We’ve seen UFC women’s bantamweight fighter Ailin Perez shaking, but not in this way.
Perez, notorious for shaking her rear end before and after her three consecutive UFC wins, was in tears and shaking uncontrollably Friday morning as she missed weight ahead of her scheduled “UFC Fight Night” bout Saturday with newcomer Darya Zheleznyakova.
Perez gingerly stood up on the scale with her right leg and looked weak as she attempted to flex her muscles after getting the bad news that she missed weight.
Weight cutting is undoubtedly a dirtier side of MMA, as fighters often starve themselves and drain all liquids from their body in an attempt to get down to a contracted weight limit.
Perez weighed 136.5 lbs, just half a pound shy of her maximum weight allowance of 136 lbs.
Her body was likely reacting to the lack of nutrition and sweating out any remaining liquids, with fighters often going 24 hours without any food or drink before weigh-ins.
She also had to deal with the mental aspect of realizing she failed and might have to continue her weight cut. Either she or her coaches decided that it wasn’t worth continuing the brutal weight cut and she ultimately forfeited 20 percent of her salary to Zheleznyakova.
The fight is still expected to go on as scheduled.
Typically, if a fighter misses weight by just a half pound, the fighter will jump into a sauna if available and attempt to lose that final half pound if there’s any sweat left in them.
Perez did not bother this time around, perhaps fearing that she would cause severe damage to her organs if she tried again.
Now she prepares for a cage fight in Paris as the world’s No. 15 bantamweight is scheduled to compete on the prelim card Saturday.
With a win, she’ll will likely be back to shaking her butt, as she’s known to do in celebration.
