There was some major drama at the UFC 316 weigh-ins. Most of it surrounded a flyweight fight between Wang Cong and Ariane da Silva.
UFC 316 goes down this Saturday inside the Prudential Centre in Newark, New Jersey. China’s Wang will take on Brazil’s da Silva on the event’s undercard. The pair were set to meet at flyweight, meaning they both needed to hit 126 pounds at Friday morning’s weigh-ins. However, da Silva came in way overweight, tipping the scales at 132 pounds, a substantial six pounds over the limit.
Speaking to MMA fighting, the Brazilian’s long-time coach Renato da Silva explained what happened on the scale. He revealed the fighter was recently diagnosed with a “benign pituitary tumor.” After the diagnosis, they began to work with a new nutritionist. That’s where the trouble began.
“We wanted to get the cortisol levels down so it wouldn’t affect her health,” Renato da Silva said. “By controlling the cortisol levels, we wanted to cause as little stress as possible to her body. And the nutritionist opted for a strategy that would have her hold as much as weight as possible until the end, and it was too much for the final days. He doesn’t know her as much as I do, and he thought she would be able to do that.
“There was a moment this morning she wasn’t feeling good,” coach da Silva added. “I know her body. There was still something left there to cut, but at the same time her reactions weren’t normal. She wasn’t walking right, she was blinking too slow, she had double vision, and couldn’t focus, her voice sounded weak, she was giving us dangerous signs as she dropped weight.
“She still had liquids in her body, but her physical state was showing signs of danger. Her body was showing signs that it was time to stop… It was too much [weight] for such a short amount of time. I think that was the mistake by the nutritionist. We trusted the process and unfortunately it didn’t work. It’s a mistake we made. I also made that mistake as a coach, to have believed and tried something different, but my goal is always to take care of the health of Ariane, an athlete and also my wife. I’ll always put her health first.”
