Looks like we had a scale fail on our hands here, folks.
UFC weight-cutter extraordinaire, Mike Dolce, was interviewed on the eve of UFC 171: "Hendricks vs. Lawler," to clean some of the egg off his face after Johny Hendricks came in heavy on his first attempt at the weigh-in festivities earlier today in Dallas, Texas.
"The snag was the scale, unfortunately. We brought his very expensive tenuous scale to a commercial gym where he normally cuts weight, and there was some knuckleheads bouncing around on it when we weren't supervising -- one of the staff told us while we were leaving. So, unfortunately his scale was a little bit off. Now, we did check it earlier this morning with the UFC scale and it was fine, but we noticed inconsistent readings as the day went on. So, we felt Johny would be fine. We knew that if for some reason there was a scale issue, we'd have an hour or up to two hours even to make weight. So, it was never an issue of making weight, it's always an issue of keeping Johny healthy, keeping the athlete healthy, and that's what we did."
Hendricks tipped the scale at 171.5 pounds for his UFC welterweight championship match against Robbie Lawler, which takes place on Saturday night (March 15, 2014), and he had two hours to lose the weight.
The man behind the "Dolce Diet" also claimed Hendricks lost the additional weight in just 20 minutes without using the sauna, citing it as a non-issue, as the team spent most of their deadline time relaxing.
Many fight fans were shocked with the result because Hendricks -- a lifelong wrestler -- worked with Dolce throughout this camp, and UFC President Dana White called Dolce "the best in the business" when it came to getting fighters on weight.
Well, at least Nick Diaz was entertained.
UFC 171 takes place tomorrow night at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. See the full results and video from the "Hendricks vs. Lawler" weight in event right here.
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