Women's MMA fight missed weigh ins

Any thoughts on this?

Should women not be disqualified from a weigh in just because of hormones?

Does 5-10 lbs really matter?

WOW, What a tough question!  I have to admit that when it's TTOTM for me I can gain 6 or 7 pounds overnight and I don't think I'd be able to lose it without dehydratiang myself.  OTOH, I don't believe that women should be treated differently.  5 or 10 pounds of water weight doesn't really matter but 5 pounds of muscle does.  The other problem with women's MMA is that there aren't enough fighters so their weight may fluctuate a lot to begin with.  And, I know that if I trained for months for a fight, I got there, the other girl didn't make weight and was over 5 lbs, I'd still want to fight.  Also, for women I think fights are few and far between since there aren't that many female fighters that they are probably willing to compromise more.

At least men know what weight class they are, women kind of have to see which weight class has people in it, haha.  Good question, I'm not sure.  My initial answer is treat women the same but if it were me up there and I gained my monthly water weight, I'd be really pissed because I wouldn't be able to control it without taking a prescription diuretic...hmmm. 

OMG, I never thought about that.

Personally, as a guy who loves the hard arts and would love to see more ladies in them (not for the same reason as a lot of MMA guys, warrant, but because I simply want to spread the gospel of Muay Thai as far as possible, and my enthusiasm leaks over to MA in general), I think it would make sense to address this issue somehow. 

Prescription diuretics might be able to take the weight off, but I would think that trying to lose the water gain during TTOTM could be dangerous and, like Snoop says, likely to result in dehydration.  It's certainly been known for jockeys and guys in wrestling, boxing, and MMA to do themselves serious harm via dehydration resulting from attempts to drop weight quickly.  It also gives a girl who isn't experiencing the same challenge an advantage -- IE, if one girl is dehydrated as a result of trying to maintain her weight class, and the other isn't, the girl who is dehydrated is automatically going to be fighting 'uphill.'

Add to the fact that, at least in Boxing, MT, and MMA, a lot of people seem to train at a higher weight and drop weight for fights, having to move up a weight class due to water gain sounds doubly unfair.  You might wind up with someone who trains at 150 but fights at 145 fighting someone who trains at 140 and usually fights at 135 but is stuck fighting at 145 due to water weight.

All things considered, it really seems like an unfair handicap for the girls -- not to say guys never fluctuate, but it tends to be less often and less drastic, and usually the result of personal excess (in the sodium department).

Snoop also makes a really good point about women's weight classes -- the whole 'see which weight class has people in it' thing would be mitigated if there were more women fighters, and there might be more women fighters if they knew they didn't have to worry about getting bumped into the HULK-SMASH! Weight Class just because their hormones have decided that ten extra pounds of water weight sound like a good idea.

We have a couple of female pro boxers at my gym.  If I knew them better, I would ask, "Hey, do you find that water retention at TTOTM affects your ability to remain within your intended weight class?  If so, how do you deal with it?"  Then, as pros, they train six days a week for several hours a day, so it's possible that they sweat out any water weight they might otherwise gain.

Does birth control (the hormonal variety, such as 'the pill' or Nuvaring) make any difference in this department?  Or do they make things worse?

HaHa, you said it much better than me!

I used to take the pill and had much less water weight gain, not sure how it affects others though.  Some gain on the pill.  I fluctuate a lot more off the pill.  I think I just need to figure out my body, either that or take over the counter water pills...I'll have to give it a try, see if it helps.

The problem with hormones is that they affect everybody differently...some people gain but some don't.

Snoop, you have a good point about hormones.  The human body is finicky!  Come to think of it, a lot of girls I've known have observed that they gain on the pill -- and not muscle, from what I understand; it's more like sustained water weight or something.

What are the weight class increments for women in different MAs?  (Come to think of it: I guess that depends, as always, on the governing bodies in charge of the competitions.)

Is it possible that slightly broader categories could mitigate the effects of water gain within reason, without resulting in unreasonably large discrepancies in size between opponents? 

I mean, I know that I, personally, wouldn't want to face a guy more than 20 lbs heavier than me (unless the difference was all in fat, LOL!), but within that range I don't think I'd mind.  Then again, I say this having never gone five 3-minute rounds toe-to-toe with someone 19 lbs heavier than myself, unless you count occasionally defending myself against idiots with more cells in their spare tires than their skulls, at which point the "difference is all in fat" principle likely applies.  I have trained with people more than 20 lbs heavier than me, and I will say that can be a bit ... errrr ... discouraging.

Oh, BTW -- and by 'address this issue,' I didn't mean 'disqualify people.'  I realized I never made that clear, LOL!

I know if that happened to me it would really take the wind out of my sails.  Yes, I'm in Muay Thai for discipline and health and the generalized all-around glow that comes from kicking people in the face (LOL) ... but to train hard for a fight, only to be knocked out of the running by something so arbitrary and unavoidable, might put a serious dent in my enjoyment of the whole shebang (thank you, overdeveloped Aquarian sense of justice).

For men's mma, they're allowed to overshoot the limit by 1 pound.  Maybe they should give more leighway to women for this reason.

Though the counter argument would probably be that women should account for this and get their "steady" weight a couple pounds lighter so if hormones *did* cause some water retention then they'd still be under the limit. :-\

It's a tough question because I really don't think women should be treated differently.  But, as a women, I know it's hard sometimes with weight fluctuations. 

I guess overall I would say that women need to make weight.

smwhipple - what's your opinion on this?

The only BJJ tournament that I did I was in the "Heavy Weight" category by 5 lbs.  Anything over 155 was Heavy Weight which really didn't seem fair to me.  The woman that I went up against completely deserved to win though because she had put the time and effort into building muscle even though she was about 20 lbs heavier than I was it was all muscle and she had better technique.

I regularly train with guys who are 20 lbs heavier or 20 lbs lighter than I am and it seems to be fine, the lighter ones carry more muscle for their size so it's reasonably even from a strength stand point unless they're in their 20s or have been training for years.  The heavier ones are harder, but then you don't get to choose your fights most of the time.    The few times that there are women around, they either seem to be 40+ lbs lighter or 40+ lbs heavier so it's completely unfair to either them or me from weight, but since the women are generally new to BJJ it's just more comfortable for everyone if I work out with them.

If I were in a fight of this nature I'd be ticked if the other woman couldn't control her weight reasonably.  If you're fighting in mixed weight classes that's one thing, but this particular event wasn't touted that way so I'd feel that there was a bait and switch.