Rumble Johnson needs to be cut

Needless to say, Friday was a tough day for UFC middleweight Anthony Johnson.

On the eve of his debut fight at 185lbs against Vitor Belfort in the co-main event of UFC 142 in Brazil, Johnson woke up on Friday morning feeling good and ready to go for his bout on Saturday.

Johnson has fought most of his career at 170lbs, but had struggled in the past to make the welterweight division limit so most believed a shift to 185lbs would be the perfect move.

It all backfired for Johnson on Friday as he cut weight for the fight.

According to Johnson’s manager Glenn Robinson of Authentic Sports Management, who spoke to MMAWeekly.com on Friday, ‘Rumble’ woke up on Friday morning weighing 191.5lbs, only 5.5lbs away from the 186lb weight limit for middleweight.

With three hours to go until weigh-ins, Johnson was only a pound and a half away from making weight when his body started feeling off.

Robinson says that Johnson started feeling sick and unstable, and so the UFC doctors came in to check him out to see what exactly was going on.

The doctors gave Johnson fluids to see if it would improve his condition, and within a couple of hours, the Blackzilian fighter started to come back to life. Unfortunately, at this point it was too late to cut the weight back down to 186lbs.

“It was medical reasons, it wasn’t for lack of effort,” Robinson said. “The UFC was extremely supportive and said health comes first.”

Johnson was extremely apologetic to both the UFC and to his opponent Vitor Belfort prior to the weigh-ins, but after getting sick just hours before and the doctors giving him fluids to rehydrate, there just wasn’t much else left to do.

Robinson did say however that there will be no risk of the fight not happening at UFC 142 on Saturday. He states that Johnson will make weight for the second weigh-in on Saturday at 205lbs, and he expects fireworks when Johnson and Belfort finally meet.

“AJ will be at 205, it will be a great fight tomorrow in Brazil and the fans will get to see a tremendous, tremendous battle between two amazing athletes,” Robinson said.

Johnson faces Belfort in the co-main event on the card that kicks off at 10pm ET/7pm PT on pay-per-view.

p4pnumber_1 wrote:Nothing more disrespectful than not making weight in my opinion. I was going to pick Rumble to win, but im now gonna pick Belfort to take his head off in the first

Dana White said that he's "beyond pissed" that Anthony Johnson drastically failed to make weight today for UFC 142. White said that Johnson came within a pound and a half of the 186 pound limit but was forced to rehydrate by a doctor because he couldn't make the weight.

"His job is on the line," White said of Johnson. "His job is absolutely on the line, win or lose."

White said the reason for the inability to cut weight was simple. "Complete and absolute unprofessionalism – that's what happened. There's no other way it can be explained." Johnson's manager claims that Johnson became sick three hours before weigh-in and was told by UFC doctor Jeff Davidson to put fluids back into his body, which pushed him back to 197 pounds. Johnson must weigh in tomorrow and must come in below 205 or the fight is off.

Credit: MMAjunkie

pinsman wrote:Is normal for fighters to try and cut 5-10 pounds on weigh in day? I find this unbelievable if true???