Chael Sonnen: ‘Cheating’ fighters who miss weight should not be allowed to fight

Fighters who fail to make the weight limit once they step on the scales is quite a norm within the mixed martial arts realm. The most notable recent case was undefeated strawweight Mackenzie Dern, who missed the mark by seven pounds for her UFC 224 fight against Amanda Bobby Cooper more than a week ago.

Former UFC contender Chael Sonnen recognizes this recurring problem within the sport, and during a recent episode of his Beyond the Fight podcast, he proposed a solution.

“My solution is ‘you’re done, you’re not fighting, go home,’” Sonnen said. “’You’re cut, you’re released’, however extreme you want to get with it.”

“’You broke the deal, you cheated, you lied on the contract, and we’re not using you.’ And I agree that with the plethora of people in MMA that miss weight, sometimes two and three people a night, that that is a significant problem.”

Sonnen feels that immediately imposing a hefty sanction on an erring fighter should be able to curb this kind of trend.

“I would also argue as an experiment, we can run shockwaves through this sport right now by yanking one guy,” Sonnen said. “One cheater, one violator. Don’t just take his money, up it to a disqualification, pay the other person, and I don’t think you would have that problem for another two or three years.”

Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz called Dern out for missing weight and “cheating” and it something that Sonnen is in full agreement with.

“I really did appreciate that Dom called it out because that’s what it is,” Sonnen said. “You cheated, there’s a rule here. A signed, written rule that comes with a punishment.”

“That’s how we know things are rules,” he continued. “There’s a punishment, then there was a rule. And you broke it, and it is cheating. Dom called it cheating, Dom called it the right word.”

In May 2017, the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) passed a ten-point plan that was aimed to solve the problems of extreme weight cutting and dehydration. Apart from a 20 percent fine of their win bonuses, the said plan also requires fighters to move up in weight if they gain back more than ten percent of their body weight during a fight-day check.