Blatant favoritism when a popular fighter misses weight

[The Siege]

The first controversy that I can recall regarding Weigh ins was when GSP and Diaz fought at UFC 158. There is a 1 pound allowance for non-title fights, but for title fights you can't be over the actual weight class limit. GSP supposedly weighed in at 170.9 and was given a pass. I always thought it was Diaz playing mind games. Turns out Nick was right and the Canadian commission at the time allowed for the decimal to be rounded down. Not that it would have changed the result of the fight as it wasn't even a pound difference and it was a dominate performance, but just the fact that they through this one under the rug.



Daniel Cormier admitted that he cheated at UFC 210. He claimed that he was 1.2 over, but I personally think it was more. I think it was closer to be 4-5 lbs and DC is trying to make it sound not as bad, but if any other fighter were to do this, their fight might be canceled and any unpopular champ would have been stripped.

Yoel Romero missed weight by .2 pounds and they made him ineligible to win the title.

Islam had controversy in the first Volk fight because he was able to rehydrate with IV's via some loophole. Many people believe that he mainly fights in Abu Dhabi so that he can get favorable conditions regarding his weight cut and I totally agree. He is one of the biggest LW's ever and is basically on death's door every time he makes weight. In the rematch he looked way better physically. I wouldn't be surpirsed if they were letting him come in at 159-160ish when he fights in Abu Dhabi. Its the wild "east" over there, whatever they say goes.

UFC 284 in Australia

UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi

Any other super obvious examples?

The GSP and Makhachev examples are just based on rumors which weakens your overall point: that the UFC often gives popular fighters more leeway (in the case of fighters like Jones, waaaayy more leeway) and not just with making weight.

There is no proof of IV use and 'favorable conditions regarding his weight cut' is about as vague as it gets.

He is not the biggest LW and he is not the only one who has hard weight cuts. You can find clips of Charles' team doing seance around him as he lays there exhausted during a weight cut.

Makhachev hasn't missed weight ever, whether in the US, Canada, Russia, Australia, or UAE. He has had a grand total of 4 out of 15 UFC fights in the UAE.

 

[ILove4MinutesHyuna]

I never understood the DC thing can someone who understands physics explain how him holding a towel thats suspended in the air reduces his weight it makes no sense to me.

 

[GrantB13]

They round down.

Weighing in at 170.9 is officially 170.. not 171.

A UFC exec went up to both fighters before the weighing and told them they round the decimal point down. But there's no evidence GSP ever weighed above 170.

TS is saying 170.9 but that's the number from the video where Mike Mersch is talking to Nick Diaz. It has nothing to do with GSP.

Precisely. So this is why I don't understand when people take issue with this. Everyone gets the leeway. You can argue whether it should be allowed at all, but when people claim GSP missed weight it's just misinformation. They could be like Nick's gang and assume that when the commission said you just need to make 170.9 that it implies GSP was over, but that's just speculation. If they were TRULY corrupt they wouldn't have told Nick in the first place.

 

[dcthegod]

I heard that Abdu Dhabi let's Makhchev pack his gloves with plaster, that's why he was able to knockdown the famously iron-chinned Oliviera.

Frankly, I'm appalled by all the cheating. They should have let Volk wear a helmet during their second fight.

the plaster in gloves bit.. ehhhh
letting volk wear a helmet made me chuckle tho

 

[GrantB13]

I never understood the DC thing can someone who understands physics explain how him holding a towel thats suspended in the air reduces his weight it makes no sense to me.

He's not holding it - he's PUSHING it. It's hard to grasp how effective it is until you try it for yourself. But basically, the officials are holding the towel up and continue to hold it up as DC pushes down on it so he doesn't expose himself. Try it with a scale and you'll be amazed. Get on a scale placed next to a counter or a bed or whatever and put just a tiny bit of force on it and it effectively makes you lighter.

 

[The Siege]

the plaster in gloves bit.. ehhhh
letting volk wear a helmet made me chuckle tho

I'm imagining Volk's determined and tense face peering out of a peewee football sized helmet as Buffer is reading out his introduction.

 

[IronGolem007]

The person who got fucked over the most from not being given the benefit of the doubt on a weight cut was Charles Oliviera. Someone fucked with the scale that the fighters were using to make sure they were on track to make weight and it screwed Oliviera out of a title defense, he missed by .5lbs. It didn't impact most everyone else because non-championship fights have an extra 1lb allowance. That was one of the most screwed up weight scale fuckeries in UFC history.

This.
And only this.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

I never understood the DC thing can someone who understands physics explain how him holding a towel thats suspended in the air reduces his weight it makes no sense to me.

DC is putting some of the weight of his arms on the towel, the towel is being held by people who aren't on the scale so that weight isn't on the scale either.

 

[The Siege]

I never understood the DC thing can someone who understands physics explain how him holding a towel thats suspended in the air reduces his weight it makes no sense to me.

Force exerted in one direction will produce an equal and opposite counter-force.

The assistants are holding the towel somewhat taut and creating a semi-stable surface. EDIT: forgot to mention the fact that the harder DC pushes down the more upward force the assistants have to exert to keep the towel at that height.

 

[Striker Fox]

Daniel Cormier admitted that he cheated at UFC 210. He claimed that he was 1.2 over, but I personally think it was more. I think it was closer to be 4-5 lbs and DC is trying to make it sound not as bad, but if any other fighter were to do this, their fight might be canceled and any unpopular champ would have been stripped.

He did only weigh 1.2 lbs over tho. It was 206.2 lbs, then he came back and made 205 lbs with the towel

 

[Wagner Azevedo]

I never understood the DC thing can someone who understands physics explain how him holding a towel thats suspended in the air reduces his weight it makes no sense to me.

