EliteXC had the weigh-in for its Saturday night CBS show today, and the face of women's mixed martial arts, Gina Carano, failed to make weight.Carano weighed in at 144.5 pounds, or 3.5 pounds over the limit. Her opponent, Kaitlin Young, weighed in at 140.5. The fight will not be canceled, though. Carano will have to surrender 12.5% of her purse to Young.
I've been a supporter of Carano's, but this is totally unacceptable. If she can't make weight for the biggest fight in the history of women's mixed martial arts, she's not dedicated enough to her sport.
All of the other fighters on the EliteXC card made weight. In the main event, Kimbo Slice weighed in at 235.5 and his opponent, James Thompson, weighed 257.
EliteXC weigh-in results: MMA Mania, MMA Frenzy.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-30-2008 @ 6:38PM
Drew said...
MDS, if you are such a supporter of Carano and women's MMA, you would know that 140 weight class in women's MMA is not a real weight class. It was set up specifically for her to make weight. This is not the first time she missed weight for a fight.
As for her not being dedicated to the sport, it is kind of hard for her to do that if she’s drifting
off into other professions such as TV and movies and other things outside of the sport.
I do not blame Carano for having outside interest and it really seems that she does not really have a passion for MMA. Elite XC made a mistake promoting her as the face of women's MMA and putting her on the CBS card when she has a commitment to American Gladiators.
For Elite XC to promote her as the face of women's MMA, there credibility is coming into question. They seem to rather promote MMA as a spectacle/freak show than actual sport. Carano falls into the Slice category, she is being promoted because of her looks and her popularity on "American Gladiators."
From reading reports, Kaitlin Young, Carano's opponent, has been training 9 weeks for this fight and is focused. She has been training at Minnesota Martial Arts Academy camp, which also trains Brock Lesnar and Sean Sherk. That camp paces heavy emphasis on conditioning, cardio, and hardcore training, and it looks like she could pull out an upset in tomorrow's fight. If she loses, this could be a big blow to Elite XC and their credibility as an MMA organization
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5-30-2008 @ 7:18PM
willmore2000 said...
What the other guy said, plus, in support of Carano, one of the reasons she wasn't able to cut the weight is because she was on American Gladiators, where she was required to have a much heavier build in order to have the "look" of a gladiator. And the show wrapped only recently so she might not have had the time to cut the weight.
Still, this has been a problem with her in the past and it's not that big of a deal. This is a catch weight, it's not a title fight, it is, as is the main event, a "attraction" fight, people simply want to see a beautiful girl fight, they don't particularly care if she is at 140 or at 160 ... they might care if she was at 350, but that's a different point altogether.
And it's actually not that unusual for a fighter not to be able to cut weight and the for the fight to go on, it's not professional, but it happens.
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5-30-2008 @ 8:45PM
Shonda said...
Woah, MDS! That's kinda stiff, questioning her committment bc she weighed wat, 3.5-4 lbs too much. I understand that it's her responsibility to make weight, but I dont think it's fair to question her dedicated to her sport bc of it. Besides, she's a woman, and there may have been other things going on that may have prevented her from making weight, but I'd rather not go into detail about those things.
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5-31-2008 @ 3:59AM
tanning lotion said...
That would be humiliating.
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5-31-2008 @ 4:21AM
hyerolla said...
I COMPLETELY agree with Shonda 100%!
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