Tonight’s UFC Fight Night 234 event in Las Vegas will proceed without it’s scheduled co-main event after Manel Kape missed the flyweight limit by 3.5lbs, leading to his fight with Matheus Nicolau being cancelled.
After Kape came in at 129.5lbs for the flyweight fight there were discussions about holding the fight at a catchweight, but in the end the bout was scrapped and later the fighter blamed a recent illness for his weight-cut woes and called out Nicolau for not accepting a catchweight.
“Guys, I couldn’t make the weight this time,” Kape wrote on Instagram. “Two weeks ago I was extremely sick due to a virus that happened here in Las Vegas, And I had to stay out of training for 5 days and filling myself with antibiotics, not only affected me but many of my training partners.”
My coaches and my manager thought it was better for me to cancel the fight due to the state I was in. But I decided to move on and not cancel. My opponent didn’t accept to fight or accept my purse. What is very understanding, he did his part and I didn’t do mine ( i dont blame him)
I would give him my entire purse if he wants to fight. But things are as they are, and i take all the responsibilities.
Last year I had 5 fights canceled one of them my opponent was 11 LB above, even so I agreed to fight.
. Thank you to all the @ufcpi nutritionists who tried everything for me to make the weight.
See you guys Soon .”
Meanwhile, Nicolau blasted Kape for his failure to make the 126lb limit.
“Unfortunately for the MMA fan, for my fans and, of course, for me and my entire team, the Manel Kape fight was cancelled,” Nicolau wrote. “And the only person responsible for this is Manel Kape himself. It is the duty of the martial artist to fulfill this obligation of making weight the day before the fight.
“I went through that entire war. I’ve been cutting weight for 5 weeks now with a restrictive diet. I focused (and didn’t regret it) on Christmas, New Year and my birthday on a diet, training and spending time away from my family. Today, I woke up at 5am to finish the process and weigh in at the 126 pounds, what was needed for the fight to happen.
“Kape didn’t. He showed up for the weigh-in with 30 minutes left so there was no time for the UFC to ask him to cut more weight. He showed up 3.5 pounds over, knowing that if he weighed 0.5 pounds more, the fight would be automatically suspended by the athletic commission.
“In other words, in my opinion, he tried to gain an unfair advantage by cheating the system.
“Kape was irresponsible, reckless and disrespectful. He disrespected me as a colleague, opponent and martial artist. Disrespected MMA. Disrespected the UFC. Disrespected companies that support the sport. But, above all, he disrespected you, UFC fan, MMA fan, Matheus Nicolau fan, Manel Kape fan.”
With Kape vs. Nicolau off the card, tonight’s event proceeds with a rematch between Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker still headlining the show, while Jim Miller vs. Gabriel Benitez now serves as the co-main event.
