Sergio da Silva Admits He Tried To Work Scale At Bellator Weigh-Ins

Perhaps New York is simply prone to weigh-in controversy.

Prior to UFC 210 this past April, UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier initially came in over weight, but returned just minutes later to make the 205-pound limit, although he had his hands on a towel, which some said helped in.

Earlier today (June 23, 2017), Sergio da Silva tried to check his weight at the Bellator 180 weigh-ins in New York, but was told he could not come back at a later time:

“Cormier weighed in, came back and weighed in again, but the (commissioner) wouldn’t let me do it,” da Silva told MMA Fighting. “When she read the weight I said ‘ok, I still have two hours, so I’ll come back and try to lose more’, but she said ‘no, you can’t.’”

Cormier was only allowed to come back to the scale because he was competing in a championship bout, which is why da Silva tried to do anything possible in order to ‘lose’ the extra weight on the scale:

“It was obvious, there’s no reason to lie,” da Silva admits. “I was a little above the limit and tried to do… I’m a veteran, almost 10 years fighting, and I’ll try anything you can do to make a difference. There’s nothing else to say.

 “You’re dehydrated, waiting to weigh in since 6 a.m., cutting weight,” he continued, guaranteeing would have made weight if he had used the extra hours. “I couldn’t do it, so I tried to ‘lose’ something in the scale.

“I usually weigh in in the afternoon. I wake up, and I have my schedule of the day to cut weight. I didn’t even sleep last night cutting weight. It’s hard to weigh in at 9 a.m.. It’s good because you have more time to rehydrate, but it’s too early.”

His tricks didn’t work out, however, as the commission then made sure he was standing with both feet on the scale. In the end, his fight against Matt Rizo was made official after a bit of controversy.