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In Defense of Missing Weight

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Clearly the Ultimate Fighter is a huge opportunity for prospective UFC fighters. It is no wonder that fans and UFC staff alike feel disheartened, irritated, and surprised that a fighter would waste such an opportunity by missing weight and effectively disqualify himself from this once in a lifetime opportunity. It makes sense that we should then feel they don’t even deserve a shot in the UFC! But in the defense of these young men and women, making weight is hard for starry – eyed UFC hopefuls and MMA veterans alike.

Part of the reason that The Ultimate Fighters is such a great opportunity is because they have the chance to learn the ins – and – outs of the sport from seasoned vets. And one of the ins – and – outs of this sport is the dreaded weight cut. These guys are early in their careers, and if they don’t have extensive wrestling backgrounds (eg. Anthony Gutierrez), they may never have had to cut weight. In fact, Anthony has been fighting at 145 his whole career, thus this tournament is the first time he has ever tried cutting down to 135. So one might expect that newer fighters, just learning about weight cutting, who are trying to take the opportunity to fight for the UFC, but because the UFC is putting on a show below their weight they are forced to cut further than usual in order to get the chance, may screw up like newbs do and miss weight sometimes.

Yes Anthony squandered something here, but I’m not sure if he deserved the heaping helpings of shame his team and Dana put on him. A newer fighter learned something about weight cutting and he didn’t succeed at it this time around. Chances are he will get better at it as his career continues. If anyone is wondering if I’m just some fan of Anthony’s…hell no. I was happy to see him get kicked off as I perceived him as a smug, know – it – all, and a bully, for those things I hope he does learn some humility. But the fact that it was due to sucking at cutting weight that has him leaving ashamed seems silly to me. He is four fights into his career, he still needs to learn the process. BTW, He isn’t alone in missing weight, here is just a short list of fighters who have missed weight (I also indicated those who have done it more than once, but frankly I didn’t even capture all the fighters in that list who have done it more than once):
Uriah Hall
Paul Daley X3
Dennis Hallman X2
John Lineker X3
Derek Campos X2
Rich Clementi
John Makdessi
Tim Means
Anthony Johnson X2 (probably more)
Josh Neer
Gleison Tibau
Ivan Menjivar
John Texiera
Jake O’Brien
Diego Sanchez
Efrain Escudero
Charles Oliveira
Damarques Johnson X2
Travis Lutter
Thiago Alves X2
Tyson Griffin
Hermes Franca
Carlos Newton
Paulo Filho
Thiago Silva
Joe Riggs X2 (possibly more)
Yuri Villefort
Carlo Prater
Shamar Bailey
Nick Pace X2
Quinton Jackson
Byron Bloodworth

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