Lance Pugmire has written a very good article on the matter of fighters trying to make a weigh well below what is safe by any reasonable standards.

We've discussed this before, and I among many have argued that the custom, habit, expectation, or whatever you want to call it, has gotten way out of hand. The article describes some apparently customary practices that are nothing short of unbelievable, and "heroic" only in that same way that someone might think runway models are "heroic" in starving themselves into skeletal acceptability.

I, for one, am very glad to see this

This quote is a good lead-in question, and then I'll give the link:

"It's a medical crisis," said Dr. Paul Wallace, a California State Athletic Commission ringside doctor. "There's not a credible diet that says you can lose 10% of your weight in a month, much less one day.

"But it's not a sport crisis because people have seen boxers like Fernando Vargas, Roberto Duran, Ricky Hatton take off massive weight, still come back and give a good fight and ask, 'How bad can it be?' "

http://www.latimes.com/sports/boxing/la-sp-boxing-20121011,0,7362948.story?track=lat-pick