Welcome back to Weight Cut, a biweekly Sunday column about the experience, techniques and dangers of cutting weight. The latest interview is with Andy Vences, a retired fighter who boxed at 130 and 135lbs. He finished his career with a record 23-5-1 (12 KOs). In retirement he is the owner of Stone Boxing Gym in San Jose, California.
Previous interviews in this series: Timothy Bradley, Paulie Malignaggi.
Andy Vences lay on a bed, unable to move.
He was in the midst of the last leg of his weight cut – he’d lather his body in Albolene and climb into a bathtub to soak in hot water. This would shed around three pounds of water within 10 minutes. He then lay on a bed to sweat off some more and recover before returning to the tub. By the end of the process, he dropped some nine pounds to be on weight.
But this time Vences got a little too excited at how well the weight came off. When the process went well, he would feel encouraged, which helped get him through the grueling water cut. This time he decided he didn’t need his full period of rest before shedding more.
Vences got out, and found himself unable to get back in when it came time. His body had locked up and didn’t release for half an hour.
“My body just crashed,” the 33 year old told BoxingScene. “I wasn’t able to move anymore. They were asking me to get up and do the last [bathtub dip] but I physically needed more time out of it.”
Food, believe it or not, isn’t the first thing that passes through Vences’ mind when he gets off the scale. It’s liquid. “At that point, you’re not hungry anymore – you’re just thirsty,” Vences said.
Though Vences structured his weight cuts so that water came off last, water had to come off nonetheless.
“I would be on a specific diet the last two weeks, and then the last three days, I was basically a vegan… that way, anything my body weighed at that point was full of water. Then I would do a water cut.”
Think Vences was cutting dozens of pounds in an effort to be a weight bully? Think again. He walked around – and still walks around – at a little over 140lbs.
“When you go through the weight cut, and it physically and emotionally drains you, everything else in life that you have to go through, as far as the sacrifice, is easy,” Vences said.
Vences credits his wife – who was also his nutritionist – and Victor Conte’s SNAC for smoother weight cuts later in his career.
Another thing that helped – Celtic sea salt. After a taxing weight cut, Vences tried to rehydrate.
“My body reacted to the liquid, so I ended up throwing up everything I was drinking. I’ve been so drained out on weight where I couldn’t physically stand straight because there was no liquid in my back to hold myself up.”
It turned out that drinking water with Celtic sea salt in it helped his body retain the water, rather than expel it as fast as possible through the throat or bladder.
Other fighters, though, still struggle cutting weight.
“There’s a recent fight where Emanuel Navarette just fought in San Diego. He had a devastating weight cut. Went running; went training; wasn’t able to drip off even an ounce. If you’re not doing the diet and the weight cut the right way, it’s not gonna matter how much you exercise… Emanuel Navarette had no water to lose. It gets very physically and emotionally draining at that point.”
Sam Garcia, a trainer, told BoxingScene that he prefers his fighters not to endure drastic weight cuts. He is also working with Albert “Chop Chop” Gonzalez on a disciplined diet, providing servings just large enough to be filling. Garcia said that discipline is key, as is viewing the diet as a lifestyle rather than a harsh restriction on food intake.
Still, this is risky in its own way. Fight too close to your natural weight and you’ll likely wind up confronting someone who endured a vicious weight cut for a huge size advantage. Would same-day weigh-ins solve this, or would they result in more fight cancellations and fighters entering the ring with dangerously little fluid in their body? Ask 10 people, Garcia thinks, and you’ll get 10 different recommendations for boxing’s weigh-in policy.
Vences, too, seems to like those at his gym to fight closer to their natural weight. “I’m taking a kid to Nationals,” he said of a promising 13-year-old fighter at his gym. Though the initial plan was for him to cut down to 90lbs, the cut went slowly.
“Unfortunately, he’s not able to break below 95lbs,” Vences lamented. “I told him: ‘We’re just gonna keep you at 95lbs. As an amateur, you’re gonna make weight every day. There’s no reason to put you through the chaos that I went through.’”
After all, he remembers his own sickening weight cuts – and the hangover in the ring – keenly.
One early weight cut, in which he didn’t cut water but just lost weight by working out, left his body unable to pack pounds back on the following morning. Some fighters rehydrate 20lbs after weighing in. Vences couldn’t even reclaim 3lbs.
“That fight, I was affected by my weight cut,” Vences said. “I had so much success in sparring and training. Yet it didn’t transfer into the fight. My coach at the time was disappointed because he couldn’t believe how well I did in training, and how much I was affected in the fight.
“We expected incredible results that we didn’t get. All because of the weight cut.”
Owen Lewis is a former intern at Defector Media and writes and edits for BoxingScene. His beats are tennis, boxing, books, travel and anything else that satisfies his meager attention span. He is on and can be contacted at [email protected].