UFC’S CRIS CYBORG has admitted that she ‘almost died’ during her last weight-cut and explains why she couldn’t meet the featherweight [145lbs] limit for bouts against Holly Holm and others.
Cyborg’s ongoing plight with making the 140lbs requirements for UFC fights is well documented. The CYBORG:Cris Cyborg biographical Documentary 2016 details the punishing lengths she’s forced to go to in order to produce the right number on the scale ahead of a fight.
In that documentary, it’s stated that Cyborg could be walking around at 170Ibs before the weight-cut process even begins for 140lbs — the catchweight at which she has fought twice for the UFC this year.
MMA Fighting reports that Dana White offered Cyborg fights against Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie for an inaugural UFC featherweight championship, but Cyborg declined.
Former UFC bantamweight [135lbs] champion Holm was apparently willing to fight Cyborg at 145lbs but her coach discouraged her from committing to it as the fight was originally offered at 138lbs. Meanwhile, White says that there was “no excuse” for Cyborg to reject the de Randamie fight.
Cyborg has since responded to White’s statements, and explained why those fights couldn’t go ahead.
“I decided I would not fight at this weight anymore, that I would only fight at my division. And only with 12 weeks’ notice. For my last fight, they told me eight weeks before.
“I got a call from the UFC offering me another catchweight fight, and I said I would not fight at this weight anymore. I needed a break to get my health back to normal because my body was weak, I was anemic.
“After that, they invited me to fight again, but this time at my weight and for the belt, but with 10 weeks’ notice. Knowing that I was recovering, like I said, I told them I can fight anyone in March, but I need to take care of my body, and no mention of the fact that I’m dealing with severe depression and can’t have another brutal weight cut like before. This decision is more important than the belt or the division, I’m thinking about my health.”
Cyborg also divulged the harrowing difficulties she encountered in her last weight-cut ahead of her win over Lina Lansberg in September, as well as explaining why she no longer works with nutritionist George Lockhart.
“In my last weight cut I almost died. I was in the bathtub cutting weight, and I thought, ‘I will die in this bathtub.’ It was the worst weight cut in my life. My nutritionist George Lockhart, who, by the way, is a UFC employee, didn’t do an effective job with this birth control pill he indicated saying that would help me.”
“But thank God, in a war, I made weight, cutting 24 pounds in a week. My body was retaining a lot of water. The last time I spoke with George Lockhart was in the locker room before my fight. He disappeared after the fight. I’m not working with him anymore.
“For the first time I didn’t warm up in the locker room like I do for every fight because I was too weak. I was just praying for God and went for the fight, and, once again, God gave me the victory.
“After all this, I went back to my hometown on Sunday and I felt sick on Sunday. My mother gave me tea and I fell asleep. The next day, like I always do after my fights, I did blood tests to see if everything was okay after a terrible weight cut.
“And for the first time, the nurses couldn’t take my blood, it was so thick it wouldn’t come out, so we couldn’t do tests. I was in treatment for 10 days with Dr Ulisseia. I was in observation because I was feeling sick all the time.”
Dublin UFC fighter Ais Daly recently revealed the unsettling details of her own weight-cutting experiences, before recruiting the services of nutritionist Lyndsey Doyle to make the process safer and healthier for her.
In an interview with the Irish Times, ‘The Bash’ said:
“I was ending up with hormonal imbalances from so much stress on my body. I didn’t know I had all these things wrong with me. Even the mentality I had for weight-cutting was a bit old school and it was just train crazy hard and don’t eat. It got really bad, my periods stopped which can do a serious amount of damage.”
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