Eubanks intends to stay at 125

During season 26 of The Ultimate Fighter, Sijara Eubanks was repeatedly cutting to flyweight from 150, a drop of 16%. Death occurs at a loss of between 15% and 25% of the body water. Eubanks missed weight on her initial try the first two fights, then enjoyed success on the third cut with the aid of Clint Wattenberg, Director of Sports Nutrition at the UFC Performance Institute. For the TUF Finale, with a world title on the line, she didn’t use Wattenberg, and was hospitalized with kidney failure, and out of the event.

However, during a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, the fighter said she intends to remain at flyweight.

Everyone says I’m bigger as a flyweight, but if you look at my reach and my height, I’m actually smaller than most other flyweights, said Eubanks as transcribed by Alexander K. Lee for MMA Fighting. I’m 5’4, 67, 68 (reach). Most of the girls I’ve fought, when I was fighting at bantamweight, these girls were cutting from ‘55, ‘60, they’re 5’8, 5’9, their stature is just bigger. I believe I can fight at bantamweight because I think I have the size to do it, but I don’t have the height and the reach, and I think I’m more structurally successful at flyweight. So I think it’s just a matter of getting my walk-around (weight) down. So yeah, I’m a flyweight for sure.

It takes time to re-frame your body and I’m probably going to have to cut back on a little muscle mass and do what I have to do to walk at 145. But I have a lot of professionals in my corner that look at my stature and my body and say that, ‘Yes, you do have the frame to walk in the low ‘40s in a healthy way. And you can cut to 125 in a healthy way. We just have to get you to that walk-around weight,’ and the cut from there will be just like everyone else’s cut, it’s not going to be as dramatic as it’s been. So if my body can physically walk at flyweight without doing damage to my health, then I’m a flyweight. I’m not going to get chased out of the division because I made some miscalculations in this last cut.

Eubanks is now the #1 contender.

I would like a tough opponent,” she said. “Dream scenario, get my walk-around down as soon as possible, get back in the cage as soon as possible at my weight, at flyweight, and I would like a fight that’s going to keep me in the heat for a title. Even though technically I’m still 2-2, I had really good performances in the house. I think I beat Roxanne pretty handily and she had a nice, tight fight with Nicco. So in a perfect scenario, I want to fight whoever is gonna keep me in the heat, whether it’s someone from the house or someone from outside of the house. But I want to stay in the heat. I want to stay close because I’m going to get that strap.

Eubanks is heroic, the epitome of a great, game athlete – she has a will to win greater than her will to live. That is exactly why it is so critical that regulators get behind controlling the culture of extreme weight cutting in mixed martial arts. There is a 10 Point Plan developed by Andy Foster, executive director of the California State Athletic Commission. It works. Nevada and the other leading commissions in North America need to get behind it or a fighter will die.