UFC flyweight Ray Borg still hopes to compete at 125 pounds — it’s all about finding the right weight-cutting system.
Borg returned to the win column in his hometown after earning a dominant unanimous decision victory over Rogerio Bontorin at UFC Rio Rancho last night. However, Borg notably came in two pounds heavier than the non-title flyweight limit of 126 pounds.
It was the fourth time in his UFC career that he had missed weight, as well as the third time at flyweight. Last year, he notably claimed he would retire if he missed weight again. But this time, he felt the botched weight cut had nothing to do with discipline.
“I need to talk it over with my manager and with the UFC, but me personally, I think 125 is good for me,” Borg told reporters after the fight about his flyweight future (via MMA Junkie). “I don’t feel like it had anything to do with discipline, I’ve learned to man up to my mistakes and accept accountability.
“If there is one thing I can say is that it wasn’t discipline, not being in the right weight, it was just the system not working for me. Everything was perfect the whole week. When I spoke to you guys in the media scrum before, everything was great, weight wasn’t even high, and as soon as we started the cut – you guys saw we took the extra hour, we even asked for more time – but the weight wasn’t cooperating.
“I truly feel like it’s just finding the right system. I’ve worked with so many weight-cut gurus, weight-cut dietitians, and I’ve tried always to pick things that I like from each one and tried to squeeze it all in one weight cut. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. I think it’s just finding the right weight-cut system that’s best for my career.”
Although he had to forfeit 30 percent of his purse to Bontorin as a result of missing weight, Borg can take some positives away such as winning in his hometown.
“It would obviously be way better if the weight went my way,” Borg said. “But to fight in front of my home town, a lot of people say it’s a dream to do this, it’s a dream to do that, and in high school, when I was preparing for MMA, I always told myself no matter what stage I was on, it would always be the coolest thing in the world to fight on a big stage in front of my home town. So there is no explaining how this moment feels.”
Do you think Borg should remain at flyweight or move up to bantamweight permanently?