UFC Liverpool: The Early Morning Weigh Ins.

UFC Liverpool:

Without drama at a UFC weigh-in it seems to make the story incomplete, it’s almost expected, and UFC didn’t disappoint. Local fighters Darren Till and Molly McCann both missed weight.

Till had a family emergency which hampered his efforts to make the welterweight limit and McCann probably due to a miscalculation also missed weight.

It’s been nearly 2 years since the UFC introduced it’s early morning weigh-ins, and the statistics are quite alarming, Mike Bohn produced these figures:

June 3 represents the 2-year anniversary of first-ever UFC “early weigh-in”

The 2 years leading up that point: Just 22 instances of fighters missing weight for UFC fights.

In 2 years since early weigh-ins began: Nearly triple, with 62 fighters having missed weight for UFC bouts

The change was made to allow fighters more time to rehydrate, and to make it safer for the fighters, but has it done the complete opposite. While I accept there might be issues where some fighters don’t make weight properly or are simply in the wrong weight division, the figures tell an alarming story.

Daniel Cormier says fighters have to go to bed the night before dehydrated, do the early morning weigh-ins make it more dangerous, the whole issue needs looking at. I have said before more rigorous checking of weights in the week leading up to the fight would be a start, it would almost force fighters to fight at a weight which is more reflective of their natural weight.

Both McCann and Till now have stipulations that they can’t weigh more than a certain weight, in the case of Till it’s particularly worrying. Till has a notoriously difficult weight cut, coming down from as much as 210 pounds to make 170, and the stipulation says he can’t go above 188 when he has his agreed check weigh in later today. The stipulation is both dangerous and also raises questions why is Till fighting at welterweight.

It will be interesting to see what kind of performance Till puts in tonight against the best opponent he has ever faced. Too much too soon I have heard said about his step up in opposition, but I think it might also apply to his weight, I have serious concerns about both.

Main Card:

Stephen Thompson vs. Darren Till
Neil Many vs. Craig White
Arnold Allen vs. Mads Burnell
Jason Knight vs. Makwan Amirkhani
Claudio Silva vs. Nordine Taleb
Eric Spicely vs. Darren Stewart

Undercard:

Dan Kelly vs. Tom Breese
Brad Scott vs. Carlo Pedersoli Jr.
Gina Mazany vs. Lina Lansberg
Gillian Robertson vs. Molly McCann

Undercard (UFC Fight Pass)

Elias Theodorou vs. Trevor Smith