‘Big’ John McCarthy explains why weight cutting is more dangerous than PEDs

Two of the most talked about topics in MMA at the present time are performance enhancing drugs in MMA, and the dangers of weight cutting.

While the UFC has partnered with USADA to crack down on the number of active fighters who use and abuse performance enhancing drugs, the question of what the UFC and athletic commissions can do about the dangers of weight cutting has remained one that has gone relatively unanswered.

As time goes on, fight fans see their favorite fighters miss weight, or in some cases, even end up pulled from their fights due to weight cuts that are dangerous to their health.

In a recent interview with MMAJunkie, veteran referee ‘Big’ John McCarthy spoke about the dangers of weight cuts, saying:

“There’s no fight you’re going to show me – caused by performance-enhancing drugs – that almost killed the fighter in a way that weight-cutting is doing,”

“Almost 100 percent of fighters are going through weight-cutting, and they are doing things that are negatively affecting their health in a really bad way,” he said. “Although it negatively affects them now, they don’t understand the repercussions that are going to come down the road.”

“Now, (a death from weight cutting) hasn’t happened in the UFC, but we’ve had serious problems,” he said. “It’s a situation where we have got to start to limit what people can do. Because when we don’t limit it, we’ve seen they’ll go to extremes to try to be the bigger guy in the lighter weight class.”

Interestingly enough, John McCarthy explained that he believes USADA will play a major role in preventing fighters from cutting an unhealthy amount of weight, using a doctor who will inform fighters what the absolute lowest they are allowed to fight at is.

on 4/28/2017.