(You can’t place all the blame on Polley. He learned Beer Gut MMA from the master. Photo via MMAInterviews.)
Over the weekend, Bellator veteran Lew “The Titan” Polley showed up to the World Series of Fighting 4 weigh-ins some 32 pounds over the light heavyweight limit (insert scathing Anthony Johnson fat joke). His fight with Hans Stringer was cancelled almost immediately thereafter and Polley was quick to offer a heartfelt if not incredibly vague apology on his Twitter account, the background photo of which ironically depicts Polley weighing in.
Although no specific reasons for Polley’s Weigh-In Failure Leaderboard-topping effort have yet to be given, WSOF matchmaker Ali Abdel-Aziz assured MMAFighting and therefore the world yesterday that yes, Polley had been fired. The details he did reveal about Polley’s weight cut, however, were bewildering to say the least:
He told me he was cutting from 289 [at the beginning of camp]. I don’t know what his motive was to be 289 six weeks out. But he cost us a lot of money and his opponent was coming in from Holland and I think it’s disrespectful to his opponent to go into it like that.
289 pounds?!! You see this, Jon Jones? THIS IS WHERE YOU’RE HEADED, YOU FAT FUCK.
But fret not, Potato Nation, for this story has only begun to dip its toes into the waters of Pitiful Pond. It turns out that Polley, realizing he wouldn’t be able to negotiate his way into a catchweight bout with Stringer, basically threw his hands in the air and said “fuck it.” And by “threw his hands in the air,” we mean “threw his hands into the nearest bag of Corn Nuts, the official snack of UFC cornermen.”
His manager said let’s do a catchweight 220. The other camp was willing to go to 215. But he weighed [Thursday] at 225. The weigh-in day he comes in at 234. He gained weight. I’m going to cut him. I’m the last guy who should cut somebody, but if you’re going to be that disrespectful to your opponent, yeah, I’m going to cut you.
And the price Polley must now pay for his disrespectful, embarrassing weigh-in disaster? How about a fight booked at heavyweight this Friday?! Against an undefeated Olympian with a much bigger name no less! (Via MMAJunkie):
Polley (12-4) didn’t officially weigh in for his WSOF 4 bout with Hans Stringer, but he tipped the scale at 237 pounds. He’s now replaced James Wilson (2-0), whom RFA officials said broke his hand, and meets NCAA Division I national wrestling champion and Olympian Steve Mocco (2-0) at Friday’s RFA 9 event.
RFA 9 takes place at StubHub Center in Los Angeles, and the main card, including Mocco vs. Polley, airs on AXS TV.
The moral of this story: If you show up to a contracted fight hideously overweight, you can use your lack of discipline as the launching point for your new career at a higher weight class. Gluttony is truly the path of the righteous. Case in point:
