1/4 lb over and you wouldnt fight a guy after a 5 hr drive.
- A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN ASPIRING MMA FIGHTER
Thursday, March 05, 2009 - by Damon Martin - MMAWeekly.com
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The life of a mixed martial arts fighter can be very glamorous when reaching the level of athletes like Chuck Liddell or Georges St. Pierre, but almost every person entering the sport starts out at the bottom rung of the ladder, trying to work their way up.
Enter the story of Davin Clark, a young fighter who works with the team at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif., who is currently 1-0 as a professional, just looking for his chance to get better and make his way to a major promotion like the UFC.
At 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, Clark's trainer, Bob Cook, gets a call from the promoters at the upcoming "Riot At The Hyatt" show in Westlake Village, Calif. A fighter has been dropped from the card and they are looking for an opponent for another young fighter by the name of Felipe Fogolin.
Cook calls his fighter and Clark informs him that he currently weighs 202 pounds and will not be able to make his normal fighting weight of 185 pounds in the short time allowed with weigh-ins, literally less than 24 hours away. The promoter, Cook and his potential opponent agree to a catchweight fight of 191 pounds. The next day the process of cutting weight begins.
Along with teammate Nate Moore and coach Bob Cook, the team heads towards the fight in the car, but with little time to spare, they will be unable to go to the gym to cut weight, so there was only one option remaining.
"We put both guys in the car in plastics, I'm unfortunately in the car with them, without plastics, but sweating all the same. I've got the heater on, heater all the way blasting," Cook explained to MMAWeekly.com on Wednesday evening.
"There was no running exercises, any of that. It was in the car with the heater on and when we'd stop for gas and use the restroom, he'd jump rope."
As the time ticked away for the weigh-in, Clark and Moore both felt confident that they'd make weight without any major troubles. Then came the scale.
"We step on the scale for weigh-ins, Davin is 191.25, instead of 191," said Cook. "So the commission then gives the guy the option whether he wants to fight or not, and of course the guy chooses not to fight."
A very tumultuous 24 hours for Davin Clark, who will now sit out for the event while his teammate goes onto fight, and Cook says he especially feels for his athlete who just wanted to fight.
"It was a frustrating deal. A quarter of a pound cost us the fight, all day suffering in the freaking car, driving, no money, and staying at a Motel 6 tonight.
"We almost had a fight right there (at the weigh-ins)," Cook said with a laugh.
So less than 24 hours after a fight was offered, a fight won't happen. Davin Clark will gladly enjoy some pasta and try to move past a frustrating day of weight cutting with the end result being a night's stay in Westlake Village.
Cook explains that the situation is not unlike what many aspiring MMA fighters will go through when trying to make a career out of fighting.
"That's just the struggles of these young guys, what they have to go through all the time," Cook said. "Things always fall apart, change, fight for next to no money, trying to live a dream and get to the big time."
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thats F'd up. I gave my guy 2 lbs. in my last fight. I didn't even ask him to try to cut the 2 lbs. He was a last minute replacement.
That is some BOOOWWWWLLL SHHHEEETTT.
Asshole move but...it's a business, nothing personal. I would have ASKED that he cut the 1/4 pound or at least given him the OPTION of doing it.
Sounds like he got there, weighed in and they didn't give him any extra time at all.
NOW...if they gave him extra time and he still couldn't do it, that's on him but he should be given that extra time to cut it. Especially with being .25 lbs over.
BUT...it is the call of the opponent and it's business. For whatever reason (and no, it isn't always because the fighter is a pussy) he didn't accept him being over in weight, even by .25 lbs.
the sad thing about this is,in Felipe's last fight his opponent gave him 2 pds because of short notice.
12 - the sad thing about this is,in Felipe's last fight his opponent gave him 2 pds because of short notice.
wow that's really messed up!
business is different to different people...
When i fought, I almost always did open weight class but the few times I did fight within a weight class I always weighed in less than what I should have. Funny thing was the last fight I did I weighed in day before and in that state (Ohio) you also have to weigh in day of and cannot gain more than 10 lbs from the day before to the day of the fight.
I weighed in like 203 lbs day before and like 200 day of haha.
Boils down to this...YOU ARE EITHER A PROFESSIONAL OR YOU AREN'T. If you cannot even come in on or below weight, you are not a professional (amateurs should adhere to the same professional attributes even though they are not yet professionals).
If it was a UFC fight, Id say no problem. But for that situation knowing it was a last minute replacement doing everything he could to cut.......doesnt make any sense.
They both would have put the weight back on with no discernable difference. Or even dock the guy an hour and let the guy who made the weight have a head start rehydrating.
So dumb.
And I believe in always making the weight you agree to. Ive seen guys in tournaments have their opponent show up 5lbs over and they take their show money and advance and let the guy go home with nothing. Thats business. This case is different.
KS has no commission at that time, I think I only fought maybe 3 times actually in a weight class with 4 fights missing from the record. As far as your other question, that I'm not allowed to comment on.