed to make weight for a title fight, and he was the challenger.

[marc goddard]

Apologies if you took my comment in the wrong way, it was meant tongue in cheek squire.

No problem at all.

What Marc is describing has always been standard protocol in boxing (a few examples) and is what all the credible sanctioning bodies do. If you think about it, it's the only way it can work

Correct mate!

This is a correct and working draft over from boxing, much like the 1lb allowance, 10 point must [as a scoring system - not criteria!] etc. etc.

This is the absolute correct thing to do if a champion does not make weight.

Many well known World Champions have lost there titles there and then on the scales - Erik Morales, JL Castillo etc. British fighters Scott Harrison and recently BBBofC stripped John Murray of the belt on the scales for failing to make the required limit. This is the right and just punishemnt for a champion who can not make championship weight.

This is the fail safe method - to ensure that Champions do not come in over weight intentionally, knowing that there only puishment would be a purse deduction and their belt would be safe. This ensures that fighters cannot plat this game missing weight 2 even three times in a row if they wanted to play the system so to speak in order to keep their belts.

To date, I am almost certain that no UFC Champion has ever missed weight in a Championship fight, the policy above would be applied if they did.

Many thanks.