MMA weight classes explained

Who writes an MMA weight class, and who enforces one

Nobody owns the MMA weight classes. That single fact explains every contradiction in this article.

Boxing has sanctioning bodies that own their belts and, with them, the divisions those belts sit in — which produces a different set of problems, covered separately in boxing weight classes. MMA has nothing equivalent. What it has instead is the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports — a membership organisation of the government bodies that license combat sports in North America — which publishes a document called the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. That document contains a weight-class table. It is the closest thing the sport has to an authoritative list, and it has no legal force whatsoever on its own.

The Unified Rules become enforceable one jurisdiction at a time, when a commission writes them into its own administrative code or adopts them by reference. That is why the same athlete at the same weight can be a welterweight in one state and a super lightweight in another: the states enacted different versions of the table, at different times, and nobody went back to harmonise them.

Then there is a third layer. A promotion decides which divisions it will actually contest and which belts will exist. The UFC's rankings page, checked on 24 August 2026, shows eight men's divisions and three women's divisions. That is a matchmaking and business decision, made inside whatever the local commission permits, and it is the layer most fans mistake for the rulebook.

So there are three distinct statuses, and this article keeps them apart throughout: recognised by the ABC, enacted by a commission, contested by a promotion. A fourth status — hydration tested — belongs to ONE Championship alone among the major promotions, and it is dealt with in its own section below.

The full ABC division table, in pounds and kilograms

Here is the table as printed in the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, revision 8.2026, published at abcboxing.com and fetched on 24 August 2026. The document's own header reads, typographical errors included: "AS APPROVED APRIL 2001. AMENDED 2010. AMENDED AUGUST 3, 2016. AMENDED WITH PROCEDURES JULY 26, 2017. AMENDED WITH PROCEDURES AUGUST 1, 2018. AMENED WITH PROCEDURE AUGUST 1, 2019. AMENED WITH PROCEDURES AUGUST 1, 2023. AMENDED WITH RULE CHANGES JULY 23, 2024, REQUESTED IMPLEMENTATION DATE OF NOVEMEBER 2024. AMENDED WITH NONSUBSTAINAL CHANGES JULY 1, 2025. AMENDED WITH RULE CHANGES AUGUST 5, 2026, REQUESTED IMPLEMENTATION DATE OF NOVEMEBER 2027."

The pound figures are the rulebook's. The kilogram figures are not — the ABC document is in pounds only, and the kilogram column below is a conversion computed at the international definition of 1 lb = 0.45359237 kg, rounded to two decimals. That distinction matters and it is picked up in the next section.

Two features of this table are worth pausing on. The first is that welterweight is only five pounds wide — over 165 to 170 — because super lightweight was inserted underneath it at 165 and super welterweight above it at 175. The second is that the bands are not uniform: ten pounds through most of the middle of the schedule, five pounds around welterweight, twenty pounds at cruiserweight and forty at heavyweight. The schedule is an accretion, not a design.

One more thing about revision 8.2026, and it is a status point rather than a numbers point. The weight-class section of that document is identical to the one in revision 8.2025. What changed in August 2026 sits elsewhere — a new foul covering fingers outstretched toward an opponent's face, a rewritten standing-up-or-breaking provision, and expanded procedure for loss of bodily function. And the header attaches a requested implementation date of November 2027 to those changes. Approved is not the same as in force.

The kilogram problem nobody mentions

The Unified Rules do not contain a single kilogram. That sounds like trivia until you compete under a federation that works natively in kilograms, at which point it becomes an actual pound of difference.

The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation publishes its tournament weight limits in both units. Its 2020 championships weight allowance policy lists, among others, strawweight at −52.2 kg (−115 lbs), featherweight at −65.8 kg (−145 lbs) and light heavyweight at −93.0 kg (−205 lbs). Those kilogram figures are the pound figures rounded to one decimal place, and rounding is not free.

