Anthony Pettis explains why he missed weight at UFC 206
Former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis missed the mark on Friday afternoon and with that, his chance to hoist his second UFC belt on Saturday at UFC 206.
Pettis will still be permitted to fight fourth-ranked featherweight Max Holloway on fight night, but he’ll no longer be eligible for the interim title attached to the fight after weighing in three pounds over the championship limit.
According to Pettis, he arrived in Canada on weight but things just didn’t go his way during the final stages of the cut and he needed to prioritize his health over everything else.
“We showed up about six pounds heavy for the weight cut,” Pettis told Megan Olivi after the FS1 weigh-ins. “We showed up awesome -- I had water to drop. Everything was going as planned and the last two pounds, the last pound actually, wouldn’t come off … every time I went in the sauna or tried to sweat the pounds off, it just wouldn’t come off. So my team made a decision and it just wasn’t healthy for me to continue cutting that weight. So health over all of these, for sure.”
Pettis and his coaches from Roufusport had to decide whether the final two pounds were worth the potential health hazards and a diminished performance in one of the biggest fights of his career. At the end of the day, the risks didn’t outweigh the benefits.
“That was the decision, do I want to fight [Saturday] or do I want to make this weight and end up in the hospital? It was to that point. It felt like the preparation was well, I had my nutritionist with me the whole time, everything was the way it was supposed to be going but then when it came down to cutting the weight, it just wouldn’t come off.”
Holloway will receive 20 percent of Pettis’ purse and can still claim the interim title with a win.
The two top featherweights are slated to throw down in the main event of UFC 206 on Saturday on PPV.
