From the outside looking in, UFC women's bantamweight champion Miesha Tate's early weigh-in ahead of her UFC 200 main event fight against Amanda Nunes did not go too smoothly. Tate had absolutely no time to spare when she finally arrived at the weigh-in room at exactly the 10:00 am deadline. If she had been even just one minute late, her fight would have been pulled from UFC 200 and she would have been stripped of her UFC championship. But everything ended up working out well, as she made weight at 134.5 pounds and her title fight is now official for Saturday night.
After the drama-filled sequence of events came to a close, Tate's boyfriend and current UFC bantamweight contender Bryan Caraway explained the near-weigh-in fiasco to BloodyElbow.com. Although Tate planned to arrive later than most fighters, she did indeed experience a harsher-than-usual weight cut, according to Caraway.
"She doesn't like waking up super early and they have a two hour window from 8:00-10:00 am for weigh-ins, so we decided to sleep a little more and weigh-in at 10:00," he said. "Plus, we figured everyone else would be done by then. Her weight was moving a little slower than usual and our scale ended up being a little bit heavier than the official scale."
Tate's coach, Rob Follis told SB Nation's Submission Radio the same thing.
"We don't like wasting time," he said. "You manage that commotion. This isn't the first time we've been close with fighters. It happens. Cutting weight is not a science -- it's an art. Sometimes things change a little bit. It took a little bit longer to get it off, but we knew we were going to get it off. We went in and got the job done, and here we are, we're fighting for the title. Now it's all done.
"It was just a little bit tougher than we we're used to. It wasn't outrageous, it just took a little bit longer than we're used to. Her body wasn't letting the water go as well as it normally does. But it wasn't a big deal, either."
Follis also added his thoughts on the new early weigh-in procedure, which has been highly praised since it was first used by the UFC at UFC 199 last month.
"It's great for the fighters," he said. "I've actually been talking about this for years and years. 'Why aren't we weighing-in earlier and doing a mock weigh-in?' If we truly care about the fighters, let's get them on weight, let's get them on the scale, get them re-hydrated, give them longer to let their bodies to re-acclimate. I think this is wonderful the commission, the UFC has pushed for this to happen. It's going to be great for the fighters in the long run."
UFC 200 takes place live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on July 9.
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