He's not reducing his weight. He's reducing the ammount of his weight on the scale by putting some of that weight on the towel and the people holding the towel

 

[Objectively Correct]

Chimaev UFC 267 was one of the worst. Almost like a Russian SNL skit

He was told by the UFC to stop cutting weight appearently. Something was fishy there, nobody knows what exactly went down I guess.

 

[Fergelmince]

He was told by the UFC to stop cutting weight appearently. Something was fishy there, nobody knows what exactly went down I guess.

Everybody knows what was going on there by now my sherbro.

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

Islam had controversy in the first Volk fight because he was able to rehydrate with IV's via some loophole.

Well that's not what happened and there was never a loophole

 

[RockyLockridge]

The Romero incident was especially ridiculous because he should have been given more time, but wasn't because the asshole in charge had to go to a baseball game or some shit, so they never gave him the extra 2 hours or whatever it was.

I mean 0.2 lbs, just ridiculous.

On top of that he won the fight clearly and got robbed.

unless the .2 pounds thing was against rockhold and I forgot.


Also about DC, A lot of people dont realize this but if DC doesn't cheat on the scale here, he doesn't win the LHW title against rumble.

His entire career success was predicated off of cheating right here. this cheat, let him win a LHW title that was what got him a HW title shot.

Without cheating here, he may have never been looked at as better than gustuffson.

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

It didn't impact most everyone else because non-championship fights have an extra 1lb allowance.

Well that doesn't really make sense. If you're shooting for 155 and I'm shooting for 156 and the scale effects us both, then you showing up as 155.5 should mean I came in at 156.5.

Tony, Shogun, Cowboy, Lauzon, Fialho, Brown, Macy, Royval, Schnell, Roberts, Trinaldo, Cortez, Rodriguez, Carnelossi, Garcia, and Newson were all a half pound under their allotted limit, while Godinez, Gatto, Williams, VanCamp, and OSP were a full pound under.

As a matter of fact, only Vergara and Chandler actually met the weight limit. Two fighters on the whole card being at the one pound allowance is actually much LOWER than your average card, so it's weird how the only people who missed weight were Charles and frequent weight misser Dumont

Even Justin was 155 and Rose and Carla were all point on for their title fight weights, so I fail to see this supposed effect the other fighters suffered from

*edit* for comparisons sake, the Vera-Font card the week before had 20 non HW fighters:

Only Font missed weight
Again, 5 didn't need the 1 pound allowance.
Only 9 made a half pound over
While an entire 5 people made full use of the allowance.

Pretty much every card you pick out of a hat is gonna have MORE fighters touching the top limit than 274 did, so it's a weird narrative I've heard about how everyone was so affected by it when all statistics point to the contrary

 

[RonDante]

The person who got fucked over the most from not being given the benefit of the doubt on a weight cut was Charles Oliviera. Someone fucked with the scale that the fighters were using to make sure they were on track to make weight and it screwed Oliviera out of a title defense, he missed by .5lbs. It didn't impact most everyone else because non-championship fights have an extra 1lb allowance. That was one of the most screwed up weight scale fuckeries in UFC history.

As far as I know, most fighters weigh more than the championship limit anyways. if the scales were messed with they would have missed weight too.

is there some evidence that the scales were messed with i haven’t heard of?

 

[RonDante]

On top of that he wont he fight clearly and got robbed.

unless the .2 pounds thing was against rockhold and I forgot.


Also about DC, A lot of people dont realize this but if DC doesn't cheat on the scale here, he doesn't win the LHW title against rumble.

His entire career success was predicated off of cheating right here. this cheat, let him win a LHW title that was what got him a HW title shot.

Without cheating here, he may have never been looked at as better than gustuffson.

Personally I thought the gustaffson dc fight could have gone either way, with maybe a slight lean to gustaffson, coming down to who won the 4th round. I’m really surprised people talk about jones gus more than gus dc

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

Well that doesn't really make sense. If you're shooting for 155 and I'm shooting for 156 and the scale effects us both, then you showing up as 155.5 should mean I came in at 156.5.

Tony, Shogun, Cowboy, Lauzon, Fialho, Brown, Macy, Royval, Schnell, Roberts, Trinaldo, Cortez, Rodriguez, Carnelossi, Garcia, and Newson were all a half pound under their allotted limit, while Godinez, Gatto, Williams, VanCamp, and OSP were a full pound under.

As a matter of fact, only Vergara and Chandler actually met the weight limit. Two fighters on the whole card being at the one pound allowance is actually much LOWER than your average card, so it's weird how the only people who missed weight were Charles and frequent weight misser Dumont

Even Justin was 155 and Rose and Carla were all point on for their title fight weights, so I fail to see this supposed effect the other fighters suffered from

*edit* for comparisons sake, the Vera-Font card the week before had 20 non HW fighters:

Only Font missed weight
Again, 5 didn't need the 1 pound allowance.
Only 9 made a half pound over
While an entire 5 people made full use of the allowance.

Pretty much every card you pick out of a hat is gonna have MORE fighters touching the top limit than 274 did, so it's a weird narrative I've heard about how everyone was so affected by it when all statistics point to the contrary

Sure it makes sense if Oliviera is going for 155 on the dot and someone else generally shoots for .5lbs more just to be sure. I don't get why you're so skeptical about this. The scale the UFC provides to the fighters should read the same as the official scale and that was not the case at 274.

 

[Substance Abuse]

They round down.

Weighing in at 170.9 is officially 170.. not 171.

Must be the grease.