Question: In MMA, is there ever fights in which weight-class is forgotten?

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Answer #1:

Vale tudo?

Answer #2:

Yeah back in Pride they always used to do things like that were its open weight. Quite entertaining, and I loved seeing the smaller guys prove that size doesn't matter!!

Answer #3:

In other countries (example Japan) the sanctioning athletic commissions have less rules that America... the early UFCs were open weight tournaments, but quickly athletic commissions saw the injuries that were happening and made it mandatory to have weight classes akin to boxing.

In Japan though they have open weight tournaments, and vale tudo as well as pure grappling tournaments usually are open wieght..

the exception to the rule in america (and some individual matches worldwide) are known as catch-weight matches, these occur when an individual fails to make weight, but both participants agree to compete anyways,even though one is considered to have a size advantage.. Championship belts cannot change hands in catch-weight matches

Answer #4:

Dream in Japan is the only organization I can think of that does things like this currently. They had Minowa (180 pounds) vs. some 300+ pound guy earlier this year.

Answer #5:

yes in the beginning of the UfC and also the first years of PRIDE, there were no weight classes. royce gracie defeated some heavyweights as a middlweight or light heavyweight in the 90´s of the UFC. that makes him one of the greatest mma fighters ever.

Answer #6:

the PRIDE grand prix. good stuff look it up in youtube

Answer #7:

Yes, at one time UFC was "openweight" which was not restricted to any weight classes, but in recent years that has not been the case. Although there are no sanctioned fights between fighters that are in vastly different weight classes occaisionally there have been "catchweight" fights where fighters from neighbouring weight classes will meet somewhere in between to fight, but you cannot make this a title match because the titles are restricted to weight class. The most recent fight I can think of was a few years ago where Royce Gracie and Matt Hughes fought at 175. There is a rumor of GSP and Silva doing something like this but nothing concrete.

Answer #8:

Vale Tudo and back in the days of Pride. It's called an open weight tournament. They also have those in Judo. Sometimes in these tournaments the lighter guy gets some type of advantage but other than that I don't know. Hope this helps :)





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