3 Filipino MMA fighters back new ONE FC weigh-in policy

Nissi Icasiano

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3 Filipino MMA fighters back new ONE FC weigh-in policy
ONE Championship adopts a new procedure to prevent its athletes from cutting massive amounts of weight before a fight

MANILA, Philippines – Three renowned homegrown talents from the Philippines have given a stamp of approval to ONE Championship’s new weigh-in policy.

After the sudden and tragic passing of Chinese combatant Yang Jian Bing due to a heart attack last December, Asia’s largest mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion adopted a new procedure to prevent its athletes from losing too much weight before a bout.

The objective of the new weigh-in policy is to ban conventional weight-cutting practices and dehydration by having ONE fighters compete at their “walking-around” weights.

All fighters must be within the limits of their weight class 3 weeks before a fight as part of the 8-week competition zone.

In addition, an athlete’s body weight can be more than 6% over the allowable perimeter 8 weeks before a bout, but the weight number should gradually decrease until the final 3 weeks.

Fighters may also petition to change weight classes outside of the 8-week competition zone.

Multiple weight checks and urine tests will monitor the fighter’s compliance.

Eduard Folayang, who is widely considered as the face of Philippine MMA, said that the new weigh-in policy prolongs the careers of combat athletes like him as they will no longer need to squeeze themselves through the eye of a needle just to meet the contracted weight border.

“I believe the new policy will extend every fighter’s career in MMA. First, it is safe. Second, it keeps the fighters healthy all throughout the process. And last, the conventional process of cutting weight is actually painstaking. More or less, it decreases the fighter’s performance on fight night,” Folayang told Rappler. 

Folayang turned back the clock in his 3-round lightweight contest against Japan’s Tetsuya Yamada on Friday, January 29. He pummeled his opponent with his striking arsenal and efficiently used his takedown defense to claim a unanimous decision and his first win since being knocked out by Russian prospect Timofey Nastyukhin in December 2014.

The 32-year-old native of Baguio City was able to drop Yamada with a left hook in the first round and employed looping right hands, spinning back kicks, and an effective sprawl that forced his Japanese counterpart to desperately shoot for takedowns. 

Meanwhile, Geje Eustaquio welcomed ONE’s new weigh-in system with open arms because it made him comfortable all throughout fight week. 

“I really felt comfortable. I was not prohibited to eat and drink unlike before. All I have to do is maintain, which is an easy task rather than forcing yourself to lose weight for your fight,” he said.

Eustaquio scored an emphatic knockout victory over Malaysia’s Saiful Merican by delivering a left hook to the temple before clobbering a brutal follow-up soccer kick to force referee Joey Lepiten to halt the contest at the 1:21 mark of the first round.

Eric Kelly is also in favor of the new weigh-in procedure, asserting that it is a good opportunity for prizefighters to remain at the top level.

“All I had to do was eat and train for my fight. Maintaining was so easy. I believe fighters will be able to fight until they are in their 40s with this new weigh-in procedure,” said Kelly, who was submitted by Malaysian-Kiwi sensation Ev Ting with a third-round guillotine choke in the main event of ONE: Clash of Heroes over the weekend.

ONE chief executive officer Victor Cui admitted that there are still a few items that need to be fine-tuned in the revamped weigh-in policy.

“So far, we had good feedback from coaches and our athletes. As we move forward, we still have to study and tweak some [items] in the new weigh-in procedure to make it safer for everybody. We are still learning, and we will continue to learn and progress along the way. It’s for the better good of this wonderful sport,” Cui said. – Rappler.com

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