There was a ton of outrage when UFC welterweight Thiago Alves failed to make weight at UFC 85 and then used a huge size advantage to maul Matt Hughes. Middleweight Travis Lutter was nearly booted for life for missing weight at UFC 67. So why no outrage when Carano misses weight?

First and foremost it's because women's sports are covered differently. There's always been a 'take it easy on the girls' mentality that emerges if women's sports are criticized the way the men are in newspapers and sportstalk radio.

The U.S. women's softball team had been every bit as dominant going into the Summer Olympics as the U.S. men's basketball team. Yet when the women choked their way to a silver medal, missing out on a shot at a fourth straight gold, there was little criticism. What would have happened had Kobe and Co. fallen short?

The other reason Carano could come in 8-10 lbs overweight if she wants, is that Kelly Kobold said she won't back out of the fight. Kobold should be patted on the back for her honesty. There's no way in hell that she's passing up a fight on CBS against the biggest name in women's fighting but that doesn't mean that Kobold thinks Carano missing weight is fine:

"It's nothing that would keep me from fighting the fight. It will go on. Do I think it's fair or professional? Not really. I'm not going to judge until she possibly doesn't make weight. I'll comment then."

CLICK BELOW TO HEAR THE MAKING WEIGHT DISCUSSION:

EliteXC started its push for this weekend's fight card, EliteXC 'Heat', with a teleconference last week. Michael David Smith of AOL Fanhouse broached the topic of weight with the fighters. Apparently, it's rude to even ask women FIGHTERS about their weight. Carano, when pressed on how much she weighed nine days before the fight, refused to answer.

"I'm going to weigh 140 pounds for the fight," Carano said after chuckling at the question. "And how much I weigh right now is something I'll keep to myself."

Can you imagine a fighter telling a boxing writer like Michael Katz that he won't say how much he weighs? What if Jose Luis Castillo, who had a bad run of missing weight for big fights in 2005 and 2006, did the same thing?

Carano did explain that she was uneducated about weight cutting in the past and her new nutritionist should change everything. Maybe MMA needs to go to preliminary weight checks at the start of fight week. Kobold indicated that she'll be cutting down from 160 over an eight day period. Why bother if Carano is going to come in at 143 or 144?

You can hear the entire presser with Carano and Kobold here. Kobold says her toughest fight ever was with Tara LaRosa not Carano. She also talks about the politics of the sport and the 14 month layoff since her last fight.