There’s a new type of heavyweight in MMA.  This heavyweight doesn’t see a 265 pound weight limit as a rule, he sees it as a guideline.  This type of heavyweight will come to be the gold standard in MMA and guys like Fedor Emelianeko will begin to look like relics.

Weight cutting is common place in MMA. Maybe the casual observer doesn’t realize that the welterweight limit is “170 pounds” but, the guys standing in the ring on the day of the fight are often upwards of 185 plus pounds.  Take rising star Anthony “Rumble” Johnson who has admitted that he’ll start his training camp (about six weeks before the fight) at 220 pounds.  That’s 50 pounds over the weight limit!  He probably gets down to about 200 pounds and then cuts water weight the rest of the way.  If you weighed him on fight day it wouldn’t shock me if the scale tipped at about 195 pounds.  That my friends is insane.  In the ring he’s bigger then the allotted limit for Middleweights (185) and damn close to the limit for Light Heavyweight.

The problem doesn’t begin or end with Anthony Johnson.  Every fighter cuts weight, you have to in order to maintain a competitive advantage.   Weight cutting, however, never had really found it’s way to the heavyweight division.  While Lightweights, welterweights, middleweights and light heavyweights always provide drama on weigh in day we never saw it with the heavyweights.  Smaller weight classes get on the scales in the nude to shed that final pound, the big boys weigh in with jeans and sunglasses on.

Think of the elite heavyweights of the past few years;  Randy Couture (220 pounds) Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (230)  Mirko Cro-Cop (230) Fedor Emilianeko (230)  Andrei Arlovski (235)

Now look at the weight of the modern day heavyweight; Brock Lesnar (265) Brett Rogers (265) Shane Carwin (265) Antonio Silva (265) Ben Rothwell (265) Gabriel Gonzaga (260) Todd Duffee (250) Frank Mir (245) Stevan Struve (245) Cain Velasquez (240) Junior Dos Santos (240)  Frabicio Werdum (240)

It’s not a coincidence that the first five guys on this list hit 265 on the nose.  Call it the Brock Effect.  Lesnar’s move to MMA brought weight cutting into vogue for heavyweights.  Let’s look at Lesnars weight log (This info comes from Lesnar himself.)

Previous Weight Logs:

August 8 ‘08: 265lbs (Weigh In)
August 9 ‘08: 289lbs (Fight)

November 14 ‘08: 265lbs (Weigh In)
November 15 ‘08: 276lbs (Fight)

Recent Weight Logs:

July 10: 265lbs (Weigh In)
July 11: 287lbs (Fight)

August 18: 304lbs (Pre-Training Camp) (After Workout)
August 24: 298lbs (Pre-Training Camp) (After Workout)
September 1: 306lbs (Pre-Training Camp) (After Workout)

Much like Anthony Johnson, Lesnar is a gigantic heavyweight and it’s a big advantage.  He walks around at 300 pounds, cuts to about 285 and then sheds the last 20 pounds in water weight.  The result? A hulking 290 pound monster in the ring on fight day.

At UFC 91 Lesnar fought Randy Couture.  Couture weighed 220, Lesnar weighed 276, that’s a 56 pound advantage.  At UFC 100 Lesnar fought Frank Mir.  Lesnar weighed 287 pounds, Mir weighed 245, that’s a 42 pound advantage.

The scary thing is not only is Lesnar improving in terms of skill but also in terms of figuring out how to cut weight.  He jumped from 276 to 287 pounds between his fourth and fifth fight, is it out of the realm of possibility for him to be 295+ pounds in the ring during his next fight?

And so we have the “Brock Effect”  it’s keeping up with the Joneses, bigger is better and if your not as big as Lesnar you don’t have a shot.  If Lesnar fought ‘Nog or Fedor he would outweigh them by 60 pounds.  Stop and think about that for a second.  60 pounds encompasses every weight division in the UFC.  Would you honestly expect B.J Penn to have a chance against Lyoto Machida? Actually that happened and Penn got his head stepped on (and Machida only outweighed Penn by 50 pounds.)

Is Brock as skilled as Fedor or ‘Nog?  Hell no.  The problem is that Lesnar resides in his own weight class.

It makes no sense that weight classes go up by 15 pound increments yet heavyweight is left with a 60 pound range (and that doesn’t take weight cutting into consideration.) What if MMA moved the light heavyweight limit down 5 pounds to 200 (which would make sense considering it’s the only weight class that doesn’t go up the standard 15 pound increment) and added a cruiser weight division that caps at 225.  Fighters like ‘Nog, Fedor, AA, Cro-Cop, Couture would have a home fighting against people their own size.  While the monster heavyweights (Lesnar, Carwin, Rogers) would be fighting other 250+ monsters.

Who loses with this move? The fan would get more balanced fights, fighters who never had to cut weight would be inspired to get into better shape to meet the new weight limit and the UFC would have a shinny new title belt to headline cards.

Are we really ready to let weight determine fights instead of skill?  If MMA continues on the path it’s on that will end up happening.