Bec Rawlings: weight cuts caused thyroid condition
Bec Rawlings: ““I’m only just now being able to put on the weight and get healthy. I gave myself a thyroid disorder trying to get down to strawweight.”
When the culture of extreme weight cutting kills a prominent fighter, the steps to fight it being enacted by Andy Foster’s CSAC and other progressive commissions will rapidly be implemented universally across North America. However, for now, adoption is slow. And fighters are suffering internal damage from the cutting. In the past week alone, Cat Zingano and Bec Rawlings have said that cutting led or contributed to a thyroid condition.
Zingano is currently ranked #6 in the UFC’s women’s bantamweight division, while Rawlings was recently released, and feels it was a little early. Although Rawlings last two bouts were at her ideal fighting weight of 125, she was still recovering from the drops to strawweight.
I was cutting dramatic weight to get down to 115, and it just wrecked my performances, said Rawlings to Ben Fowlkes for MMAjunkie. I’m only just now being able to put on the weight and get healthy. I gave myself a thyroid disorder trying to get down to strawweight. Now I’m feeling fit, I’m feeling strong, and I’m feeling fast. So they kind of let me go a little prematurely, I think. But one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Rawlings did indeed find gold, and blood, on Saturday at Bare Knuckle FC in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was the first sanctioned bareknuckle boxing bouts since 1889. Pro boxer Alma Garcia proved to be no match for MMA’s Rawlings.
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She was reluctant to throw, and I saw her kind of wince, said Rawlings. Especially when I hit her and cut her, I saw her grab her face, and that’s when I jumped on her. But I knew she was hitting my guard really hard, and I know what it feels like to hit someone’s guard hard. I know that f***ing hurts, so I knew it hurt her.
This was amazing. The feeling of being out there tonight, I’m definitely going to fight bare-knuckle again.
However, Rawlings immediate plan is to return to her first love, ideally Invicta FC, and with success there, a return to the Octagon.