Matt Brown failed to make weight for his headlining fight with Robbie Lawler at UFC On FOX 12 tonight, but he won’t be punished for doing so and the fight still goes ahead as planned.
It was somewhat of a surprise to see ‘The Immortal’ come in 1.5lbs overweight (172.5lbs) at yesterdays official weigh-ins as he’s never had issues in the past.
Typically in this situation a fighter is given an additional two hours to make the weight limit, but despite Brown indicating to UFC President Dana White that he was willing to do so, the California State Athletic Commission advised him that he shouldn’t do so due to concerns for his health and safety.
This lead to some confusion, with Brown apparently not realizing that despite NSAC’s recommendation he could still attempt to make weight if he wanted to.
Due to this miscommunication between Brown and NSCA officials, White later clarified that Brown wouldn’t receive the standard punishment for missing weight (being fined 20% of his purse) and that he would also still be eligible for a title shot if he beats Lawler tonight in San Jose.
It was an odd situation all-round and what seems to have been an unusually tough weight cut for Brown is hardly the ideal preparation heading into the most important fight of his career.
However, Juliana Lima, who earlier also missed weight at the first attempt after coming in a pound heavy for her strawweight debut, was given a second chance to make weight, but unfortunately for her she still came in half a pound over and so will have to forfeit 20% of her purse.