Run them back the other way. 52.2 kg is 115.08 lb. 65.8 kg is 145.06 lb. 93.0 kg is 205.03 lb. Each of those sits fractionally above the pound limit it is supposed to represent. In the other direction, IMMAF's atomweight of 47.6 kg is 104.94 lb and its bantamweight of 61.2 kg is 134.92 lb — fractionally below. Ten divisions, published in two units, and five of them do not describe exactly the same number in both.

For a tournament weighing to a tenth of a pound, as IMMAF's weigh-in procedure requires, that is a real margin and it runs in both directions depending on which division you are in. The practical rule is simple and worth internalising: make weight in the unit the scale is calibrated in, and get that unit in writing before you plan the last kilogram. If your paperwork says kilograms and the venue's scale reads pounds, that is a question for the official supervising the weigh-in, not something to resolve with a conversion app on the morning.

Why your table has eleven rows and the rulebook has fifteen

Because your table is Nevada's, or the UFC's, and neither of those has ever carried the four "super" divisions.

Nevada's regulation, NAC 467.7956, last amended by R032-18 effective 30 January 2019, schedules eleven classes: atomweight up to 105 lb, strawweight over 105 up to 115, flyweight over 115 up to 125, bantamweight over 125 to 135, featherweight over 135 to 145, lightweight over 145 to 155, welterweight over 155 to 170, middleweight over 170 to 185, light heavyweight over 185 to 205, heavyweight over 205 to 265, and super heavyweight all over 265.

Compare that against the ABC table row by row and the divergence is not just four missing rows. Four of Nevada's bands are wider than the ABC's, because Nevada never carved the supers out of them. Nevada's welterweight runs from over 155 to 170; the ABC's runs from over 165 to 170. Nevada's middleweight starts at over 170; the ABC's starts at over 175. Nevada's light heavyweight starts at over 185; the ABC's starts at over 195. Nevada's heavyweight starts at over 205; the ABC's starts at over 225.

That is the single most useful thing in this article. A fighter contracted at 175 lb is a super welterweight under the Unified Rules and a middleweight under Nevada regulation, and there is no version of the sport in which both of those sentences are the wrong one.

Other jurisdictions diverge in their own directions. Massachusetts, at 523 CMR 13.02 as amended effective 27 January 2017, schedules nine classes starting at flyweight up to 125 lb — no atomweight, no strawweight, no supers. New Jersey, at N.J.A.C. 13:46-24A.1, also schedules nine and expresses them to a tenth of a pound: flyweight under 125.9 pounds, bantamweight 126 to 134.9, and so on. Florida's professional schedule at Rule 61K1-3.027, effective 10 December 2015, runs nine MMA divisions and attaches a permitted weight differential to each, with a flat prohibition: "No boxing, kickboxing or mixed martial arts match shall be permitted with a weight difference greater than the weight differentials listed above."

And Oregon went the other way. OAR 230-140-0680, adopted 23 August 2019 under ORS 463.113, is titled "Unified MMA weight classes and allowances" and reproduces fourteen of the ABC's fifteen classes — every one except atomweight — while adding a column the ABC table does not have: a permitted weight difference per class, running from 3 lbs at straw weight and flyweight up to 7 lbs from super welterweight through heavyweight. The rule then states that "No bout shall be scheduled, and no competitor shall participate in an mma bout where the weight difference exceeds the allowance shown in the schedule, without approval of the Administrator."

Same sport, same year, four different tables. This is what it means to say the Unified Rules are a model.

What the ABC rulebook does not say about allowances

The Unified Rules of MMA say three things about weight allowances, and it is worth reading all three verbatim because the first one is routinely misquoted as its opposite:

a. Allowances within Division: there are no allowance restrictions if both combatants weigh-in within the same contracted division.

b. Weight Miss Catch Weight: If a person misses the contracted weight and the two competitors are in different weight classes, the heavier opponent shall not exceed five (5) lbs. of the lower weighing fighter.

c. Contracted Catch Weight(s): there is no weight spread allowance between contracted catch weight fighters, so long as both competitors are below the contracted weight. Commissions may deny Catch Weight fights if they see the weight differential as a large enough disparity to the safety of either of the fighters.

