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'Big' John McCarthy says weight-cutting more dangerous than PEDs in MMA

Veteran MMA referee John McCarthy doesn’t believe fighters should be able to dope. But when it comes to the sport’s health risks, he sees weight-cutting as an even bigger issue.

“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,” McCarthy told MMAjunkie Radio.

The figures on performance-enhancing drug use in the sport are a mere guess, with estimates ranging from 50 percent to 95 percent of active fighters. But the number that should catch people’s attention, McCarthy indicated, is the one associated with those trying to gain an advantage by fighting the scale.

“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.”

The issue has prompted some regulators to crack down on the practice, with the California State Athletic Commission recently upping its penalty for fighters who miss weight and moving to implement a variety of measures to make sure they are competing at a healthy weight. That includes holding them to the weight division they identify in licensing paperwork and further empowering medical officials to make sure they aren’t endangering themselves through excessive dehydration.

McCarthy expects the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the UFC’s anti-doping partner, to soon play a part in curbing excessive weight cuts, putting fighters they test on the scale to establish a baseline for their walk-around weight so if the number drops precipitously on fight week, regulators know to scrutinize them further.

“There’s a doctor that’s going to say you can go no lower than ‘this,'” he said.

McCarthy cited a recent light heavyweight title fight between champ Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson at UFC 210 as an example of the problem. He said Cormier weighed in on the night of the fight at 236 pounds, or 31 pounds over the 205-pound mark certified for the contest, after he appeared to game officials following an initial weight miss.

Several fighters have been forced to withdraw from events in the days beforehand due to complications from weight cutting. Some have been hospitalized. Although none have knowingly suffered immediate long-term effects, the international MMA scene has been rocked by a pair of deaths in 2013 and 2015. McCarthy indicated the problem will continue to get worse until regulators step in.

“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.”

To hear more from McCarthy, check out the above video,

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