The biggest story heading into Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino’s fight on Saturday night was her excruciating drop to the catchweight limit of 140. Then CABMMA, the regulating body in Brazil, said that Cyborg would be extended the same courtesy pound extended traditionally in MMA at all regular weight divisions.
Then video surfaced of the weigh-in that showed Cyborg didn’t hit 141.0, either. The numbers appeared to bounce from 139.5, to 141.6, to 141.45.
Cyborg’s nutritionist George Lockhart, who oversaw her drop, appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and discussed Cyborg apparently weighing in some ounces over the catchweight plus the courtesy pound.
“That was up to the commission, I believe, so I think you get a variable in there,” said Lockhart, as transcribed by MMA Fighting. “And a lot of people don’t know this, a lot of times when you step on the scale, a lot of the digital scales, especially in the U.S., it only goes by .5. So if you’re, let’s say, 171.2, it rounds down to 171. If you’re 171.3, then it rounds up. So a lot of people don’t know that, but again, I’m going to get you down to the damn gram, so you don’t have to sit in a bath longer than need be, so you don’t have to work out any longer than you need to.”
Rules vary to some degree from commission to commission. When Johny Hendricks weighed in at 171.25 at UFC 200, he forfeited 20% of his purse. That does not appear to be the practice in Brazil which perhaps rounds down, or perhaps where the video is unclear the readout stabilized at 171.00.
CABMMA director Cristiano Sampaio issued a statement on the weigh in. The subject line read Final statement on the matter.
Regarding Cris Cyborg, any variation/oscillation of the digital scale due to factors such as stage set, minor body movements, and clothing worn by the athlete, did not affect the reading and/or her limit to the determined catchweight, therefore fulfilling her contractual agreement with promoter and commission’s license for the bout, stated Sampaio. The same protocol was applied to all 26 athletes for that event, including her opponent, Lina Lansberg.