Clause (a) is about the gap between two fighters, not about a tolerance over the limit. It is saying that if both athletes are inside the same contracted division, the commission does not care how far apart they are within it — a 155 lb lightweight may face a 145.2 lb lightweight without a further approval. It is not saying that a 156 lb fighter has made 155.

Read the whole document and there is no sentence anywhere granting a fighter a pound over the contracted weight. There is no sentence about championship bouts. And there is no sentence about weigh-in timing at all — the Unified Rules of MMA, in the revision current on 24 August 2026, do not specify when the weigh-in happens. That is left entirely to the sanctioning commission, and any article telling you the Unified Rules mandate a 24-hour weigh-in for MMA is describing a document it has not opened. The ABC's 24-hour language lives in its boxing regulatory guidelines, which are a different document governing a different sport.

The one-pound allowance: an unwritten custom, written down

The pound is real. It is just not where almost everyone thinks it is.

Its provenance is unusually well documented. The ABC's Committee Report on Unified Rules for MMA, dated 30 July 2009 and chaired by Nick Lembo of New Jersey with a committee including Andy Foster, Keith Kizer, Mike Mazzulli and others, contains this sentence:

It is recommended that the unwritten custom of the one pound allowance for non-title bouts be continued, but only if provided for in the written bout contract or by regulation.

Every clause of that is load-bearing. It is described as an unwritten custom — meaning that as of 2009 it was practice, not rule. It is recommended to continue — meaning the committee endorsed it without codifying it. And the continuation is conditioned: only if provided for in the written bout contract or by regulation. Seventeen years later, the Unified Rules still do not contain it.

What does contain it is state regulation. New York's 19 NYCRR 212.4, effective 21 September 2016, states it plainly:

In non-championship matches there shall be a one (1) pound weight allowance from the specified contract weight.

Note the phrasing: an allowance from the specified contract weight, not from the division limit. If a bout is contracted at 168 lb inside New York's middleweight band, the allowance runs off 168.

Nevada handles the same territory differently and the difference is instructive. NAC 467.7956 grants no allowance at all. What Nevada has instead is NAC 467.522, which is about money: a fighter who fails to make the weight agreed in the bout agreement forfeits twenty-five percent of the purse to the opponent, "unless the weight difference is 1 pound or less." A further subsection provides that if, during the hour following the weigh-in, the fighter makes the weight or "weighs 1 pound or less outside the agreed limits, no forfeit may be imposed or fine assessed upon him or her."

That is not a licence to be a pound over. It is a threshold below which the financial penalty does not attach. The fighter still missed weight; the commission simply does not fine them for it. If you want the full picture of what follows a miss, that is the subject of what happens when a fighter misses weight, and it is a longer story than the purse.

Nevada also caps what can happen after the scale. NAC 467.7956 provides that after an MMA weigh-in, "weight loss in excess of 2 pounds is not permitted," and that any such loss "must not occur later than 1 hour after the initial weigh-in."

Championship bouts and the pound that disappears

Yes, the title-bout exception is real, and it is codified rather than merely customary — though not in the Unified Rules.

New York's 212.4 states it in the sentence immediately following the allowance:

In championship matches the participants must weigh no more than the maximum weight allowed for the relevant weight class.

Two things change at once in that sentence, and the second is easy to miss. The allowance goes away, and the reference point moves: in a non-championship bout the pound runs off the contract weight, while a championship bout is measured against the maximum weight allowed for the relevant weight class. A title fight is pinned to the division, not to whatever the parties negotiated.

