Still 20 Pounds Away, Will Cyborg Make Weight by Friday?

Screen Shot from Cyborg’s YouTube Video – Episode 1 of #UFCBrasilia

Cyborg. If you pull this off, you’re my first phone call next time I can’t fit into a bridesmaids dress the week of a wedding.

For her second time since her UFC debut at UFC 198 in May, Invicta FC champion Cris “Cyborg” will attempt to make a catchweight of 140 for her main event bout against Lina Lansburg at UFC Fight Night 95 in Brasilia, Brazil on Saturday. And from the sounds of things, it doesn’t seem to be going to well.

On MMAFighting’s The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Cyborg explained how she arrived in Brazil last week weighing 168. She woke up on Monday morning at 165. Only a three pound difference and just days from the official weigh in.

Nutritionist George Lockhart (seen in the above photo behind Cyborg looking stressed as expected) advised the Invicta 145-pound champ to take birth control this camp, more specifically Yas. While most females tend to see weight gain when starting to take birth control, Yas has been said to act as a diuretic, depleting the body of excess water.

Videos swarmed social media after Cyborg’s last struggle to make 140 in May. She showed up to weigh ins looking emaciated, to say the least. Keep in mind, this time last camp she almost 10 pounds lighter. According to the champ, she never even entered the 150’s this camp.

“This camp I don’t touch 150,” she explained to Helwani on Monday. “It’s really scary, I look in the mirror, I trained double and I don’t know why I don’t touch ’50. Just something different in this camp is I take birth control. Last fight, I make 140, it was successful.”

Since its debut at UFC 199 in June,  the UFC has adapted stricter weight cutting policies including an earlier weigh in time and more importantly, doctor surveillance. If a fighter comes to fight week with over 8% of their body weight to cut, they are under a doctors supervision to prevent severe dehydration and other possible health risks.

As of Tuesday morning, Helwani tweeted out that Cyborg drops five more pounds to 160, making it a minimum of 19-pounds (roughly 12%) to cut by Friday’s morning’s official weigh in.

The audio in the video linked below is a little rough to understand between the language barrier and microphone quality once they get to the bus scene (pictured above) where Cyborg challenges Lockhart’s advice to use birth control. The amount of times you hear, “testosterone”, “diuretic” and “estrogen” thrown around in the conversation makes me think a USADA siren is set to turn on any moment.

httpss://youtu.be/Kw-Z1yM80t8