Matheus Nicolau is not happy about his fight being canceled by the UFC due to Manel Kape missing weight. For Nicolau, there is no one to blame but the opponent, who “tried to gain an unfair advantage by cheating the system.”
UFC announced this week that the bout of the two was scratched from the UFC Fight Night 234 lineup. The move came after Kape weighed 3.5 pounds over the flyweight limit. The fighter later confirmed the cancellation and said that Nicolau refused to take the catchweight offer. “Starboy” also shared experiencing illness, which he claimed affected his training.
For Nicolau, nonetheless, there is no excuse for Kape, whom he accused of cheating the system. In his series of posts on X, the Brazilian shared that the opponent showed up in the weigh-in event with 30 minutes left, giving the UFC no choice but to push him to reduce his weight and only opt for a catchweight fight.
“He showed up for the weigh-in with 30 minutes left, so there was no time for the UFC to ask him to cut more weight,” Nicolau’s translated post reads. “He showed up 3.5 pounds over, knowing that if he weighed 0.5 pounds more, the fight would be automatically suspended by the athletic commission.
“In other words, in my opinion, he tried to gain an unfair advantage by cheating the system.”
In the end, Nicolau underscored that it is a fighter’s responsibility to prepare himself before the fight. Yet, with what happened, the 31-year-old thinks it is the opposite of what Kape showed.
“…The only person responsible for this is Manel Kape himself,” Nicolau explained. “It is the duty of the martial artist to fulfill this obligation of making weight the day before the fight…
“Kape was irresponsible, reckless and disrespectful. He disrespected me as a colleague, opponent, and martial artist. Disrespected MMA. Disrespected the UFC. Disrespected companies that support the sport. But, above all, he disrespected you, UFC fan, MMA fan, Matheus Nicolau fan, Manel Kape fan.”
