UFC battle cancelled after star might barely stroll at weigh-in as a result of brutal minimize
William Gomis saw his UFC 301 fight cancelled after nearly collapsing on the scales during the weigh-ins.
Gomis was set to face Jean Silva on Saturday night in Brazil, marking the promotion’s pay-per-view return to the country. The French fighter stepped onto the scale on Friday morning and surprisingly weighed in two pounds under the featherweight limit for his bout, without even needing to remove his T-shirt or shorts.
After making weight, UFC officials had to assist Gomis off stage. UFC legend Daniel Cormier expressed shock that he’d managed to make weight despite his shaky appearance. “He’s not making the weight because he’s not even taking his clothes off, that’s one of the most odd things I’ve seen at a weigh-in,” Cormier commented.
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Paul Felder, Cormier’s co-commentator, was equally puzzled, reports the Mirror. He remarked: “He ain’t fighting, what the hell happened there?”
Fans also expressed confusion and concern over Gomis’ condition. One user wrote: “Stop this weight cut which is becoming dangerous.” Another added: “Yeah, that doesn’t look like someone who should be competing any time soon.” A third chimed in with: “Seems like his coaches, or whoever helps with the weight cut, really screwed up.”
Gomis, a featherweight stalwart, has never botched a weigh-in before. The 26-year-old fighter’s rival Silva hit the scales at 146lb, but their bout was scrapped according to Ariel Helwani.
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UFC legend Cormier expressed concerns about Gomis’ condition, remarking: “How does he actually recover after that? That dude was in such bad shape, but he’s underweight by four pounds almost and he made the weight. I wonder how all of this happened.”
Riding high with an unblemished UFC record since joining the big league two years back, Gomis previously floored Yanis Ghemmouri.
UFC fighters often use a different scale to monitor their weight compared to the official weigh-in scales, leading Felder to speculate that Gomis might’ve been thrown off by a dodgy scale. “It makes no sense, we’ve got to know what happened. Maybe his scale was wrong and he didn’t calibrate it correctly,” Felder said.
