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Weight cutting is worse than you think, and it needs to change

Weight classes exist for a reason.

Typically, in combat sports, we hear this phrase invoked when a little fighter gets smoked by a bigger one. Light heavyweight Fabio Maldonado’s famous durability fails spectacularly just 30 seconds into a scrap with heavyweight Stipe Miocic — “ah, well, you know: weight classes exist for a reason.”

The aphorism takes on a new shade of irony in the context of modern MMA.

Frankie Edgar has long been lauded for successfully holding onto a title in a division in which most of the challengers were larger than him. From 2010 to 2012, The Answer was the UFC’s king of the lightweights.