Update June 9, 2018 – Illinois has yet to reply as to whether they are following this rule but it is worth noting they, like many jurisdictions have a “we can vary our own rules” rule with section 1370.24 allowing a rule variance in the discretion of the commission if the following three criteria can be met:

a) The provision from which the variance is granted is not statutorily mandated;

b) No party will be injured by the granting of the variance; and

c) The rule from which the variance is granted would, in the particular case, be unreasonable or unnecessarily burdensome.

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Today weigh ins occurred for UFC 225 with headline fighter Yoel Romero failing to make weight for his middleweight title shot. The bout will instead proceed as a catchweight non title bout.

In the co-main event, both fighters made weight for what is scheduled to be a welterweight interim championship bout. Both Colby Covington and Rafael dos Anjos weighed in at 169 pounds.

Enter the State of Illinois Boxing and MMA weigh in Rules. These contain a unique provision for title bouts. Namely that fighters competing for a title cannot compete at more than 10 pounds over their weigh in weight. Specifically Section 1370.140 subrule (i) states that “For title bouts, contestants may weigh no more than 10 pounds heavier on the day of the bout or contest than their weight at the weigh-in.“.

Complying with this rule would be unusual in an MMA welterweight bout where fighters rountinly put on more than 10 pounds from their often profoundly dehydrated weigh-in weight.

I have reached out to the Illinois commission for details of how they will enforce this rule, or on what authority they rely on to waive it, and will update this post once I have their reply.