ONTARIO, Calif. — One day after a weight cut which went so awry that his fight had to be scrapped from the show, Lew Polley is out of a job.
World Series of Fighting matchmaker Ali Abdel-Aziz says the former Ultimate Fighter competitor is gone from the company after what he termed a weight cut that was “disrespectful” to his scheduled opponent, Hans Stringer.
“He told me he was cutting from 289 [at the beginning of camp],” Aziz said Saturday. “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.”
According to Abdel-Aziz, Polley was 20 pounds over on Thursday, then showed up to the weigh-ins Friday even heavier.
“His manager said let’s do a catchweight 220,” Abdel-Aziz said. “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.”
Abdel-Aziz indicated that Stringer received his show money for the fight and would be booked on WSOF’s planned October card.
***
Gerald Harris wants to make one thing clear: Jorge Santiago was knocked out from his slam late in the first round of their fight, just like Harris’ memorable UFC slam finish of Dave Branch.
“He was out,” said Harris, who went on to win via unanimous decision. “I woke him back up when I hit him again. I should have backed up, but, the problem was, the ref had said ‘break’ or something like that. I didn’t hear it, I was going all in on my slam. But if there was 10 seconds left in the round and no break, I would have finished him. He went down hard. He went down just as hard as [Dave] Branch did.”
While the end of the first round was an awkward sequence of events, Harris emphatically felt the referee made the right call in docking Santiago a point for grabbing the top of the cage to try to avoid the slam.
“If I’m trying to pick you up and take you down, if you grab that cage, it’s illegal,” said the fighter known as “Hurricane.” “You should lose a point. I’m so glad he took a point away because I don’t know how many times I picked people up and they grab a rope, or grab the cage, and they just say stop and put their arms up. Punish them for it. It’s illegal, its cheating, it’s just as bad as kneeing someone when they’re on the ground. They deserve to lose the point.”
Harris had an ice pack on his right hand, which was broken early in the fight. He wasn’t afraid to admit that being up on the scorecards, he was simply looking to get through the final round.
“It was a bad strategy, but I didn’t want to get finished,” Harris said. “I didn’t want to get submitted, I didn’t want to get knocked out, downside, I’m being honest. I could lie and say whatever, but everyone could see that I was pretty much, I wasn’t surviving an ass-whupping, I just didn’t want to get in trouble. And standing up with him with one hand was not a smart idea.”
***
A noticeable figure out on the arena floor at Citizens Business Bank Arena on Saturday night was Brett Rogers. That led to speculation the former Strikeforce and Bellator heavyweight had signed with World Series of Fighting.
But Abdel-Aziz said that while the two sides are talking, no deal is done.
“We’re talking,” he said. “We’re in talks, but he’s not signed.”