The UFC applies the same rule to its own bouts and states it in its own words. Its explainer on weight classes and weigh-ins, published 28 May 2024, says that "For non-title bouts, athletes are allowed a one-pound allowance above the division's limit," and that "Title fights, however, require competitors to weigh in at or below the exact championship weight." The article then works through the divisions individually: bantamweight athletes "can weigh in up to 136 pounds, while title fights require athletes to weigh in at or under 135 pounds," and so on through 115, 125, 145, 155, 170, 185, 205 and 265.

The same page describes the promotion's weigh-in window as between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. local time the day before competition, with fighters who miss potentially receiving up to one additional hour depending on the state athletic commission's rules. That "depending on the commission" is the whole theme of this article in six words.

Status precision, stated once and plainly: the one-pound non-title allowance is a promotion practice and a state-regulation provision. It is not in the Unified Rules of MMA. Do not assume it applies to your bout because you have seen it applied to a UFC bout on television.

Catchweight: two different things sharing one word

A catchweight bout is any contest contracted at a weight that is not a division limit. The Unified Rules recognise two entirely separate situations under that heading, and conflating them is a common and consequential error.

The first is a contracted catchweight — a bout deliberately made at, say, 177 lb because that is what suited the two athletes. Clause (c) governs it: "there is no weight spread allowance between contracted catch weight fighters, so long as both competitors are below the contracted weight." Both make the number, and the commission retains a veto: "Commissions may deny Catch Weight fights if they see the weight differential as a large enough disparity to the safety of either of the fighters."

The second is a weight-miss catchweight — a bout that was contracted at a division limit, one athlete failed to make it, and the bout is salvaged at whatever the scale said. Clause (b) governs that one, and it is a hard cap rather than a discretion: "If a person misses the contracted weight and the two competitors are in different weight classes, the heavier opponent shall not exceed five (5) lbs. of the lower weighing fighter."

Note the trigger condition on clause (b): it applies when the two competitors are in different weight classes. A miss that keeps both athletes inside the same contracted division is handled by clause (a) instead, which imposes no spread restriction at all. Under the fifteen-class ABC schedule, where welterweight is only five pounds wide, that trigger fires far more readily than it does under Nevada's eleven-class schedule, where the equivalent band is fifteen pounds wide. The same miss, in pounds, produces a different regulatory outcome depending on which table the commission enacted.

The 2009 committee report anticipated the discretion clearly: "Commissions may also approve catch weight bouts, subject to their review and discretion." Approval is not automatic and has never been.

ONE Championship: the same numbers, measuring something else

ONE Championship's weight classes look familiar and are not comparable, and the reason is structural rather than numerical.

ONE's own rules page, checked on 24 August 2026, lists ten divisions in pounds: atomweight over 105 to 115, strawweight over 115 to 125, flyweight over 125 to 135, bantamweight over 135 to 145, featherweight over 145 to 155, lightweight over 155 to 170, welterweight over 170 to 185, middleweight over 185 to 205, light heavyweight over 205 to 225, and heavyweight over 225 to 265.

Lay that beside the ABC table and the offset is exact: every ONE division name sits one notch heavier than the ABC name carrying the same number. ONE's flyweight limit of 135 lb is the ABC's bantamweight limit. ONE's lightweight limit of 170 lb is the ABC's welterweight limit. ONE's heavyweight ceiling of 265 lb matches the ABC's, but everything below it is displaced.

That is not a naming quirk. It follows from what the number is measuring. ONE's page describes a combined hydration test and weigh-in taking place 24 to 48 hours before the event, in which "Hydration will be checked through a urine specific gravity test in which every athlete will submit a urine sample," and "ONE's doctor will test the athlete's urine sample using a refractometer to ensure that the athlete is hydrated (hydrated = urine specific gravity ≤1.025)." Athletes have a three-hour window to pass the hydration test and make weight, and passing the hydration test is a precondition of the weigh-in counting.

So a ONE flyweight is an athlete who is 135 lb while hydrated to a measured standard. An ABC bantamweight is an athlete who is 135 lb at a moment in time, by whatever means. Those are different populations of human being wearing coincidentally identical numbers, and the division names were shifted to reflect it. If you are moving between the two systems, the correct mental operation is not to look up your name — it is to look up your number and then read the name off the other table.

