re: MMA - Does the amount of talent between 145-170 demand another division?

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I'm just curious, how many adult males do you know that weigh under 170lbs? I know maybe a handful and they are all under 5'6. Why are over half the belts dedicated to 5-10% of the population? The average adult male weighs like 190. There shouldn't be 9 classes under that weight and only 2 above. That makes no sense..

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As mentioned above, these guys are cutting down to make weight. Not uncommon for them to walk around 30lbs heavier than their weight class.

Most of these athletes have around 1kg of glycogen stored when they are replete. Generally, for every 1g of glycogen, 4g of water follows. So that's 5kg or 11lbs.

Hormones are very potent regulators of body water. So, many fighters will drink a ton of water each day leading up to a fight. That way, the hormonal profile is predisposed to having the kidneys excrete liberally by default. They will also insure a good salt intake, to help retain more water and keep aldosterone low. This will give them around 8 liters of water to potentially squeeze out, which is about 17.6lbs.

Every fighter has a preference on how to do the cut and some strategies differ in the timing of things, but in theory a fighter can go into fight week needing to shed 25lbs, perhaps 30lbs. This is done by staying hydrated and full of salt early on, while working out a lot and cutting the diet down, especially carbs. After a couple days they can be hydrated but glycogen depleted and they will steadily see body weight go down by 10lbs or so. Then they keep the activity level up and water intake up but cut the salt and that will flush a few more pounds out through the kidneys. Then the water stops but because it takes a day or two for the hormones to adjust the urination continues pretty normally and another few pounds come off. Finally, ideally, the body's adjustment is well timed with some measures to force out the last bit of fluid with hot baths or a sauna or something along those lines.

Eddie Alvarez fights at 155 but walks around as high as 190. He will shed about 15lbs, mostly fat and some muscle through his training camp. Come fight week may be around 175 or so. When he is ready for a fight he has very low body fat, so a ton of his weight is muscle, which will hold more water than fat. For him, he just has to flush that water like crazy during the last week.

After the cut they can put back around 85% of all that weight within the next 24-36hrs, prior to th fight.