In the world of MMA, one of the most grueling tasks, aside from fighting, is cutting weight. Even legendary UFC fighters like Alex Pereira and submission grappler Mikey Musumeci, who recently missed weight due to hydration issues, aren’t exempt from this challenge. Recently, another UFC fighter, Dylan Budka, is set to showcase his skills in the prelims of the upcoming UFC Vegas 97: Burans vs. Brady. A video clip from a live MMA-oriented page recently captured the intense weigh-ins.
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Fullsend MMA posted a clip on their Instagram with the caption, “Tough watch as Dylan Budka missed the middleweight limit by 2.5 lbs this morning. Hope he’s alright.” In the clip, Budka appears very weak from dehydration, struggling to stand on the scale and nearly collapsing. He weighed around 188.6 pounds over the middleweight limit. Even if he had been just 1 pound lighter, he would have been allowed to fight, as per the rules for non-titles fight.
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However, Budka’s opponent, Andre Petroski, successfully passed the weigh-in, coming in at around 185.5 lbs. UFC officials later gave the green light for the middleweight prelims fight, but at the cost of Dylan Budka forfeiting 20% of his total earnings. This wasn’t the only weigh-in highlight, as featherweight contender Kyle Nelson also missed weight by 2.5 pounds. It remains uncertain if the featherweight fight will proceed. On a positive note, the event’s headliners, welterweights Gilbert Burns and Sean Brady, successfully made weight without any issues.
While weight-missing issues are less frequent in the UFC compared to other MMA promotions like ONE Championship, we might soon witness a significant event. Alex Pereira plans to rise in the middleweight division to challenge Dricus du Plessis for the title.
Is Alex Pereira coming down to 185 pounds?
Last month, Dricus du Plessis defended his middleweight title for the first time against former champion Israel Adesanya, with the intention of holding onto it until he moved to a higher weight class. However, du Plessis’s happiness was short-lived when Alex Pereira, enjoying a fight at home, swiftly challenged him on social media after the bout. Pereira announced, “I’m going down to 84kg again. Coming down to 185 one more time.”
Without hesitation, du Plessis responded with a jab, suggesting that Pereira shouldn’t worry about cutting weight because he would move up to the light heavyweight division instead. He said, “If Izzy [Israel Adesanya] stiffens you [Pereira] like that, you do not want to be in there with me… You don’t have to cut weight so you have some sort of excuse. I’ll come up to 205 and we’ll sort it out there.” This jab from du Plessis highlighted Pereira’s recent middleweight fight against Adesanya, which had reportedly taken a toll on Pereira due to excessive weight cuts, according to his team.
What are your thoughts on athletes missing weight? Do you think the older era of the UFC was better when fights sometimes happened without strict weight classes? Drop your opinion below.
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Is the brutal weight cut process in UFC worth the risk of fighters nearly collapsing?