Are fighters growing, or has cutting weight become just too ridiculous?
One of the toughest aspects of the fight game is the weight cut. Sure, every high school wrestler has his old war stories about everything from extreme sauna time to ingesting laxatives in order to hit weight before a tournament, but being a 16-year-old wrestler is not the same as being a 30-year-old professional fighter.
Young wrestlers have naturally high HGH and testosterone levels. They recover much quicker. They also take zero punches to the head. Combine the opposites of those three conditions, and a person could easily find a recipe for disaster in the fight game. Stamina takes a hit and recovery periods get longer when an older fighter tries the old weight-cutting game. These are major reasons why some guys get involved with performance-enhancing drugs in MMA training, but try to cut back as the fights get closer.
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Image via The Golden Cage
Italy is as sports-crazed as any country on earth, but so far, mixed martial arts has not caught on inside its famous, boot-shaped border. The Golden Cage, an upstart MMA promotion based in Rome, is hoping to change that.
TGC is the brainchild of President Luigi Perillo, a tax lawyer and the president of the Swiss MMA Federation, and Steve Dapper, a music industry executive and expert in linguistics. After two successful events in 2017 and 2018, the TGC team will promote its third this Saturday in Rome. The card, which will feature 10 pro bouts and 10 amateur bouts, will mark the promotion’s debut on UFC FIGHT PASS.
Obscure fighter of the week: Paul Taylor
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Everyone and their Affliction shirt remembers Gabriel Gonzaga knocking out Mirko Filipovic in one of the sport’s all time upsets. But the card was more than just the viscera of seeing Mirko eat his own medicine, and waking up with his ankle tucked away in his upper back. It also had a fun undercard with names that included Terry Etim (a hot prospect at the time), Matt Grice, Junior Assuncao, Alessio Sakara, and Dennis Siver.
And welterweight prospect