What does it take to defend your UFC lightweight and bantamweight titles?
At least 20 extra pounds.
Data obtained by the Post from the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) shows Islam Makhachev's weight on Saturday's UFC 311 victory night, the day after he weighed 154.5 pounds and submitted Renato Moicano in the first round. At the time, the weight was 178 pounds.
Merab Dvalishvili, the 135-pound champion who comfortably cleared the bar at 134 pounds on Friday, weighed 156.8 pounds when he defeated Umar Nurmagomedov by decision at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood.
As unfair as that may sound, note that Moicano beat Makhachev at 181.8 pounds and Nurmagomedov was the same as Dvalishvili at 156.8 pounds.
Weight cuts are an essential element of modern MMA, and for better or worse, more extreme weight cuts are becoming increasingly common below lightweight, for both men and women.
Each of the four competitors in the main event and co-main event stepped into the octagon with at least 15 percent more mass than they had roughly 36 hours earlier, with Moicano and Dvalishvili carrying more than 17 percent.
Of the 26 fighters on the card, 11 increased their weight by at least 13 percent, including flyweight Tagir Ulanbekov, who jumped from 125.5 pounds to 147.4 pounds (17.45 percent increase) to win a decision over Clayton Carpenter. I got it.
Ulanbekov's fight night weight is the largest for a UFC flyweight to weigh in since the CSAC began recording such data in 2018.
Seven of the 13 bouts at UFC 311, including both championship fights, took place between fighters who were within 4 pounds of each other on the night of the fight. In four of the matches, each fighter gained more than 12 percent in weight between weigh-ins. game.
Reinier de Ridder, who opened the pay-per-view portion of the event by defeating Kevin Holland via first-round submission, carried the event's largest size difference, a 21.6-pound edge, to victory. I got it.
Holland, who has bounced between welterweight and middleweight, originally weighed in at 183.5 pounds for their 185-pound fight, then moved up relatively slightly to 190 pounds, but on Saturday he defeated De Ridder at 212 pounds. still fell short.
In fact, de Ridder weighed more than former lightweight champion Jiri Prochaska, who defeated fellow former champion Jamahal Hill in a 205-pound showdown.
Prochaska, who had been toying with a move to middleweight, tipped the scales at 208.2 pounds when he knocked out Hill, but had ballooned to 221.8 pounds by the time he reached the cage.
Clearly, the 13.6-pound underweight couldn't help but raise Prochaska's hand after a thrilling back-and-forth slugfest.
