MANCHESTER, England — Two of the biggest names on the BAMMA 5 (British Association of Mixed Martial Arts) fight card came in heavy today at the weigh-ins in Manchester.
Headliner Paul Daley‘s final weight was 170.4 pounds, just 0.4 pounds over the welterweight limit, but because it was supposed to be a title fight he was not allowed the normal one extra pound. His fight against Yuya Shirai will now be three rounds instead of five, and the title will no longer be on the line.
Even though the fight is taking place in an unregulated country, the promotion decided to go ahead and make it a non-title fight because BAMMA follows the unified rules of MMA.
Daley commented on his weight:
“I apologise to Shirai and the fans for missing weight. Although the fight is 3 rounds now I only need 1 round to knock him out. The fans come to see me win the title but I promise them, title or not, I’ll win this fight and win it in style. Then I’m going after Diaz and I want to send him out the message that I mean business with my performance tomorrow night.”
Also missing weight was co-headliner Ricco Rodriguez. He was originally scheduled to fight TUF 10 veteran James McSweeney at 215 pounds but came in at 217.4 pounds. The bout will now be at a catch weight. He immediately apologized at the weigh-ins.
McSweeney commented on his opponent’s misfire:
“It doesn’t really irritate me. If he didn’t even try to make weight that would be disrespectful, but you can see he’s really tried. I think he’s had a long time to make weight and he hasn’t done it.”
Here are the offical BAMMA 5 weigh-in results:
MAIN CARD
- Paul Daley (170.4) vs Yuya Shirai (169.6)
- Ricco Rodriguez (217.4) vs James McSweeney (214.6)
- Alex Makhonin (182.6) vs Xavier Foupa-Pokam (185.4)
- Claudio Henrique Da Silva (186.5) vs Jean-Francois Lenogue (185)
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Leeroy Barnes (170.6) vs Mohsen Bahari (169.6)
- Rob Mills (170.2) vs Leigh Cohoon (169)
- Jason Ball (155.8) vs Peter Duncan (152.4)
- Paul Cook (170) vs Michael Johnson (170.6)
- Tim Newman (155.2) vs Diego Vital (155)
- Costas Doru (155.2) vs Liam James (155.4)
- Franky Slater (154.4) vs Jeremy Petley (155.8)
International fans can watch the fights Saturday, Feb. 26, at www.bammatv.com at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT. Cost is $5 with the discount code BAMMA5.
UK fans can catch BAMMA live and exclusive on Syfy on Feb. 26 at 9 p.m. SyFy is on Sky channel 114, Virgin Media channel 135 and Talk Talk channel 22.