That weight-cutting is a big problem in MMA, most people can agree on. It’s in the attempt of finding alternatives, though, that the issue becomes fertile ground for discussion.

Former two-division UFC champion Georges St-Pierre (26-2 MMA, 20-2 UFC), for instance, hasn’t come to a perfect solution just yet. But, after a conference call with the New York Athletic State Commission, which fellow MMA veterans Randy Couture and Chael Sonnen also joined, he’s on board with what the latter fighter suggested based on his many years of wrestling experience.

“(Sonnen) proposed to do a weigh-in the day of the fight,” St-Pierre said during a news conference in Australia that was captured by Submission Radio. “So what he proposes, basically – we have weigh-in the night before the fight, like we normally do. But now, because the weigh-in is in the morning, people say, ‘Oh, I have more time to recuperate,’ so they try to cut more weight.

“And it’s sad to say, but sometimes I’m thinking, ‘Are we going to wait (for) someone (to) die out there to change things?’ I mean, it’s ridiculous. So what Chael’s proposed is very smart.”

Examples of the dangers of weight-cutting abound. A recent one is welterweight title challenger Darren Till, whose difficult and ultimately failed cut to meet the 170-pound limit for a UFC Liverpool meeting with Stephen Thompson made the rounds on the internet. Women’s featherweight champ Cris Cyborg has also released alarming footage of a cut down to 140 pounds.

While things have yet to take a tragic turn in the UFC, specifically, in a few instances we’ve heard fighters talk about how they feared for their lives during particularly harrowing weight-cutting experiences.

It’s in the “changing things” part, though, that things get tricky.

Take the morning weigh-ins, for instance: They were adopted as a way to make sure the fighters have more time to re-nourish themselves ahead of their fights than they did before, when they were supposed to hit the scales in the afternoon.

In light of discouraging stats around weight misses since the system was implemented, UFC president Dana White decided to revert to the old system – only to be met with some backlash from fighters, themselves, who seem to mostly appreciate the extra time. But St-Pierre, clearly, is not a fan of the system currently in place.

The Brazilian Athletic Commission doesn’t think the morning weigh-ins are the issue and proposed another idea: a wider range of weights within the same division. Many, such as UFC lightweight Kevin Lee, advocate for more weight classes – an idea that part of the California State Athletic Commission’s original 10-point plan, which also includes closer monitoring and possible weight class restrictions.

St-Pierre didn’t get a chance delve into that much detail in his less than three-minute answer. But, as things currently stand, he does believe that the issue should be dealt with in a broader level.

“If you make a weigh-in the day of the event, a lot of guys will lose weight, but they won’t lose in terms of (dehydration) weight,” St-Pierre said. “You know that if you go in to compete the same day you can’t dehydrate yourself. If you weigh in an hour before your competition. That’s what they used to do in amateur wrestling in the United States and you know how many people miss weight? Zero. So, now, it’s very weird that in a professional sport, in a professional organization, at the highest level, that people miss weight.

“I think they need to change not the individual, they need to change the system. I think the system can be made better. I’m not saying that Chael’s proposition is the best. But I think it’s the best that we know of right now. I think it would be the best solution.”

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