UFC on FOX 12 headliner Matt Brown says a doctor advised him not to cut anymore weight after hitting the scales a little heavy on Friday night.
Speaking with UFC on Fox's Ariel Helwani, The Immortal explained his recollection of the events from yesterday evening.
I guess my scale was wrong. Whatever. You know, I mean I didn't make the weight, but you're probably talking about after the weigh-ins. I was approached by a doctor, and he advised me against cutting anymore weight. So, at that point, you know, we...didn't try to cut more weight and then they asked Robbie's camp if, you know, they would accept the weight and they did. ... Apparently, I should've been able to go cut the weight, but I was told not to.
Brown was confident that he would've easily been able to make the 171-pound limit that is typical for non-title welterweight bouts after initially weighing in at 172.5.
The Ohio native also indicated that he "timed it [the weight cut] wrong," which is why he had some trouble making weight in this instance.
His opponent Saturday night at SAP Center in San Jose, California, "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler, made 171 pounds on the first attempt.
Brown enters the matchup riding a fairly rare seven-fight win streak (six knockouts) inside the Octagon, though he's still in a title-eliminator scenario since he still lacks a win over a top-10 opponent.
Lawler, the consensus No. 1 welterweight contender, according to the UFC's official rankings (Brown comes in at No. 5), is 4-1 since returning to 170 pounds in February 2013.
His sole defeat came in a UFC championship bout against Johny Hendricks at UFC 171 in March, where he lost a razor-thin decision to crown a new titleholder.
Although it initially appeared that Brown would be fined 20 percent of his fight purse—with 10 percent going to Lawler and another 10 going to the California State Athletic Commission—he wasn't forced to forfeit his share due to what CSAC executive officer Andy Foster referred to simply as "miscommunication," per FoxSports.com's Marc Raimondi.
Will Brown be able to overcome his weigh-in debacle and take out the heavily favored Lawler, or will the Strikeforce import make the oddsmakers happy and make short work of Brown?
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
