Weight caps in the UFC

[Laura]

I'm just watching Brok Lesnar fighting tonight and it's occurred to me that at 265, he's significantly heavier than than most MMA at 250. Why is this allowed? The guy leans on opponents wearing them down and he's clearly more suited for professional wrestling, which he once did. Why is this allowed? Randy will be fighting this guy next month and he's just 220. Who's idea was it to permit this kind of crazy weight difference? This wouldn't fly in boxing. Anyone else find it unfair? This makes the UFC look bad in my opinion.

[Flaves]

actually boxing doesnt have a weight limit on the heavyweight divison. anyone over 200 lbs is considered a heavyweight. i watch a match last month where a guy who was 230 took on a guy who was well over 300 any the smaller guy won. it can happen in MMA also. i think that the big guys will wear down easier IMO.

[chillaplata]

Evander Holyfield will be out to do the same when he fights Valuev in December. I agree with the general point that skill and conditioning can neutralize size, but it's still tough to see this one ending well for Evander...

Klitschko/Rahman, Holyfield/Valuev: Holyfield, Rahman Get Unexpected World Title Chances In December - But Has Either Guy Got A Chance Of Winning?

[chillaplata]

Originally Posted by Laura

I'm just watching Brok Lesnar fighting tonight and it's occurred to me that at 265, he's significantly heavier than than most MMA at 250. Why is this allowed? The guy leans on opponents wearing them down and he's clearly more suited for professional wrestling, which he once did. Why is this allowed? Randy will be fighting this guy next month and he's just 220. Who's idea was it to permit this kind of crazy weight difference? This wouldn't fly in boxing. Anyone else find it unfair? This makes the UFC look bad in my opinion.

The UFC heavyweight division does have a weight cap at 265 -- Brock Lesnar came in at the maximum. Thus it is possible for a heavyweight to be matched against an opponent with up to a sixty-pound weight advantage. In practice, of course, we are unlikely to see weight mismatches this big, since most fighters within 15-20 pounds of 205 are going to cut down to light heavy rather than fight as a heavy. Most of your UFC heavyweights officially weigh in at 230-240 and walk around at a lot more than that. Randy is a bit of an outlier in the heavyweight division with an official weight of 220.

Now a 45-pound weight advantage is still significant, but the obvious options for preventing such weight mismatches -- adding a superheavyweight division or lowering the weight cap -- present other problems. Lowering the cap will exclude talented athletes like Brock Lesnar from the sport, and there may not be large enough pool of superheavy talent to make a separate division viable.

Ultimately, the challenge is that the bell-curve of human size and weight has a long right tail. The alternatives are therefore to (i) cut off people heavier than a relatively low threshold, (ii) create one or more new divisions with very few people in them, or (iii) accept the risk of large weight mismatches in the heavyweight division. The UFC seems to me to be steering a reasonable middle course by having a single heavyweight division with a somewhat high weight cap of 265.