Weight Weight Don't Tell Me...

... Please do not tell me that I am going to have to lose weight.  Please do not tell me that I am going to have to add endurance cardio to my already full training schedule.  Please do not tell me that I will have to give up eggs over-easy over rice and bacon cheese burgers and pasta and...  Please do not tell me that I have to quit Whiskey and Wine... And Please Please Please do not tell me I will have to deny myself the wonderful deliciousness of Beer Beer Beer...

Please do not tell me that I too will have to play the Making-Weight Game.

I have an awesome new training partner that has been fighting professionally for some time now.  Recently I asked her what she weighs and what weight she fights at as I am trying to figure out where I belong.  She tells me that she used to weigh 112-ish and fight 115 or lighter but now since she has added weights and strength training she walks about 117 and is planning on fighting 105 because girls are bigger now and making-weight.

105 pounds?!!!?!  If I fight at 105 I will be going toe-to-toe against women like you?!

Oct 16, 2010.     111.5 pounds.
Same Day Weigh-Ins for Grappling X.
Photo by Cassiano Laureano

I cannot help but wonder if my skeleton weighs more than 105 and what will be left of my itsybitsy boobies and how I could probably shed a pound of hair if I shave my head but my hair is the only exterior thing about me left that is still soft.

Most days I wake up in the world of 118 and making weight at 115 for me means that I have to add 5 mile runs and give up beer for a week, eat clean and light 4 days prior and then stop consuming food and beverages for 12 to 18 hours before weighing in.  I do all this because I cannot seem to trust my scale at home even though it has never failed me and so I end up weighing in light.  The thought of  not making weight is completely unacceptable to me for many reasons.

Fighting at 110 would not be an issue if I am willing to believe my bathroom scale.  Fighting at 105 would require being mindful of nutrition and adhering to a strict diet.  In my mind I see myself becoming a big headed skinny bodied alien looking fighting creature.  Which I suppose would be frightening to be locked in a cage with but is not necessarily the girl I want staring back at me when I glimpse into the mirror.  People tell me that I would have to lose muscle mass which is fine but already I do not lift weights or do specific strength training so I am not sure how I am to go about this.

I have a teammate that walks 160 and fights 135.  I have another teammate that walks 140 and fights 135.  Technically they are the same weight class but obviously the reality is that they are not.  Weight classes were introduced to even the playing field and make for fair competitive fights.  The intention is good but the outcome is athletes on extreme diets putting themselves through dehydration, eating disorders, dysmorphia etc.  I would rather not be one of them.

So Wait Wait Don't Tell me... That my weight class is 105 just yet... That I have to get skinnier and lighter just yet... That I have to change my eating and drinking ways just yet...

I still have an exciting Tuff-n-Uff 115lbs Title to Re-Match for in the near future!!!

June 30, 2011.     112.5 Pounds.

Tuff-N-Uff 115lbs Title Fight.  Day Before Weigh-Ins.

Photos by Christopher Tan

No Harm, No Foul...

...or No Blood, No Foul...

In a pick-up game of basketball or any other sport for that matter there are no referees so you have to make your own calls.  It is fairly normal to have a guy amongst the many to be known as a flopper... he'll call a foul on you for standing anywhere near him; if you touch him he'll fall and whine about injury; he's capable of more melodrama than a teenage girl in the throes of heartbreak.  I do not like that guy.  Nobody likes that guy. 

I take it to the extreme.  That is, I am the complete opposite of him... to my own detriment.  I would call my own fouls against others but I rarely called fouls that others committed on me.  Even the obvious ones.  I cannot fathom why.  I only know that I have always behaved this way and lately I have been wondering about it.

Photo by Joe Pic

On July 1st I fought for the 115lbs Tuff-n-Uff Title in Las Vegas.  In the 3rd round my opponent was deducted a point for headbutting.  The fight ended in a draw.  She had been warned throughout the fight to stop.  This is not a question of incident or accident.  I prefer to not be cynical about this.  I prefer to give her the benefit of the doubt as I do with most people about general life occurrences.  I prefer to not assume malicious intentions.  And ultimately it is simple, as coaches say over and over again: we fight how we are trained to fight.

The questions for me have to do with why I have to reconcile for myself that a foul was called, a point deducted.  I wonder about how I have not changed.  Why do I still prefer to lose over calling Foul?  How absurd of me.  But yet those feelings are there.

I think about my many nephews and nieces.  I wonder what I have taught them.  Share.  Give.  Be considerate.  Play fair.  Sounds like good teachings.  But really what I say without saying is:  Share (so that other kids have more time with your toys than you do yourself);  Give (so that others have more than you have);  Be considerate (think of others before thinking of yourself);  Play fair (even when others are being unfair to you).

I do not know when I will get to play basketball again but I hope it happens in the near future.  I am going to practice calling foul when a foul occurs.  I am going to practice feeling okay about it.  Maybe I will get this chance with one of my nephews or nieces.  Maybe I will teach them by example that playing fair means being fair to yourself also.

Kathryn Davis vs Kaiyana Rain