MMA Fighting has a featured interview with former No. 1 welterweight contender Thiago Alves, and I can’t help but feel confused by some of his responses. For someone who makes their living by fighting, and has had recent layoffs of eight and thirteen months, it seems insane to me that he would so easily forfeit twenty percent of his purse, ($12,000) rather than cut half a pound. He claims that he weighed in at 171 lbs just prior to his official weigh in, but came in heavy on the dreaded digital scale of the California Athletic Commission.
Thiago Alves Running Out Of Chances With Dana White
↵via MMA Fighting-
↵↵“It was just a half-pound, so I’m sure my body could have flushed it out,” he said. “But I didn’t want to. I just wanted to concentrate on the fight. It was just easier for me to give up the money. Yes, we fight for money, but you also fight to win, and at the time, I was thinking I didn’t want to cut the weight. I was just focused on getting ready to fight. When you’re cutting weight and dehydrated, you don’t always think right. In the future, that won’t happen again. It can’t happen again.”
↵↵↵Dana said, ‘You’ve got to make weight, otherwise we’ve got to move you to 185,’” Alves said. “I told him, ‘Just please give me another chance. I won’t mess up again.’ I didn’t make excuses. I told him I thought I was there but I wasn’t. I took full responsibility. It’s not my coach or my camp, it’s me. I just asked for another chance, and he said OK. But I know this is my last chance.”
↵↵To say this is Alves’ last chance at welterweight would be an understatement. He’s run out of chances with the Zuffa brass and another incident like the one at UFC 117 will all but cement his move to the middleweight division. A prospect that would put Alves at a severe disadvantage. What worries me the most about Alves is his seemingly apathetic and selfish stance on cutting the weight. His opponent, Jon Fitch, made weight. Every other fighter on the card made weight. His livelihood depends on making weight, his employer is noticeably frustrated, and not even an attempt at cutting the half pound? At least humor everyone involved and try. To so easily brush it off like that not only amazes me, it horrifies me.
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