An MMA promotion has made an enormous call to further penalize fighters who don’t adhere to the principles.
While Arman Tsarukyan did headbutt Dan Hooker ultimately weekend’s UFC Qatar ceremonial weigh-ins, each fighter on the cardboard successfully made weight ahead of November 22.
It doesn’t feel like the problem of fighters missing the mark has been quite as big a talking point in 2025 in comparison with previous years.
The talk around eye pokes has taken over, though Bryan Battle was shockingly cut from the roster as a consequence of his weight miss back in August.
Polish promotion KSW, who’ve placed on some staggeringly big stadium shows, have looked to implement more punishments for athletes who aren’t capable of fulfil their obligations.
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The pitch
KSW’s major announcement on November 25 revealed that from their upcoming KSW 113 event onwards, fighters will likely be deducted a degree in the primary round in the event that they miss weight.
They may still lose a percentage of their purse and have the complete morning weigh-ins and extra hour in the event that they require it as normal.
Nonetheless, this now provides a punishment that may impact the fight itself and not only a percentage of what the fighter makes, which is something the UFC must also explore.
Hitting them where it really hurts
The essential argument for implementing that is that the purse percentage fines are simply not enough of a deterrent relating to missing weight.
Sure, a weight miss might mean that you just’re not within the UFC’s good books, but losing 20% of your money for something you agreed to which could impact the fight isn’t substantial enough.
It’s all the time going to be a case-by-case scenario but there have definitely been times where a fighter missing the mark has gained a bonus by having their opponent cut down greater than them.
Even when there wasn’t a bonus to be gained and a miss suggests that the fighter who didn’t hit the mark is compromised, they still signed the contract to fight in that division.
By taking a degree, you’re giving the fighter who did fulfil their end of the discount a bonus and affecting the opponent’s probability of securing their win bonus, which might likely far outweigh a 20% high quality.
It’s very rare that we see fighters turn down matchups after their opponent missed weight because they’ve already invested money and time into the bout, this a minimum of gives them a bonus for doing so.
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Is KSW’s latest rule against missing weight too harsh?
The counter argument
Taking money away from fighters who already should be paid greater than they’re isn’t ideal, but making weight after signing a contract is a component of being knowledgeable athlete.
Loads of the negative feedback that KSW’s announcement received argued that it will only result in more fighters pulling out on short notice once it becomes clear that they won’t make the load.
This may occasionally be true and there are definitely cases where a fighter missing weight has a sound reason for why it happened like an injury or illness.
That doesn’t mean that it isn’t right to implement stricter punishments.
One comment under KSW’s post argued that it removes any incentive for a fighter who’s going to miss weight to go ahead with the fight.
The motivation is unquestionably that should you pull out since you’re not going to make weight, you’re going to find yourself within the promotion’s bad books in a short time.
Similar to when fighters miss weight and are fined in the present system that almost all promotions use, attending to fight after this issue is the athlete’s opportunity to redeem themselves to some extent.