UFC strawweight contender Cynthia Calvillo looked in bad shape at Friday morning’s weigh-ins ahead of the UFC Argentina event, coming in overweight and appearing worryingly feint ahead of a Saturday bout with Poliana Botelho.
The practice of cutting weight ahead of combat sports bouts is nothing new, but its list of detractors appears to be expanding at an ever-increasing rate. Further calls to curb the extreme weight-cuts that some fighters, and in particular mixed martial artists, will likely grow this weekend after footage from Friday morning’s UFC weigh-ins in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was released online.
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The video shows Calvillo, a 6-1 strawweight who trains under the tutelage of Urijah Faber at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California, struggling not just to make weight, but even to walk to the scales unassisted.
Once there, she appeared unsteady and close to collapse before registering a weight of 118lbs. The maximum allowed weight for a non-title strawweight bout is 116lbs
The Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission, which is regulating the event in Argentina, conducted a medical examination after Calvillo weighed in and determined her fit to fight on Saturday’s card.
“She did an evaluation and everything is alright,” CABMMA COO Cristiano Sampaio said to MMA Fighting. “She will rest now, hydrate, eat, and then she will be ready.”
Calvillo must now forfeit 20 percent of her purse to her opponent.
Weight-cutting has been a controversial subplot in mixed martial arts recently. Many fighters, Gunnar Nelson included, prefer to fight closer to their natural weight to minimize the extent of their cut. The Icelander remains in the minority, though, as the majority of fighters appear to prefer the idea of cutting sometimes more than 30lbs to make weight, before re-hydrating ahead of the fight.