ONE Championship Announces New Weigh-in Policy Following Fighter Death

On the same day it announced the autopsy report for fighter Yang Jian Bing, Asia's ONE Championship MMA promotion revealed a sweeping new policy designed to curb dangerous practices for making weight.

The promotion released the details Wednesday in a statement on its website. Under the new policy, which ONE touts as the first of its kind in combat sports, fighters will compete at their "walking-around" weight, effectively banning all dehydration and weight-cutting practices. Multiple weigh-ins and tests—including a weigh-in three hours before a scheduled fight—will determine and monitor fighter compliance.

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#BREAKINGNEWS: @ONEFCMMA introduces new Weigh-in Program; BANS weight-cutting by dehydration https://t.co/enilp1Bamr pic.twitter.com/s6wOFgpcEM

— Jason ONE (@jasononefc) December 23, 2015"

The program takes effect in January. In the statement, Matt Hume, a UFC veteran fighter and ONE Championship's vice president of operations and competition, said: 

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After bringing in top medical officials from both the USA and Asia, we believe we have put together the best possible weigh-in program in combat sports. This program will revolutionize the way weigh-ins are conducted around the world and we look forward to the positive outcome it will have on safety standards related to weight-cutting globally.

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It will be interesting to see how fighters react to the new policy. Though it is clearly a strong measure designed to deter the kinds of tragedies that befell Bing, there is a longstanding resistance to such blanket policies. Many different methods have been suggested for safer weight-cutting, and the practice has received more attention of late, but nothing has garnered consensus support from athletes, regulators and medical professionals.

At least initially, the policy got a boost on social media from the promotion's most visible fighter—star welterweight Ben Askren.

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Getting full info before I make statement. Weight cutting in MMA was in need of an overhaul, hopefully this helps https://t.co/xdAbqC5KxZ

— Ben Askren (@Benaskren) December 23, 2015"

Weight-cutting has been used for decades across combat sports as a means of losing weight to reach a given division's weight limit before quickly gaining weight back (usually through rehydration) as a means of gaining a maximum size advantage over one's opponent.

Bing died December 11 because of complications related to his weight cut. The autopsy report released Wednesday indicated the 21-year-old flyweight died of "acute myocardial infarction" (i.e., heart attack).