LAS VEGAS, NV - NOVEMBER 16: Georges St-Pierre walks into the Octagon to face Johny Hendricks in their UFC welterweight championship bout during the UFC 167 event inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena on November 16, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Count Georges St-Pierre as one fighter who is not a fan of the early weigh-in process adopted by the UFC.
The former welterweight champion will make his return to action later this year at 185 pounds, which is relatively close to the weight where he normally walks around prior to a fight.
In a perfect world, St-Pierre would like to see more fighters competing at a natural weight rather than damaging their bodies to lose dozens of pounds in the weeks leading up to an event to try and gain some sort of advantage.
In fact, St-Pierre believes the new early-weigh in rules where fighters are required to hit the scale on Friday morning instead during the afternoon will ultimately be a hindrance to athletes and could eventually result in someone's death.
"I'm not a big fan of cutting weight," St-Pierre explained on the "UFC Undisputed" podcast. "I always prioritize my health over my performance. By the way, I believe the new weigh-in in the morning before fight, I think it's a bad thing. I think guys see it as an opportunity to cut more weight. So I think it's a bad thing. I told Dana [White] when I saw him, I don't see it as a good thing.
"I think they have to change it because one day someone will die. One day someone will die and it will affect all of us."
The early-weigh in system was originally adopted in large part to give athletes more time to recover after a weight cut before stepping into the cage to compete. St-Pierre believes it has the opposite affect because with more time to recover, he feels athletes may be cutting even more weight.
St-Pierre believes a better plan would be to adopt a weigh-in system where athletes would be required to hit the scales a month prior to an event and then again on the day before and the day of a show to ensure that fighters aren't losing extreme amounts of weight just days before stepping into the cage.
"It's very bad for your health. Should learn maybe from boxing, maybe do a weigh-in the month before and do a weigh-in the day before and the day of the fight so you have a certain percentage of your mass that cannot have and lose," St-Pierre said.
"Everybody will be on point and there will not be any discrepancies of 'oh is he a lightweight, a middleweight' you will fight at your weight."
Based on the current system in place, St-Pierre says it's only a matter of time before disaster strikes and at some point a fighter won't be able to walk away from it.
Just recently, UFC lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov ended up in the hospital ahead of his scheduled bout against Tony Ferguson after his weight cut became too much for his body to handle. Sadly, One FC fighter Yang Jian Bing lost his life in 2015 after suffering through a brutal weight cut.
St-Pierre believes those situations will continue to arise until major changes are made in weight cutting regulations in mixed martial arts.
"It makes a big difference and I believe it's been done in boxing before. I believe it should be done in MMA because one day someone will die. It's sad to say but it's very bad. It's very dangerous. Long term it's very bad for your body," St-Pierre said.
"If you do it this way with the weigh-in the month before the fight, guys will be more regulated, they won't be able to miss weight all the time because they're going to have to fight at their own weight class. I think it would be a good initiative."
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