Michael Chiesa
Michael Chiesa missed weight for his fight with Anthony Pettis by 1.5lbs at UFC 226 last year after a foot injury left him unable to do the kind of road work he was used to in order to shed the weight.
As a result Chiesa came into fight week weighing 175lbs, about 6lbs more than normal, and trying to lose the excess weight in such a short period of time took a tremendous toll on his body.
“We cut for four hours on Thursday night and I was up at 5 a.m. cutting weight on the day of weigh-ins [Friday] and my body had nothing more to give,” Chiesa told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.
“I’m not exaggerating: I thought I was going to die. In the middle of the night before the Friday weigh-ins, I woke up and started having a panic attack. I broke down and started crying and was like, ‘I think I’m going to die.'”
In the end Chiesa says his body had “no more to give” and so he missed weight for the first time in his career.
Unfortunate, but in hindsight far less of a concern than pushing his body further into the weight-cut death zone.
