Cris Cyborg reacts after fighter collapses at UFC Vegas 22 weigh-ins: “This is a scary video to watch”

Bellator women’s champ Cris Cyborg reacted after a fighter collapsed at the UFC Vegas 22 weigh-ins, saying “This is a scary video to watch.”

On Friday afternoon, UFC women’s bantamweight Julija Stoliarenko collapsed not once, but twice at the weigh-ins in Las Vegas. Stoliarenko stepped onto the scale and then fell down on her first weigh-in attempt, but after sitting down for a few minutes, she was then given a second attempt at weighing in, which she did successfully when she came in at 135.5lbs. However, as soon as her weight was read by the commission, she collapsed a second time and had to be taken away to the hospital on a stretcher. It was an extremely scary scene and another reminder of the harsh realities of weight cutting in the sport of MMA.

Another fighter who has had a history of tough weight cuts is Cyborg, one of the sport’s all-time greats. The Bellator women’s featherweight champion was profiled in 2016 on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” about the dangers of extreme weight cutting. In the documentary, Cyborg was filmed as she attempted a brutal weight cut to make 140lbs in her UFC debut. Considering Cyborg struggles to make 145lbs, seeing her struggle to make 140lbs in the video was very difficult to watch. She has since become an advocate of safe weight cutting.

On Friday, following Stoliarenko’s removal from the fight with Julia Avila at UFC Vegas 22, Cyborg took to social media to comment about the weight-cutting process. In reply to a post from Ariel Helwani, Cyborg said that it was “scary” to see Stoliarenko collapse on the scale and that she hopes people understand why women need more weight classes.

“Hopefully fans start to understand the importance of creating more weight classes and not less in women’s mixed martial arts. This is a scary video to watch,” Cris Cyborg wrote.

What do you think we need to do to change extreme weight cutting in MMA?