The Rizin FF fight between women’s heavyweight Gabi Garcia and 53-year-old pro wrestler-turned-politician Shinobu Kandori was already a strange one, but things got weirder at Thursday morning’s weigh-in. Garcia posted one of the worst weigh-in misses of all time in a major MMA promotion, tipping the scale at 237 pounds, 28 pounds over the 209-pound weight limit.
The egregious blunder left fans and media in attendance surprised, and Kandori—who checked in at 162 pounds—was incensed on stage:
Kandori and Garcia have had a bitter rivalry since the two were first scheduled to fight in 2016. That bout was canceled due to Kandori suffering a rib injury, but the animosity between the two lingered on as Garcia instead faced Yumiko Hotta, a friend and former rival of Kandori.
While this beef can partly be chalked up to Rizin’s pro-wrestling-inspired promotional style, the two have had some seemingly authentic scuffles that suggest it may be legitimate.
That said, the feud may go on unresolved as Rizin head Nobuyuki Sakakibara took the microphone at the weigh-in to suggest the fight would be scrapped, per MMAJunkie.com, but, as of this writing, the fight has not officially been canceled.
Regardless, Garcia coming in 28 pounds overweight for the bout is easily among the worst weigh-in gaffes in MMA history.
While 28 pounds isn’t the worst miss ever (Legacy FC’s Gerald Harris smashed an opponent that came in 50 pounds heavy in 2016), it’s rare to see fighters in major promotions off by more than a few pounds. Garcia missing weight this badly ahead of a highly controversial, but heavily promoted, fight in one of the biggest events on Rizin FF’s calendar is a uniquely huge blunder.
Should the fight go down, it will take place early Friday morning at the Rizin Fighting World Grand Prix 2017 in Saitama Japan.
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