UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier stepped onto the scales for the first time to weigh-in on the eve of “UFC 210” last week and was just 1.2 pounds over the permitted weight for a champion. Less than three minutes later, though, he came out and weighed 205 pounds on the dot. Amidst Cormier’s and his team’s celebration, it left some fans and fighters scratching their heads as to how he accomplished it.
This will now forever be known as “Towel Gate”, when Cormier grabbed the towel protecting the media from his nudity. Cormier was able to shed off a pound by grabbing the towel and putting some of his weight on it, allegedly, and his fight with Anthony “Rumble” Johnson was on. Both fighters made weight at the deadline of 12:00 PM ET, making the fight official for Saturday evening.
Needless to say, Johnson is not tickled by this fact at all. “Rumble’s” manager talked about the fiasco, saying that they plan to file a complaint. Cormier has been asked about the situation and holding the towel, but every answer simply glances past the drama as if he’s saying “it’s in the past”. Ali Abdelaziz told ESPN:
“Anthony’s rights were violated. We will go through the proper legal channels to fix this. Everybody saw what happened. How do you lose 1.2 pounds in two minutes?”
“We don’t want to take anything away from [Cormier]. He earned that win. But [Cormier] needs to give up 20 percent of his purse to Anthony. He had two extra hours to cut the weight and I think he probably would have made it — but as it happened, I don’t think he made weight.”
Cormier has proven time and time again that he is a champion, defending the title twice now. However, was it a dirty tactic to grab the towel while he was weighing in? Should “Rumble” get paid 20% for this tactic should Cormier eventually get penalized? Let us know what you think about the situation in the comment section below!
