Italian fighter Alessio Sakara, a former light-heavyweight fighter, had to withdraw from his middleweight bout with Jorge Rivera at the last minute, in what was going to be the co-main event for last weekends UFC 122 event in Germany.
The official reason for Sakara’s late withdrawal was due to an illness causing “flu-like” symptoms in the fighter.
During Thursday’s episode of ‘MMA Live‘ media personality Gareth Davies noted that Sakara’s withdrawal was likely due to a bad weight cut (transcribed by BloodyElbow.com).
“Well you can’t make full accusations about this Jon. But I have it on good authority that 8 or 9 days before bout was due to take place; Alessio Sakara was walking around at 220 pounds.”
“He failed to show for the fighter workouts on the Thursday in Italy. He was walking around the fight hotel looking very gaunt and ghostlike.”
“When you take that much weigh off, that quickly, it does bring on illness sometimes and I do fear this may have happened here with Alessio Sakara.”
“And it doesn’t do him any favors with the UFC, I can guarantee you that.”
Sakara has since issued a statement concerning his withdrawal from the event.
“I again want to apologize to the UFC, to the fans and to Jorge Rivera who was very disappointed not to have had the chance to compete when I was forced out of UFC 122 in Germany last weekend. I had a very difficult weight cut but was very much looking forward to the fight after a good camp. However, I began to feel ill early in the week and this continued until fight day. Several members of the press also came down with stomach flu and, although I was desperate to fight and not let anyone down, the decision was taken when I got to the arena that I was simply too poorly to compete. Although still poorly, I am feeling better physically but I won’t feel like myself again until I make this up to the fans in the Octagon.”