Weight cutting: the honest limits
Divisions differ by several kilos between organisations, which means the same fighter cuts differently depending on who is promoting — and some of those cuts should not happen at all.
- Level
- Advanced
- Duration
- fight week
Know which limit you are cutting to
Welterweight is roughly 75 kg under K-1, 77 under GLORY and closer to 84 under ONE. Before planning any cut, check the actual contracted limit and the weigh-in timing — same-day weigh-ins leave no rehydration window and change the maths completely. Fighters have missed weight because they prepared for the division name rather than the number.
What the body can actually do
Fat loss happens across the camp and should be essentially complete before fight week. What remains is manipulation of water and gut content, and the safe ceiling for that is smaller than the sport pretends — arriving at fight week more than about four percent above the limit means an aggressive dehydration cut, with measurable losses in power, endurance and cognitive function, plus real risk. If your camp ends five percent over, the fix is a different division, not a harder cut.
The rehydration question
ONE runs hydration testing and weight checks specifically to prevent extreme cuts, which is a meaningful difference from most kickboxing promotions. Where weigh-in is the day before, there is a rehydration window and a fighter who cut sensibly can restore most performance. Where it is the same day, there is not, and the cut must be small enough to compete on.
The argument against the whole practice
Cutting exists so fighters can be bigger than their opponents, which means everyone cuts and nobody gains an advantage — a collective cost with no collective benefit. It is worth saying plainly that the sport would be better with tighter same-day weigh-ins, and that a fighter who competes at their walking weight loses very little except the ability to be depleted on fight night.