Brooks: ‘Scumbag’ Oliveira intentionally missed weight

Former Bellator lightweight champion Will Brooks appeared recently on the 5ive Rounds podcast with Brett Okamoto and discussed his UFC Fight Night 96 opponent Alex Oliveira missing weight by five and a half pounds for their co-main event last weekend. Brooks gamely took the fight, injured a rib in the first, lost via TKO in the third, and then suffered taunts from the unsportsmanlike Oliveira.

“I think those guys are scumbags,” said Brooks, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. “I think they’re unprofessional and I think they’re cheaters. In my opinion, at the end of the day, I think they purposely missed weight. I think they did that on purpose. I think they were looking for an advantage.

“For you to miss weight by five, almost six pounds — that’s something different. In my opinion, you didn’t even try. You’re looking for an advantage. And then during the weigh-ins and you’re doing all this stuff, you guys aren’t acting professional like you really wanted to make the weight. They were in the back dancing and laughing and doing all this other stuff, acting like everything was cool, which I guess everything was cool. They accomplished their goal and got their advantage.”

“Honestly, I felt he was a little bigger and stronger but as the fight went on, I was able to take him down and pick him up and dump him. I felt I had plenty of control in the fight, honestly. I’m not trying to make excuses, it is what it is, but if I didn’t have that injury … I had fought through a rib injury in a previous fight but this time it was different. It stretched all the way to my back and spine. It felt like someone dropped a truck on my chest. I had a difficult time breathing.”

The UFC has lately been paying fighters whose opponent misses weight both show and win money, but Brooks was uncertain if that would be the case.

“I didn’t know if I was going to get my win bonus,” he said. “In my mind, I didn’t know if I was going to walk out with just my show money, and I can’t do that. If I have an opportunity to make both and not have to fight, I’ll do that. I wasn’t educated on the process. I was under the assumption that if I didn’t take the fight — and this was just me being uneducated on it — you only get your show money. I’ve got to get out there and get both of my paychecks, that’s how I approached it.”

Oliveira has trained in the past at Brooks’ home gym, American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, and says he wants to continue. Brooks is not impressed.

“I hold grudges when it comes to things like that,” he said. “If they think they’re going to come into ATT, you know, they’ll have a f***ing problem with me. Excuse my language but I’m not gonna sit around and let those guys be in my building. I’ve earned that time. These guys come and go. I’m a guy that has earned that opportunity to be here at all times.

“I’m not gonna sit here and be like, ‘Oh, it’s OK for you to disrespect me, come into a building where I’ve earned my space.’ So, yeah, in the gym, if they’re allowed to be here, am I going to associate with them? No. Am I going to look for another opportunity to compete against them? I’m definitely going to take that opportunity and I’m going to make him bleed. I’m going to hurt him.”