(Sanchez’ unorthodox weight-cutting method did not work as well as he had hoped)
Diego Sanchez signed on to move back down to lightweight for the first time in three years for the opportunity to fight legendary former champion Takanori Gomi in his home nation of Japan at tonight’s UFC on Fuel 8 event but at yesterday’s weigh-ins did not make the category’s weight limit. A smooth-fleshed and drained looking Diego weighed in two pounds over the lightweight non-title fight limit of 156 pounds.
Gomi could have refused to fight Sanchez at that point but has reportedly agreed to still fight Sanchez. Diego will now be docked 20% of his purse by the UFC.
Ordinarily, in states like Nevada, when a fighter misses weight, 20% of their purse is taken by the athletic commission. Half of that amount is given to their opponent and the other half is taken by the commission and given to their state’s general budget.
UFC on Fuel 8 is being self-regulated by the UFC and, at this point, it is unknown what, exactly, the organization will do with Sanchez’ penalized purse percentage. In any case, the fight is on, and Sanchez took to twitter to apologize to his opponent and fans….wait, no.
That would make too much sense. Our freewheeling, cartwheeling, mean-mugging friend actually used his twitter account after weigh ins to preemptively complain about Gomi and taunt the Japanese fighter.
“Gomi better not be crying I missed weight, after I win because those 2 lbs cost 24 thousand dollars. If I could have cut it I would have 
“ Sanchez tweeted early this morning.
That’s right, Gomi. Don’t you start complaining about how your opponent is heavier than you and how that is, by definition, an advantage for him. Because, you know, it cost him money and it was really, really hard for him to do what you had to do.
Well, at least this continues the weird-a-thon with these two that began at Thursday’s press conference when Sanchez had a rough bowl-movement on stage and Gomi nearly passed out from fatigue and confusion.
Few fighters bring the strange, as well as excitement like these two nuts. Should be a fun one. What do you say, ‘taters? Will Sanchez be drained from his bad cut or will he use a size advantage to add another loss to Gomi’s UFC record?