UFC's First "Lightweights" Made Weight by Eyeball

Underground
1

Thought this was an interesting tweet by Campbell McLaren

Says at UFC's first 'lightweight' tournament (was under 200 pounds) every fighter made weight by guestimate lol.  Those were the wild west days of the sport.

Got me thinking though, with all of the contraversy surrounding rapid extreme weight cuts and the injuries and even deaths associated with the practices what's wrong with simply having fighters who pass the 'yeah, about same size test' competing without all the BS associated with weight cuts.

If its not for a title in a weight division who cares?  Would be no less safe than the norm of fighters flirting with death's door 24 hours prior to a bout.  

An AC should consider experimenting with the idea. 

Campbell McLaren

Good question amigo. We went by guesstimates.

Quote Tweet

Matthew Hawkins

Replying to @campbellcombate

Interesting so the UFC ran their first under 200lb tournament without confirmation of weight?

2

In all fairness, scales hadn’t been invented yet

4 Likes
3

Havng fighters around the same size would be way safer.

3 Likes
4

Too risky. Then you’d just have people cutting height to look smaller for the eyeball test.

4 Likes
5

I was covering an event in Reno for Full Contact Fighter and knew the promoter.  I got there and he was all flustered.  He asked me to weigh in the fighters.  Hahhaha!  On a hotel gym scale I weighed them in.  One of the fighters was over weight.  I was making it up as I went.  I told the two managers of the fighters to talk in the hall and see if a resolution could be made between them and then we would go to the promoter together.  Literally made that shit up to get them out of the gym and get the next guy on the scale.  Another guy wanted to know if he could wear wrestling shoes.  I said confidently "That will be covered at the rules meeting with the officials".  No idea if there was any rules meeting or not.

Everyone "made weight".

3 Likes
6
Samoa -

I was covering an event in Reno for Full Contact Fighter and knew the promoter.  I got there and he was all flustered.  He asked me to weigh in the fighters.  Hahhaha!  On a hotel gym scale I weighed them in.  One of the fighters was over weight.  I was making it up as I went.  I told the two managers of the fighters to talk in the hall and see if a resolution could be made between them and then we would go to the promoter together.  Literally made that shit up to get them out of the gym and get the next guy on the scale.  Another guy wanted to know if he could wear wrestling shoes.  I said confidently "That will be covered at the rules meeting with the officials".  No idea if there was any rules meeting or not.

Everyone "made weight".

Lol! That all sounds about right from the old days. 

7
Kirik -

Havng fighters around the same size would be way safer.

Well said Kirik.

Would be interesting to see if an AC experimented with the 'eyeball' weight what kind of data would be generated from such bouts.  

8

I've seen Colby vs Lebron being discussed on a variety of media platforms. 

David vs Goliath is always intriguing.  Size vs skill

I want those back.

If you think about it, you don't really get to choose your opponents size in a street fight, which is far more realistic than organized mma. 

9
BringBackHeadbutts -

I've seen Colby vs Lebron being discussed on a variety of media platforms. 

David vs Goliath is always intriguing.  Size vs skill

I want those back.

If you think about it, you don't really get to choose your opponents size in a street fight, which is far more realistic than organized mma. 

![](upload://mWm5bMsUCcCy0dXRfIwgzRKnlyp.gif)

10

How reliable is the “eye test” though? I feel like I could give a rough estimate of somebody’s weight, but determining if they belong in the same weight by looking at them? Probably not. But if the division’s only requirement is > 200 lbs, maybe being fairly accurate would be enough.