In 2015, Chinese language fighter Yang Jian Bing handed away, reportedly as a result of a foul weight reduce for a bout in ONE Championship. Lower than two weeks after his demise, the promotion instilled a brand new weight reducing coverage that concerned hydration testing, a number of weigh-ins, and renaming divisions.
ONE Championship’s been identified to push hyperbole and questionable claims, and what first appeared like a fast strategy to keep away from dangerous PR in China and the remainder of Asia, was ultimately marketed as a “revolutionary system” that supposedly solved a longstanding subject in MMA and fight sports activities.
“We don’t use the time period weight reducing as a result of there is no such thing as a reducing,” ONE VP Wealthy Franklin boasted in 2017.
ONE executives, fighters, and even personalities like Joe Rogan have since advocated for it to be extensively adopted in MMA, however is this technique really pretty much as good as they are saying it’s?
Nicely, aside from a really regarding lack of transparency for years, there’s actually been quite a few conditions with fighters dropping a number of divisions and admitting to reducing weight. There’s additionally horror tales of repeated reducing and hydrating all through the day, allegedly underneath recommendation of ONE officers.
Quite a few specialists on the sphere had been interviewed by Jason Hartley of MMA on Level on this matter, together with Dr. Oliver Barley, who has revealed a number of analysis papers on sports activities science, hydration, and weight reducing particularly for fight sports activities. Barley, who holds a grasp’s diploma and PhD in train physiology, believes that ONE Championship’s weight reducing coverage and hydration testing is “not good” in any respect.
“Proper now, the utilization of hydration testing, particularly urine testing, in making an attempt to manage weight reducing is a unanimous dangerous, a unanimous damaging,” Dr. Barley advised Hartley.
“Folks don’t actually belief ONE Championship’s weight reducing coverage, and I feel it’s their public picture total. I feel folks do see it as doubtful,” he mentioned. “Now if it seems to be like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, it’s in all probability a duck.”
In keeping with Barley, who has written papers on the matter, the science simply isn’t there in relation to hydration testing and its accuracy, particularly for athletes. He additionally has a difficulty with ONE Championship’s lack of transparency, together with the promotion utilizing what he calls an “arbitrary” cut-off restrict of 1.025 to mark those that are “dehydrated.”
“I’m not satisfied that urinary check hydration testing is a superb measure in virtually any scenario, however I’m extraordinarily not satisfied that it’s helpful within the case of weight reducing,” he mentioned, stating how these exams had been solely made for sufferers in a hospital setting. “These hydration exams weren’t designed for somebody who’s going to particularly aggressively dehydrate themselves after which rehydrate themselves.
“If we pulled in 100 folks off the road, my guess is 40 p.c of them would in all probability fail a urinary hydration check. Folks usually stroll round, in response to a urinary check, with at the least some gentle to average dehydration,” he mentioned. “There’s really a very good likelihood that you simply’ll be declared dehydrated even should you’re not.
“The factor that confuses me probably the most, is that (ONE) had years the place I used to be not conscious of a single battle being canceled as a result of urinary hydration check failing, which to me is so unbelievable that I don’t even know easy methods to describe it,” Dr. Barley mentioned.
In a separate video, nutritionist Tom Coughlin additionally introduced up different research that mentioned the “problematic” use of hydration exams for sports activities. He identified how the check can have a variety of components to present an inaccurate end result akin to eating regimen, drug interactions, and muscle mass, and the way it wants way more analysis earlier than being carried out in sports activities.
Aside from detailing how these exams clearly aren’t match for weight reducing eventualities, Dr. Barley additionally described how it’s also “ridiculously straightforward” to cheat. Curiously sufficient, he even admits to serving to some “huge names” in ONE cross hydration exams even with weight cuts.
“I’ve been concerned in serving to fighters trick this check. It’s not been tough, in any respect,” he admitted.
“Tricking the check is tremendous straightforward,” Dr. Barley explains. He says it merely has to do with consuming distilled water at sure factors to trick your physique in pondering you’re over-hydrated. “You place the fluid again in however not the electrolytes, so then the focus of your blood actually plummets and the kidneys really suppose you’re over-hydrated they usually begin emptying urine out and the urine comes out clear.
“It’s ridiculously straightforward. At the moment, I’m batting 100% in getting folks to trick the check. I’ve (a brief) instruction factor on my telephone that I simply copy and paste and ship it to them each time anybody asks me.”
As for why he’s prepared to share and expose these particulars now, Barley hopes that revealing its important flaws simply will get the whole system modified.
“The very fact is, large quantities of athletes are doing it anyway, and as these exams get larger and greater, individuals are going to work out easy methods to do it. Me telling everybody easy methods to do it simply rips that band-aid off, and strikes us away from an ineffective resolution, and tries to make us do one thing extra productive,” he mentioned.
“Individuals are going to make bigger cuts (realizing that) that they’ll trick these exams.”
I feel it is actually essential to notice that the rationale I agreed to talk out on this was to level out how flawed urinary hydration testing is, in that it will not be an efficient deterrent, and tricking it really poses a well being threat to athletes. So it is a fully unsound transfer.
— Oliver Barley, PhD (@OliverBarley) February 18, 2023
ONE Championships additionally has a rule that fighters are solely allowed to achieve 5% of their weight on battle day. That observe up weigh-in can also be regarding for well being and security, in response to Barley, because it might result in folks not recovering correctly.
“They simply eat meals, they’re already at that 5 p.c,” Barley acknowledged. “You’ve (additionally) decreased somebody’s rehydration. They’re not going to rehydrate as effectively, after which what you get are folks competing presumably extra dehydrated than they might have been should you simply allow them to reduce the burden and never test them a second time.”
As for anybody saying “then don’t simply reduce weight,” Barley responds that the issue isn’t easy and fighters are all the time going to search for an edge.
“Discuss to a fighter. It’s apparent that they’ll sacrifice lots to win. They’ll sacrifice much more than being kinda hungry, or being barely dehydrated. Relative to all the pieces they do, that’s tiny. Relative to the ache they put themselves by means of in coaching, the ache they undergo in combating, the self-discipline and energy they need to have — that is nothing to them.
“Additionally, this runs the chance of creating fighters suppose they’re smarter by tricking it. Going ‘you understand what, everybody else is now in all probability reducing much less weight, so if I do it and I trick the check, I’ll now get a much bigger benefit.’”
On the finish of the day, weight reducing is a posh drawback in fight sports activities. As Dr. Barley and others defined, it definitely wasn’t magically solved by a coverage seemingly rushed out lower than two weeks after a tragic demise.
“How might 12 days presumably be sufficient time? Whereas hydration exams sound like they match the invoice completely, virtually like a fantastic advertising and marketing slogan — I imply it’s known as hydration testing, it simply sounds good — however nothing I’m capable of finding on this topic backs up these claims,” Hartley concluded in his report.
“With the confounding components surrounding the testing strategies, relative ease of with the ability to sport the system, and the next risks round manipulating electrolyte stability, (ONE’s system) poses its personal very actual set of dangers,” Coughlin acknowledged. “This isn’t the repair that MMA has been asking for.”
“The issue is that everyone desires easy solutions to sophisticated questions,” Dr. Barley mentioned. “Hydration testing is a comparatively easy reply to what folks suppose is a straightforward drawback, but it surely’s really a particularly sophisticated drawback.”
Concerning the writer: Anton Tabuena is the Managing Editor for Bloody Elbow. He’s been masking MMA and fight sports activities since 2009, and has additionally fought in MMA, Muay Thai and kickboxing. (full bio)
