Commission let Cyborg weigh in above limit, says nutritionist
Two days after beating Lina Lansberg at UFC Fight Night 95, the hubbub surrounding Cris Cyborg's weight is still simmering.
By now, it's no secret Cyborg was put through the ringer to make the 141-pound limit for her catchweight bout, but a video released on her YouTube channel suggests she may have exceeded the threshold by half a pound at last Friday's weigh-in. Her nutritionist, George Lockhart, claims the Brazilian commission, who presided over the card in their nation's capital, deemed Cyborg's result kosher.
"From my understanding with the commission, that was allowed," Lockhart said on Ariel Helwani's The MMA Hour. "The God's honest truth, man, I'm going to get you down, like any fighter knows - and you see fighters I work with, they're going to be 146 on the dot, they're going to be 156 on the dot. I'm not going to make you cut any more weight than is absolutely necessary. And that's exactly what we needed, so that's exactly what we got her down to."
A statement from the CABMMA echoes Lockhart's claims.
"Regarding Cris Cyborg, any variation/oscillation of the digital scale due to factors such as stage set, minor body movements, and clothing worn by the athlete, did not affect the reading and/or her limit to the determined catchweight, therefore fulfilling her contractual agreement with promoter and commission's license for the bout."
Officials present at the weigh-in announced Cyborg weighed 141 pounds. Lockhart attributes the alleged extra ounces to the digital scale used at the proceedings.
"That was up to the commission, I believe, so I think you get a variable in there. And a lot of people don't know this, a lot of times when you step on the scale, a lot of the digital scales, especially in the U.S., it only goes by .5. So if you're, let's say, 171.2, it rounds down to 171. If you're 171.3, then it rounds up."
Had the event taken place in the United States, Cyborg would have been declared overweight and forfeited 20 percent of her fight purse. The only fighter on Saturday's card to have missed weight by the Brazilian commission's standards was lightweight Michel Prazeres, who tipped the scales at 158 pounds. His pockets took the customary hit as a result.
- With h/t to MMAFighting