This is also the cleanest illustration of the fourth status. A hydration requirement is not a stricter weight limit. It is a change in the definition of the measurement.

Amateur MMA is a different problem on the scale

The amateur divisions are not a smaller copy of the professional ones, and the meaningful differences are in the weigh-in format rather than the numbers.

The ABC publishes an Amateur MMA Unified Rules document, and its own website labels it "Recommendations Only." It schedules ten classes and expresses them as inclusive ranges rather than "over X to Y": Flyweight (125-and Under) with not more than a 10 pound spread, Bantamweight (126-135), Featherweight (136-145), Lightweight (146-155), Welterweight (156-170), Middleweight (171-185), Light Heavyweight (186-205), Cruiser Heavyweight (206-230), Heavy Weight (231-265) and Super Heavyweight over 265. On timing it says only: "Weigh in will be determined at the discretion of the sanctioning Commissions."

States fill that gap themselves. Florida's amateur rule, 61K1-4.024, provides that "Amateurs shall be weighed within 28 hours of the scheduled match, at a time and place designated by the amateur sanctioning organization." Twenty-eight hours, not twenty-four.

The international federation is stricter still, and this is where amateur MMA diverges most sharply from the professional sport. IMMAF's rules document as of October 2022 states that "Weigh-ins for amateur contestants shall be on the day of competition, and each subsequent day of competition that an athlete progresses." Its championships material adds that weigh-ins take place two hours before competition and that athletes must "maintain a steady weight across the week." Its tournament weight allowance policy is explicit: "All competition days = Zero weight allowance. Athletes who fail to make weight are not eligible to compete and cannot reenter the competition." The weigh-in procedure document repeats it — "No tolerance shall be allowed either above or below the weight category (unless this is overridden by the local athletic commissions or sanctioning body)" — and records weights to one decimal point of a pound. IMMAF also states that it does not permit self-administration of intravenous infusions, in line with its anti-doping and no-needles policies.

Put those together and the amateur format removes the thing that makes an acute cut coherent in the first place. Weighing every morning, two hours before competing, with no tolerance, means there is no rehydration window to recover into and no single scale to peak for. Choosing a division for that format is a different exercise from choosing one for a professional day-before weigh-in, which is covered in more depth in how much weight can be taken off before a fight.

The honest limitation to state alongside all of this: the published research on rapid weight loss and regain is overwhelmingly built on adult professionals. A 2025 comparison in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition examined UFC (n=89) and Bellator (n=156) athletes between 2018 and 2023 and reported that "Fighters from both organizations significantly increased their body weight between the official weigh-in and fight night," with no significant difference between the two promotions. That is a useful finding about two day-before-weigh-in promotions under one commission. It says nothing about a sixteen-year-old at an IMMAF youth championship, and it should not be stretched to.

How a new weight class actually gets made

New divisions come from commissions worried about weight cutting, not from promotions wanting more belts. The four "super" classes are the worked example, and the paper trail is public.

Step one: a commission raises it. The California State Athletic Commission convened a Dehydration and Weight Cutting Summit on 17 December 2015 in Los Angeles. Item 7 on the published roundtable agenda reads: "Expanding The Number Of Weight Classes Under The Association Of Boxing Commission's Unified Rules For Mixed Marital Arts" — the misspelling is in the original. It sat alongside items on weigh-in modification options, "The Use Of Specific Gravity Strip Tests To Detect Dehydration," a proposed NCAA-style minimum allowable competition weight, mandatory weight class changes for an athlete who fails to make weight twice in any two-year period, and banning IV rehydration. Note the status of that document precisely: it is a summit agenda, a list of things to be discussed. None of it was rule.

Step two: it goes to the ABC rules committee, which drafts language for the Unified Rules.

