Pound-for-pound: Cutting weight, super fights and other weighty issues

The pressure to win under the Ultimate Fighting Championship's scorching bright lights has hit an unprecedented high.
With the WEC merger still fresh in our minds, and the recent acquisition of Strikeforce picked right off the vine, the entire Zuffa talent pool is officially on notice.
Two consecutive losses, or just one lackluster performance, and a fighter could be looking for work outside the eight-walled confines of the UFC's trademarked Octagon.
With careers and livelihoods on the line, fighters may look for every advantage to gain over their opponents now more than ever before no matter how insignificant ... or even illegal.
Fighters -- like all other high performance athletes -- have gone to extremes to secure the prestigious "W." From blood doping, to steroid use to scar tissue removal surgery -- the list is long, sordid and sometimes not distinguished.
And while these practices range in severity and fairness, there is a much larger, more widespread issue that needs a second look.
Cutting weight.