ArticleCureus2026
Rapid Weight Regain and Methods of Victory Among Winning Professional Mixed Martial Artists.
Article in Cureus, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionRapid weight loss and subsequent rapid weight regain (RWR) are common practices in professional mixed martial arts (MMA), driven by weight-category regulations and competitive strategy. Although RWR is often assumed to confer a performance advantage, limited research has examined whether the magnitude of weight regained influences how bouts are won among successful fighters.
methodsThis observational study analyzed publicly available regulatory records from Ultimate Fighting Championship and Bellator MMA events sanctioned by the California State Athletic Commission between 2018 and 2024. Only winning fighters were included. Official weigh-in and fight-night body mass were recorded using commission-calibrated scales. RWR was calculated as the percentage change from official weigh-in to fight-night weight. Independent samples t-tests were used to compare RWR by organization and sex division, and one-way analysis of variance was used to examine differences by method of victory. Statistical significance was set at p≤0.05.
resultsA total of 154 winning professional MMA fighters were included. Mean RWR was 10.17±3.66%. RWR did not differ significantly between organizations (p=0.147) or between sex divisions (p=0.354). Method of victory was not impacted by RWR, with no significant differences observed between knockout or technical knockout, submission, or decision outcomes (p=0.383).
conclusionRWR is prevalent among winning professional MMA fighters; however, the magnitude of post-weigh-in weight regain does not appear to influence the method of victory. These findings suggest that while weight regain is a common component of fight preparation, it may not be a determining factor in how competitive success is achieved.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.