"No upside to the fighter who made weight" - Young prospect shares two cents after weight misses rock UFC Sao Paulo
A young UFC fighter recently offered their perspective after weight-miss issues affected the upcoming UFC Sao Paulo event.
UFC heavyweights Jailton Almeida and Derrick Lewis are scheduled to headline the upcoming Fight Night event, set to take place on November 4 at the Ginasio do Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
While the majority of the 26 fighters slated to fight at UFC Sao Paulo successfully met their weight requirements, three fighters encountered difficulties by failing to make weight within the specified limits.
Ismael Bonfim was among these three fighters who fell short of the limit, coming in at 159.5 pounds for his lightweight bout against Pichel, resulting in the fight's cancellation.
Victor Hugo, who stepped in on short notice to replace the injured Daniel Santos and was set to face bantamweight Daniel Marcos, weighed in at 138.5 pounds, leading to the cancellation of their match-up. Additionally, Eduarda Moura missed weight by 4.5 pounds for her strawweight contest against Montserrat Ruiz, resulting in a 30 percent fine.
UFC lightweight fighter Chase Hooper voiced his concern on X (formerly Twitter) about the weigh-in mishap at the UFC Sao Paulo event. Hooper stressed that current penalties for weight misses don't deter fighters, and making weight offers no advantage in facing those who don't:
"The penalty for missing weight is clearly not incentive enough and there’s no upside to the fighter who made weight to take the fight. Opponent gets an advantage and you get a few thousand dollars (20% ONLY of their show money) and if you lose everybody forgets the weight miss 🤷🏻♂️"
Check out Hooper's post below:
Complete results for UFC Sao Paulo weigh-in
Main Card
Jailton Almeida (236 lbs) vs. Derrick Lewis (265 lbs)
Gabriel Bonfim (170.5 lbs) vs. Nicolas Dalby (170.5 lbs)
Rodrigo Nascimento (264 lbs) vs. Don’Tale Mayes (264 lbs)
Caio Borralho (186 lbs) vs. Abus Magomedov (185 lbs)
Rodolfo Vieira (185.5 lbs) vs. Armen Petrosyan (186 lbs)
Ismael Bonfim (159.5)* vs. Vinc Pichel (155.5 lbs): (lightweight limit exceeded)
Preliminary Card
Elves Brener (164 lbs) vs. Kaynan Kruschewsky (165 lbs)
Rinat Fakhretdinov (170.5 lbs) vs. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (171 lbs)
Victor Hugo (138.5 lbs)** vs. Daniel Marcos (136 lbs): (bantamweight limit exceeded)
Vitor Petrino (206 lbs) vs. Modestas Bukauskas (205.5 lbs)
Angela Hill (115.5 lbs) vs. Denise Gomes (115.5 lbs)
Eduarda Moura (119.5 lbs)*** vs. Montserrat Conejo Ruiz (114.5 lbs): (strawweight limit exceeded)
Kaue Fernandes (155 lbs) vs. Marc Diakiese (155 lbs)