BoxRec

Weigh ins for title fights are now held at least 24 hours in advance . I think I'm right in saying that the reason for this is to allow fighters who have dried themselves out to make the weight then have sufficient time to recover . This is fair enough . However , with expert nutritionists now on board and better knowledge of weight control ,what we now have is a situation whereby plans can be made for a fighter to enter the ring well over the official weight limit -sometimes by as much as between 25 - 30 lbs.I think for instance that Calzaghe would enter the ring as a fair sized cruiserweight for super middle weight title fights . This surely is a complete nonsense when you think about it ???
This is all down to an attempt to get an advantage over your opponent - and I think its an unfair advantage .
The traditional idea of having weight classes is to allow fighters of roughly equal weight to fight each other thereby ensuring fairness .
It will never happen but I would have the fighters weighing in for title fights in the ring itself just before the fight was due to take place . Of course both boxers could have check weigh ins all day long beforehand ,but the bottom line was making weight just before the fight started .People might argue that this could lead to fights being cancelled on the night - why ?? If a boxer can make the weight the day before as they do now why couldn't they do the same on fight night ??
The other issue is the danger to health . Would present day boxers ,managers and trainers allow their fighters to come in de-hydrated? I might be naiive but I think these days are gone . The fact is that fighters should be fighting at their natural weight without much dieting being needed .

I'v always thought a very simple thing would happen if weigh ins were held a very short time before the fight and thats just the really big driers would be forced to move up in weight. So someone like Scott Harrison under those rules would be a light welterweight and so on.

dalcumly wrote:Weigh ins for title fights are now held at least 24 hours in advance . I think I'm right in saying that the reason for this is to allow fighters who have dried themselves out to make the weight then have sufficient time to recover . This is fair enough . However , with expert nutritionists now on board and better knowledge of weight control ,what we now have is a situation whereby plans can be made for a fighter to enter the ring well over the official weight limit -sometimes by as much as between 25 - 30 lbs.I think for instance that Calzaghe would enter the ring as a fair sized cruiserweight for super middle weight title fights . This surely is a complete nonsense when you think about it ???
This is all down to an attempt to get an advantage over your opponent - and I think its an unfair advantage .
The traditional idea of having weight classes is to allow fighters of roughly equal weight to fight each other thereby ensuring fairness .
It will never happen but I would have the fighters weighing in for title fights in the ring itself just before the fight was due to take place . Of course both boxers could have check weigh ins all day long beforehand ,but the bottom line was making weight just before the fight started .People might argue that this could lead to fights being cancelled on the night - why ?? If a boxer can make the weight the day before as they do now why couldn't they do the same on fight night ??
The other issue is the danger to health . Would present day boxers ,managers and trainers allow their fighters to come in de-hydrated? I might be naiive but I think these days are gone . The fact is that fighters should be fighting at their natural weight without much dieting being needed .

there will always be someone trying to get a competitive advantage, which will mean there will always be people trying to drain that bit more/ rehydrate that bit more than others, so i doubt sameday weigh-ins would eliminate the problem completely (I totally agree with you its a problem of sorts), maybe it would shift the bar downwards somewhat but that'd be all IMO.

any sport where weight is a factor ends up involving weightdraining. check out a jockey's diet sometime