Rousimar Palhares
Rousimar Palhares has always been an enormous, imposing physical specimen, but cutting down to compete in the welterweight division would eventually prove to be a bridge too far for his body.
In 2018, a photo of the naturally stocky Palhares looking almost impossibly huge appeared online, at which point he acknowledged that he had abandoned the possibility of competing at welterweight again after coming in 3lbs overweight for a fight with the FNG promotion, which he subsequently lost by KO in just 58 seconds.
”I felt really bad cutting weight last time,” Palhares told mmafighting.com a few months later. “I can’t make that weight anymore. I almost died. I can’t do it. I missed weight, I almost died, had to be medicated.
“I look like a crackhead at 170, I reached my limit. That was the last time I cut that much of weight. I’m done. No more. I might die, something can happen.”
Just days after that statement, Palhares showed up for a grappling match at KASAI Pro 3 weighing 218lbs – 32lbs over the original middleweight limit and 18lbs above the catchweight that had then been agreed upon.
