Filed under: UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, News
BOSTON — Eight weeks ago, Gerald Harris lived his SportsCenter moment. His knockout slam of Dave Branch during the undercard of July’s Brock Lesnar-Shane Carwin event was plastered all over the highlights of ESPN’s signature show.
On Friday afternoon, though, Harris had no chance of finding himself on TV for weigh-ins, even though he spent fight week dieting, cutting weight and preparing to fight like the 20 other men who marched up and down the scale before cameras.
The reason? After his fight fell though, Harris was a UFC 118 alternate. And after the four other scheduled middleweights passed their medical tests and made weight — in front of the TV cameras, while Harris was stuck backstage — Harris became a fighter without a fight.
“I roll ’til the wheels fall off, so I was hoping until the last minute,” Harris told MMA Fighting on Friday, a short time after making weight. “I was on Twitter like, ‘Someone’s not going to make weight! Come on, someone’s going to be four or five pounds over!’ It’s an unfortunate situation but I’m going to make to the best of it. Hopefully I’ll be back in September or October, whatever [UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva says.”