Julija Stoliarenko endured one of the worst MMA scale fails you’ll ever see earlier today at UFC Vegas 22’s official weigh ins (results HERE), as the Lithuanian fighter collapsed once before making weight and collapsing again.
The scene was something out of a MMA horror movie. As Stoliarenko stepped on the scale the first time she started to wobble and ended up crashing into the UFC Vegas 22 curtain behind her. After a few minutes of recovery time UFC officials unexpectedly allowed Stoliarenko to step on the scale again. Stoliarenko hit weight at 135.5 pounds before stepping off the scale and feinting again. She needed a stretcher to bring her into the back to receive proper medical attention.
As a result of her weigh ins scare Stoliarenko’s women’s bantamweight matchup with Julia Avila has been removed from UFC Vegas 22’s card.
After recovering from her ordeal Stoliarenko took to social media Friday night to address her fans and anybody wondering how she’s feeling after one of the worst UFC weigh ins of all time. Stoliarenko’s explanation for her disastrous scale fail can be seen below courtesy of Instagram.
“The problem was not my weight cut,” explained Stoliarenko. “It was actually one of my easiest weight cuts in my career. Weight was dropping too fast. The main issue I think was that I made weight too early. Basically the weight ins start at 9 a.m. and I was already on weight at 5 a.m. It was just too long of a time on weight. As everybody knows when you cut weight you can not be on this weight for too long because you’re already at the limit of your dehydration.
“That was an issue why it all happened. I’m so upset because right now I’m feeling great. I feel ready for a fight. My body feels great. I’m still in good shape. I know that I can fight. It just happened that the athletic commission did not clear me for a fight because we are taking care of the fighters. That situation looked terrible.”
It is unknown at this time what UFC officials are going to do with Stoliarenko, but this is a cleat-cut example of how bad MMA weight cutting has become. Stoliarenko is lucky she didn’t experience any lasting issues from her incident earlier today, but will it be enough to change the way weigh ins work?
Probably not.
To check out the latest and greatest UFC Vegas 22 news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here. For the complete “Brunson vs. Holland” fight card and ESPN+ lineup click here.