Weight Slashing

So Anthony Johnson missed weight by a whole 5 pounds for tomorrow’s fight- despite looking like he was going to die and reportedly being carried into the room for weigh-ins. There’s reports kicking around that he walked into camp at 220 or more, and was in excellent shape even at that weight. It’s tough for me to criticize a guy who obviously killed himself to make the contracted weight and will be paying both in stamina and financially for missing the mark- as opposed to, say, Jose Luis Castillo never trying to make weight for the second Corrales fight- but still, this is one of those instances where there has to be some discretion for commissions to step in after the fact. Rumble’s payed his price, and doesn’t need to be directly sanctioned; but when a young man of 25 whose body is still filling out misses weight by this much despite going to the utmost in an attempt to make it, it’s blatantly obvious that he’s out-grown the 170 pound class and it’s potentially a great danger to him- and a risk for his opponents- for him to be fighting there any more. In future, I have to think the interests of the sport would be served by commissions refusing to accept contracts for a fighter at the weight he’s missed in instances like this.