What the Numbers Mean for the Sport
Taken together, the research and ONE's decade of hydration testing point to the same conclusion: weight cutting through dehydration carries a documented performance cost and, in rare but real cases, a life-threatening one, and no single testing protocol has fully closed the gap between rule and practice. ONE's hydration test reduced the most extreme cases without eliminating manipulation entirely, and the newer financial penalties suggest even the promotion that built the reform recognizes the test alone was not enough.
