Weight limit
265lb / 120.2 kg
Established
1997
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Weight limit
205lb / 18.9 kg
Established
1997
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Weight limit
185lb / 83.9 kg
Established
2000
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Weight limit
170lb / 77.1 kg
Established
2000
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Weight limit
155lb / 70.3 kg
Established
2000
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Weight limit
145lb / 65.8 kg
Established
2000
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Weight limit
135lb / 61.2 kg
Established
2000
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Weight limit
125lb / 56.7 kg
Established
2000
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Weight limit
115lb / 52.2 kg
Established
2013
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In MMA fighting, weight classes set limits on the difference in weight between any two fighters who compete. For reasons of safety and fairness, only competitors who are sufficiently similar in weight are allowed to fight.
Weight classes help even out the competition. Besides telling you about their body mass, a fighter’s weight is also usually a useful signal of their agility, speed, stamina and striking power.
Fighters are weighed at the official weigh-in event, which is usually the morning of or the day before the competition. If they exceed their weight class’ specified limit on that day, they may be punished or restricted.
For non-title fights in the UFC, one pound above the weight limit counts as missed weight. For title fights, even half a pound too heavy is a miss. A fighter who misses the first weighing will usually get a few hours’ grace to keep cutting. If they miss the second weighing, they won’t get a third try.
Fighters who miss weight are usually penalized with a percentage of their salary for the match. This penalty percentage, generally somewhere around 20% of the total, is instead given to their opponent. In title fights, fighters who miss weight are ineligible to receive the title, even if they win. Any fighter who misses weight repeatedly will either have to move up a weight class or risk being cut from their organization.
Before MMA organizations like the UFC and Bellator were officially sanctioned by state athletic commissions, they generally had few to no weight classes. In the first few UFC events, fighters of any weight were allowed to compete, which resulted in some messy and unpleasantly chaotic conclusions.
After 11 free-for-all events, the UFC finally put their first two weight classes into place for their 12th event. UFC 12, which took place in 1997, separated fighters into heavyweights, weighing over 200 pounds, and lightweights, weighing under 200 pounds. About one year after that, they added their third weight class, and MMA weight classes were here to stay.
The next few years saw a flurry of adjustments to the weight classes, as the previously unregulated world of MMA fighting began to settle into the mainstream. State athletic commissions began to show an interest in supervising MMA organizations, and it wasn’t long before each organization’s individual weight classes would be replaced by official state regulations.
In 2000, the New Jersey State Athletic Commission (NJAC) beat the other states to the punch when they codified the first ever official Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. As more and more states began to officially sanction MMA fights, they adopted the NJAC’s Unified Rules, which soon became the national and then international MMA standard. Today, practically anywhere MMA fights are held, the same official rules and weight limits are used.
Today, there are 15 separate weight classes recognized in the MMA’s Unified Rules. Of those 15, only nine are actually used by major organizations like the UFC and Bellator.
The highest and lowest classes of super heavyweight, which includes anyone over 265 pounds, and atomweight, which includes anyone under 105 pounds, are sparsely populated in general. Very few adults fall into these classes, so there are very few super heavyweight or atomweight fights. When they do take place, they are usually special events in small MMA organizations.
The other four rarely seen classes are new additions to the weight class canon. These include cruiserweight, super middleweight, super welterweight and super lightweight. They were added to the Unified Rules in 2017, interspersed with the existing heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight and lightweight classes. The biggest MMA organizations have mostly stated they believe these new additions are unnecessary, and the UFC and Bellator have yet to host a fight in any of the new classes.