Step three: the membership votes at the annual convention. IMMAF's contemporaneous report, filed by Jorden Curran on 26 July 2017, records that the ABC "voted unanimously to approve the introduction of four extra weight classes for mixed martial arts" at 165, 175, 195 and 225 pounds, named super-lightweight, super-welterweight, super-middleweight and cruiserweight, introduced by CSAC as part of a weight-cutting reform package and taken up by the MMA rules committee. The rationale given was reducing the need for dangerous weight-cutting practices.

Step four is the one nobody plans for: each commission decides separately whether to enact it. The Unified Rules header confirms the amendment landed — "AMENDED WITH PROCEDURES JULY 26, 2017" — and the fifteen-class table has been stable in every ABC revision from 2019 through 8.2026. But Nevada has not enacted the supers as of the text posted on 24 August 2026. Neither has Massachusetts, nor New Jersey. Oregon did, in 2019. Nine years after a unanimous vote, the map is still patchy.

There is also a timing wrinkle worth knowing about. The ABC attaches a requested implementation date to rule changes, and it is not immediate: the July 2024 changes requested November 2024, and the August 2026 changes request November 2027. Between approval and requested implementation, and then between requested implementation and any given state's rulemaking, a rule can be simultaneously adopted, not yet implemented and not yet enacted. All three of those are true of parts of revision 8.2026 right now.

What to check before you sign

The reason all of this matters is that the number on your bout agreement is the only one that binds you, and everything above determines what that number means.

Which commission is sanctioning, and what does its own table say. Not the ABC's — the commission's. Nevada, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Florida and Oregon all enacted different schedules. Find your state's regulation, or ask the commission directly, before you agree a division name.

Whether the contract states a weight or a division. New York's allowance runs from "the specified contract weight." A bout contracted at 172 lb is not a bout contracted at welterweight, and the allowance arithmetic differs.

Whether the bout is for a title. The pound is there or it is not, and in a championship bout the reference point moves from the contract weight to the division maximum.

What unit the scale reads. Especially at an international amateur event where the entry was made in kilograms.

When the weigh-in is, and whether there is a second one. The Unified Rules say nothing about timing. Nevada designates it through its Executive Director, permits the commission to require more than one weighing, and caps post-weigh-in loss at 2 lb within one hour.

Whether hydration testing applies. Under ONE's rules it is a precondition of the weigh-in. Under the ABC's it does not exist as a requirement.

Once those six answers are known, planning backwards from the weigh-in date to a target number is arithmetic — which is the arithmetic Fighter Cut does, and it is worth doing on paper even if you never open the app. What it cannot do is tell you which table your commission enacted. That is a phone call, and it is the phone call this whole article exists to recommend.

What we could not verify

An article that quotes limits this precisely owes you the places it stopped:

• No kilogram figures exist in the ABC Unified Rules. The kilogram column in the table above is a conversion computed at 1 lb = 0.45359237 kg, not a rulebook figure. Any source presenting kilogram limits as ABC text is presenting a conversion as a quotation.
• California's MMA weight-class regulation. 4 CCR § 510, "Weights and Classes," sits in the chapter covering full contact martial arts and kickboxing and gives separate male and female schedules; we could not confirm from the sources fetched this session whether a distinct MMA weight-class section exists in California's code. Not verified this session — ask CSAC.
• An apparent overlap in New Jersey's published table. As reproduced, N.J.A.C. 13:46-24A.1 runs light heavyweight to 204.9 pounds and begins heavyweight at 204 pounds. We are reporting the text as published and have not confirmed whether that is a transcription artefact or the codified figure.
• Which states have enacted the four "super" divisions. We checked Nevada, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Florida and Oregon directly. We did not check the other jurisdictions, and no consolidated current list of adopting commissions was located.
• ONE Championship's current championship-bout rules. The weight classes and hydration protocol above come from ONE's own rules page. We did not locate a published ONE rulebook stating whether title bouts carry different weight or hydration requirements from non-title bouts. Not verified this session.
• Whether IMMAF's 2021 weigh-in procedure and 2020 allowance policy remain the current documents. They are the versions linked from IMMAF's rules and policies page as of 24 August 2026, and IMMAF announced a consolidated 2025 rules book. We could not retrieve that consolidated book, so the amateur figures above are cited to the documents we actually read.
• Every rule on this page is amendable. The Unified Rules were amended in 2023, 2024, 2025 and
  2026. Check the current text with the commission sanctioning your bout, and treat this article's date as its expiry warning.

