WEIGHT-MAKING GUIDELINE NECESSARY

Las Vegas and Tokyo are two of most outstanding fight towns in the world. Unexpectedly notorious incidents took place there in succession on Friday and Sunday respectively. A couple of WBC world champions failed to make the weight to forfeit the belt on the scale. Diego Corrales couldn’t pass the weigh-in, scaling four pounds over the 135-pound limit, while Wandee Singwangcha was also unable to make the class limit of 108-pounds, weighing at 110.5.

Boxing depends on the weight categories to make the game fair and square with giving neither any physical advantage. Such a failure of the champ to make the prescribed weight becomes a crisis in boxing, since it certainly has the audience and TV watchers greatly disappointed as the champ is no longer a titleholder, and furthermore may not appear in the ring in his best condition due to possible depletion after severely reducing the weight a day before the title bout.

For the challenger who could make the weight, it will become a handicapped game because both of them are obliged to wear gloves of same ounces although their actual weight difference on the fight day is highly expected. The competitive-to-be bout becomes one between the exhausted by dehydration and the handicapped by the same gloves despite their actual weight difference (otherwise, the challenger will not be crowned even if he wins, should he use smaller gloves than ones of the dethroned champ on the scale).

Usually the winner will be the challenger as the ex-champ cannot show his high motivation to keep his belt. The ex-champ may fight only for his purse (despite a penalty) or only for his obligation to satisfy the promoter or the crowd (otherwise, he will be unlikely to be booked again). In the worst case, the overweight champ doesn’t make his extremely best effort to shed more poundage in order to conserve his energy to win the bout (in which he will become advantageous due to his superior actual weight in the ring and usage of the same-ounce gloves).

The boxing industry must protect by itself against the crisis, that is, the weigh-in scandal. We have to definitely have the game fought by boxers of the same category, as planned, as contracted and as publicized. The industry has had a policy of laissez-faire that obliges the boxer, trainer and manager to prepare to control and make the weight. But it often fails. Now we have to seriously consider establishing a new policy to supervise the boxer’s weight-making in his training process.

The promoter who presents a show and distributes tickets should check the weight of the boxers (the champ and the challenger) beforehand and report it to the governing body and the local commission of fight site. The WBC has had its guideline of checking the weight twice that the boxer should be under 10% over the class limit 30 days before, and under 5% thereof 7 days before the title bout. The WBC’s scale table is as follows:

It is a very logical and acceptable guideline. Problem is, however, that some promoters especially in the US fail to submit the weight report to the WBC. Those promoters ignore the obligation to do so, saying that it is the boxer’s duty to properly make the weight. But now that so many weigh-in scandals recently happened, the promoter has to protect his promotion to show his card just as he publicized to the television, pay-per-view audience and customers coming to the arena by positively participating in supervising the boxers’ weight especially of the main event.

Yours truly have a couple of alternative guidelines. If the WBC’s guideline seems complex enough to require a calculator, you may use the following guideline to regulate the boxer’s weight. It is to have the weight target of one-division higher class limit a week before, and that of two-division higher class limit a month before. If the boxer is a lightweight (135-pounder), he is hoped to be under the super-light limit (140 pounds) a week before and under the welter limit (147 pounds) a month before. The following table is described under this guideline of mine.

I have another idea to regulate the boxer’s weight. I used to a trainer to take care of my boxers since 1965. I was a very strict handler in terms of the boxer’s weight-making. I had a pride and confidence in my training method to have my boxers appear in his best condition, regardless of the results. I forced my boxers to make the weight: under 2 pounds over the contracted weight a week before, under 4 pounds over 2 weeks before, under 6 pounds over 3 weeks before, and under 8 pounds over 4 weeks before. I strongly advised my boxers to gradually reduce two pounds, not more and not less, a week. Reducing two pounds a week isn’t such a hard work, since they could eat (by selecting less oily food) and drink (gatorade or other sports drink to avoid dehydration) so properly while burning body fat through jogging and training at the gym.

The key point of my strict weight-making method was to have my boxers reach the checkpoint of 8 pounds over the limit 4 weeks before the fight, regardless of the boxer’s category, no matter how overweight the boxer is two months before the bout. Reducing the weight too much in a short period deteriorates the boxer’s condition due to a lack of nutrition or dehydration. Until my boxers reach 8 pounds over 4 weeks before, I sometimes scolded my boxers if they didn’t come to the gym with the mutually agreed weight between us. It was because every day my boxers and I made a weight target of the next day. When they were going out of the gym, I said, “Tomorrow come to the gym at about 138.” I believe it is the trainer’s duty to supervise and control the boxer’s weight, since the boxer often tends to yield to temptation to eat undesirably oily food or sweet things too much. I often advised my boys what they should eat/drink and what they should not eat/drink. My weight table was as follows:

I have hereby presented three kinds of weight-making guideline, for example. I personally prefer the WBC’s logical guideline. Whichever guideline you, the boxer and trainer, may choose, you have to take care of yourselves in making good condition to show a good performance to the crowd and TV watchers. If a jurisdiction or a local commission wishes to make its own weight-checking guideline, it may be acceptable. But it should educate boxing people well on the weight-checking guideline in respective countries.

The aforementioned weight report to the governing organization or the local commission should be necessary from now on as for world title bouts or important local or regional title games. The body and commission should give a warning to the boxer and trainer through the manager at the point of a month or a week before the fight that you should go on controlling the weight more properly, should the boxer be heavier than the weight of the guideline then and there. The boxing industry should be more careful in watching the boxer’s weight in his training process by cooperating each other among the governing body, promoters, managers, trainers and BOXERS themselves. Otherwise, the boxing industry may suffer the same weigh-in scandal time and again.

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