Northern Insight's Steve Russell talks to former World Champion Kickboxer, Ross Gladwin about his mission to eradicate one of the most controversial aspects of the modern fight game.
In the fierce world of combat sports, the threat of serious injury is an ever-present danger. The morality of that fact will be forever debated, but the cold reality is that all fighters must accept the risks which come when your opponent’s ultimate goal is to separate you from your senses. In spite of the dangers of fighting itself though, many believe that a more dangerous battle is being fought long before the first bell rings.
Weight-cutting is a long-established practice, whereby fighters will undergo extreme dieting before a fight to reduce their bodies to their lowest possible weight. The aim is to conquer the scales, then rapidly gain weight to potentially gain a size advantage over your opponent. However, critics argue that the extremities of this process are unnecessarily jeopardising the health of fighters – an argument seemingly borne out by facts. Numerous high-profile UFC bouts have been cancelled due to fighters being hospitalised during weight-cuts and Brazilian MMA fighter, Leandro Souza tragically died in 2013 having attempted to lose 33 pounds in one week.
One man all too aware of these issues, is retired Light Heavyweight World Kickboxing Champion Ross Gladwin. Ross, originally from Bedlington, caught the fighting bug early having joined his father’s Karate school at just four years old. He eventually developed a passion for Kickboxing and at 17 was selected by England for the World Championships, but even at this young age he’d already fought his first battle with the scales: “I was 17 years old, boxing in a social club in Sunderland. Three hours before the bout, I stepped onto the scales. The limit was 79kg but as I looked down I saw 79.4kg. I was then given 30 minutes to make weight.”
Having already endured a gruelling weight-cut, Ross spent the next thirty minutes sucking Werther’s Originals to generate saliva and literally spat the remaining 400 grams from his body. Utterly depleted, he desperately tried to re-energise with a cocktail of Red Bull and ephedrine tablets (then legal). Miraculously, he won the fight but far from celebrating, he spent the rest of the evening vomiting. He recounts similarly gruesome weight-cuts and tellingly, these stories are laced with a degree of anguish completely absent from his descriptions of anything he suffered at the hands of his opponents. Despite these punishing episodes, his career flourished, winning a remarkable 8 elite championships in a row between 2012 and 2014, defeating legends like Zoltan Dansco along the way. However, at the age of just 29 – whilst ranked number one in the world – Ross realised his time was limited: “I turned up at the 2014 Irish Open well above my fighting weight, leaving me with 4 days to lose 23 pounds.”
His account of those four days sounds more like the regime of a sadistic prison than the preparation of an athlete, but it shockingly demonstrates what fighters must put themselves through. Following a programme of starvation, dehydration and the ingestion of laxatives and other supplements designed to aid fluid loss, he made the weight feeling like a “zombie”. Losing in the first round to a lower ranked opponent, he left Ireland physically and emotionally exhausted.
Ross went on to compete a few more times and even ended his career with another World Championship title later that year, but the realisation that he could no longer put his body through such insanity had already set in.
For an athlete in his prime to be forced into retirement because he could no longer starve himself effectively is a sad indictment of modern combat sports. However, even more tragic are the long-term health problems Ross now endures:
“I was recently diagnosed with severe liver issues, almost certainly caused by continual dramatic weight loss, which is currently managed through medication, but I may require surgery eventually.”
Understandably, Ross is now a passionate advocate for change, but what does he see as the solution for what he describes as a taboo subject?
“Coaches and promoters are part of the problem as there is a lot of pressure put on fighters, but ultimately I think same day weigh-ins are the solution.”
He acknowledges that affecting change will be difficult, especially as sports like Kickboxing, Boxing and MMA have such disparate organisational structures, but he remains hopeful that in the future, others won’t have to suffer what he has.
As for his own future, he remains optimistic, despite his initial struggles to fill the void left by retirement. He currently operates Emulous Sports Kickboxing and Ross Gladwin Sports Injuries & Fitness, both based in North Shields, as well as being a part-time lecturer in Sports Injuries. However, in typically competitive fashion, he sees his future in elite sports, but he hasn’t quite figured out what form that will take. Suffice to say though, you would literally be a fool to argue with him!