Sources

Sourced to

1. Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, revision 8.2026 — Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports, amended with rule changes 5 August 2026, requested implementation date November 2027; PDF fetched 24 August 2026
2. Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, revision 8.2025 — Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports, amended with nonsubstantial changes July 2025; used to confirm the weight-class table was unchanged in 2026
3. Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, 2019 revision — Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports, amended 1 August 2019; earliest fetched revision carrying the fifteen-class table
4. Committee Report on Unified Rules for MMA — Association of Boxing Commissions, committee chaired by Nick Lembo, 30 July 2009; source of the "unwritten custom of the one pound allowance" language
5. ABC MMA Officials Handbook — Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports, February 2025
6. ABC Amateur MMA Unified Rules — Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports, published as "Recommendations Only"
7. NAC Chapter 467 — Unarmed Combat — Nevada Administrative Code, Nevada Legislature; NAC 467.7956 last amended R032-18 effective 30 January 2019, NAC 467.522 last amended R062-16 effective 9 September 2016; text checked 24 August 2026
8. N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 19 § 212.4 — Weight classes of contestants — New York State Athletic Commission, effective 21 September 2016, via Cornell Legal Information Institute
9. 523 CMR § 13.02 — Mixed Martial Arts Weight Classes; Weight Loss after Weigh-in — Massachusetts State Athletic Commission, amended by Mass Register Issue 1331, effective 27 January 2017, via Cornell Legal Information Institute
10. N.J. Admin. Code § 13:46-24A.1 — Weight classes of mixed martial artists — New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, via Cornell Legal Information Institute
11. Fla. Admin. Code R. 61K1-3.027 — Weight Classes for Boxing, Kickboxing and Mixed Martial Arts — Florida State Boxing Commission, effective 10 December 2015, via Cornell Legal Information Institute
12. Fla. Admin. Code R. 61K1-4.024 — Mixed Martial Arts Weight Classes; Weigh-In — Florida State Boxing Commission, amateur rule, new 14 March 2013, via Cornell Legal Information Institute
13. Or. Admin. Code § 230-140-0680 — Unified MMA weight classes and allowances — Oregon State Athletic Commission, adopted 23 August 2019 under ORS 463.113, via Cornell Legal Information Institute
14. Understanding UFC Weight Classes and Weigh-Ins — Ultimate Fighting Championship, 28 May 2024
15. UFC Rankings — Ultimate Fighting Championship, divisions as listed 24 August 2026
16. Martial Arts — weight classes, hydration testing and weigh-in protocol — ONE Championship, page checked 24 August 2026
17. IMMAF Amateur MMA Weigh-in Procedure — International Mixed Martial Arts Federation, 2021
18. IMMAF Tournament Weight Allowance Policy — International Mixed Martial Arts Federation, 2020 IMMAF Championships
19. Mixed Martial Arts Unified Rules for Amateur Competition — International Mixed Martial Arts Federation, as of October 2022
20. ABC unanimously approves additional weight classes for MMA — Jorden Curran, International Mixed Martial Arts Federation, 26 July 2017
21. Dehydration and Weight Cutting Summit agenda — California State Athletic Commission, 17 December 2015, Los Angeles
22. Comparison of weight regain practices between professional MMA organizations between 2018-2023 — Byers P et al., Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2025;22(Suppl 2):2550160. DOI 10.1080/15502783.2025.2550160, PMCID PMC12377101

Read next