It was almost smooth sailing as 19 of 20 athletes made weight for UFC 150 but co-main event fighter Melvin Guillard uncharacteristically came in overweight.
The 29-year-old New Orleans native was supposed to hit the scale at a maximum of 156 pounds for his lightweight bout with former teammate Donald Cerrone, but instead weighed in at 157.5 pounds.
Watch UFC 150 preliminary fights on Sportsnet ONE on Saturday starting at 8pm ET / 5pm PT
Guillard had an additional two hours make the weight if he chose to, but UFC president Dana White announced after the weigh-ins that Guillard would not cut anymore weight. Guillard was forced to forfeit 10 per cent of his purse as a penalty. Cerrone was not affected by this and agreed to fight at a catchweight of 157.5 pounds.
In 53 professional mixed martial arts bouts, including 17 fights in the UFC, Guillard has typically not had trouble making weight.
Every other fighter on the card made weight on their first attempt, including main event competitors Benson Henderson and Frankie Edgar. The two headliners squared off in an intense staredown. The bout is a rematch of their meeting at UFC 144 in February when Henderson won a unanimous decision over Edgar to earn the belt.
Also on the card, a middleweight bout between Ed Herman and Jake Shields, who moves back up to the 185-pound division after going 2-2 at welterweight in the UFC.
The event takes place at the Pepsi Center in Denver and altitude is expected to play a big role in the outcome of the fights. If a fighter is not well conditioned or acclimated to the environment they could easily struggle.
“I know what this air can do to your lungs,” Henderson told the UFC. “I’m from Colorado Springs, and you have to take this seriously. I’ve been here for three weeks already. You can feel it when you run, or spar. You body gives out earlier, you can’t recover as fast. I grew up here, and you can get used to it, but that doesn’t happen in a week or two weeks. That’s why I’ve been here for a while now.”
Cerrone shares the champion’s opinion, saying: “I grew up in Colorado Springs and my family and friends are all from Denver and I got here a month ago. It takes that long to be able to push yourself at this altitude.”
Unbeaten UFC heavyweight Travis Browne — who trains at high altitude at Greg Jackson’s gym in Albuquerque, N.M., and who fought in Denver last year at UFC 135 — thinks the fighters who chose not to get into town early could suffer on Saturday night.
“The biggest thing that you have to get over when you fight there is that your body doesn’t respond the same at the high altitude. You can’t catch your breath and your body fails a lot quicker,” Browne said.
“I think Benson and Donald will have advantages in their fights because they’ve been training at high altitudes for their entire camps. It’s not something that you can get used to in a short amount of time. You really have to spend a lot of time adjusting.”
Here are the complete results from the UFC 150 weigh-ins:
MAIN CARD (PPV starting at 10pm ET / 7pm PT)
— Benson Henderson (154.4) vs. Frankie Edgar (154.6)
— Donald Cerrone (155) vs. Melvin Guillard (157.5)
— Jake Shields (185) vs. Ed Herman (185)
— Yushin Okami (185) vs. Buddy Roberts (184)
— Justin Lawrence (145) vs. Max Holloway (145)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Sportsnet ONE starting at 8pm ET / 5pm PT)
— Dennis Bermudez (145) vs. Tommy Hayden (144)
— Jared Hamman (184) vs. Michael Kuiper (185)
— Ken Stone (135) vs. Erik Perez (135)
— Dustin Pague (136) vs. Chico Camus (135)
— Nik Lentz (145) vs. Eiji Mitsuoka (145)
