I despise so called “coaches” who willingly take risks with their athletes health in order to chase glory for either their own or the athlete’s ego.
One case this past week of a female fighter being made to lose 1 1/2 stone in the 4 weeks before a fight so that she can fight a weight-class below in order to go for a “title”.
How was this achieved? Running in cling-film and borderline starvation.
The result? A lost fight and a mentally and physically damaged fighter.
There’s a good chance her menstrual cycle will be damaged – a concern for any woman dropping to single digit body-fat levels in such a quick-fix, bullshit way.
I don’t know what angers me more the fact it happened, or that it happened via an experienced coach who I had in high esteem because of their experience.
If the fighter has to cut that much weight just prior to a fight either they are in the wrong weight class (as in this case) or they need to re-assess their nutrition the other 11 months of the year.
I would like to say this is isolated, but a similar thing occurred recently when BJ Benn had to cut weight at short notice at UFC:112 to fight Frankie Edgar. In this case I think it was more about bad nutrition the rest of the year.
That’s my rant over…for now.