Fighter hospitalized in critical condition after failed weight cut

Ana Hisa for Combate reports that Brazilian featherweight Alexandre Pereira da Silva remains in critical condition, a week after going into convulsions and suffering kidney complications during a weight cut. Alexandre, 21, has reportedly seen considerable improvements in his kidney and heart function, but remains in the ICU, and is at risk for brain damage.

Cristiano Sampaio, executive director for Brazil’s regulatory body, CABMMA, said the fighter had undergone all required medical examinations, and was approved by the commission doctor in all. The physical was performed the day before the weigh-in but was not delivered.

“We were informed on Saturday morning, on the way to the Shooto weigh-in, that a Nova Uniao athlete had a complication the night before at the beginning of the weight-loss process,” said Sampaio. “From what we understand, he is an athlete who does not lose much weight, was eating and hydrating throughout the week and, on that Friday night, he was 69kg (152 pounds) and he would fight at 66kg (146), that is a (relatively) light weight to lose.”

Alexandre is a miner from the municipality of Nanuque in the southeastern region of Brazil, and has lived in Rio de Janeiro for two years. He has 10 amateur fights and two professional bouts in Muay Thai, all of them in the up to 66kg category. On Friday night, he began the process of losing 3.8 kg (8 pounds) to make weight, and convulsed as he left the hot tub. He arrived at the hospital in critical condition, and presented with cerebral edema and renal complications. He was soon intubated and underwent rehabilitation procedures.

The examinations were almost normal and did not indicate that the fighter had dehydrated much. According to Nova Uniao founder Andre Pederneiras, coach of the fighter and president of Shooto Brazil, the report is that Alexandre suffered a heat stroke leading to seizure.

“According to the doctors at the hospital, his dehydration was not what caught the eye,” said Pederneiras. “The report cause was a ‘heat stroke’ which would be a superheating of the body, something rare to happen, but what happened. Probably what happened to Alexander has happened to several athletes, but that lack of knowledge of some doctors was never diagnosed. I think all events in the world would have to worry about this problem; if it happened to Alexander, it could happen to anyone.”

“That puzzled all of us, because let’s just say that Alexander would be the model athlete for nothing to go wrong with him. He is a young athlete, 21, who loses little weight. He weighs 6 to 7kg overweight, started to lose weight earlier in the week, did all the necessary exams required by CABMMA for his fight, and when I say necessary, I say because the same exams required for Shooto are the same for the UFC, and he made them in the fight week without giving any trouble. He was super well hydrated and fed well all week, according to the athlete who was with him all week.”

After the case, Pederneiras decided to take action on weight cutting for future Shooto events. The coach believes that the creation of new weight categories can minimize the risks of drastic cuts, and he will adopt more divisions in its organization, in addition to a more rigid control over the weight difference to the limits of the categories.

“After this occurred, the Shooto will create six more weight categories, making the athlete have a much smaller difference between one category and another,” said Pederneiras. “Today we have 14 categories in Shooto, we will have 21 categories including male and female. The athlete who, on the day of the fight, spend 12% of the weight of his category at the time of weighing the athletic committee, will be prohibited from fighting in the category and will be forced to gain weight.”