UFC on FOX 22's Alex Morono says James Moontasri asked for catchweight fight while in sauna

Welterweight Alex Morono knew James Moontastri was struggling even before they stepped into the octagon this past weekend at UFC on FOX 22.

Montasri was the last to hit the scales for the event’s official weigh-ins the morning prior to Saturday’s event. He was spotted getting an application of Albolene, which is used to kickstart sweating and aid weight loss. When he hit the 171-pound limit, he and his coaches celebrated.

That didn’t come as a shock to Morono given their conversation Friday morning as they shared a sauna.

“He asked for a catchweight, and I was like, ‘Absolutely not,’” Morono (13-3 MMA, 2-0 UFC) told MMAjunkie after his unanimous-decision win over Moontasri (9-5 MMA, 2-4 UFC) on the FS1-televised prelims at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif.

The idea of giving up on making weight offended Morono, whose goal was to make their fight the bloodiest, most exciting one it could be. A catchweight fight of 173 pounds – the mark Moontasri requested – was not something he wanted to broach with UFC brass, and besides, he wasn’t struggling.

“This is not what we do, and I can make weight easy too,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time. There’s no way I’ll ever bust weight or ask for a catch(weight) the day of.”

Morono had faith Moontasri would show up to fight. But as it turned out, not budging on the weight limit paid dividends. After a strong first round, Moontasri began to run out of energy, allowing Morono to push the pace and earn a decision win.

“Yeah, (I knew) maybe he was breakable,” Morono said. “But those little things, they don’t mean that much in a fight. You’ll know at fight time what’s up.”

Weight hasn’t always played to Morono’s advantage. He lamented being too big for lightweight, but not very big for welterweight. He mused that a 165-pound division would be perfect; he cut only seven pounds to make the limit for UFC on FOX 22.

It just so happened that this time around, his opponent’s size worked to his advantage.

For more on UFC on FOX 22, check out the UFC Events section of the site.