Defeated light-heavyweight title challenger Anthony Johnson is set to register an official complaint with the New York State Athletic Commission over an alleged interference of the weigh-in process by Daniel Cormier a day prior to their fight at UFC 210.
On Friday morning Cormier initially weighed in at 206.2lbs, 1.2lbs over the limit for a 205lb title fight, yet just two minutes later he miraculously returned to the scale weighing 205lbs.
How did he do it?
The allegation is that Cormier pressed down on a towel that was being held out in front of him with his hands in order to subtly manipulate the scale, an old-school trick that other wrestlers have acknowledged being aware of since video of Friday’s weigh-in began circulating.
Johnson unexpectedly retired after losing by way of a second round rear-naked choke to Cormier, and according to his team they are not looking to overturn the decision, but they do intend to seek financial compensation ‘Rumble’ would have been due if DC hadn’t made weight.
“We don’t want to take anything away from [Cormier]. He earned that win,” Johnson’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz told ESPN. “But [Cormier] needs to give up 20 percent of his purse to Anthony. He had two extra hours to cut the weight and I think he probably would have made it, but as it happened, I don’t think he made weight.”
Johnson’s lawyer, Craig Zimmerman, also confirmed their intention to appeal for 20% of Cormier’s purse, and added a couple of other areas that they would like to see action taken.
“I think we need three things,” Zimmerman told MMAFighting.com. “One, we need acknowledgment that the weigh-in was handled incorrectly. Two, we need DC to be fined the 20 percent he should’ve been fined for coming in overweight. And three, we need New York to clean up the weigh-in procedures so this doesn’t happen again.”
