Christopher Ewert was cut by the UFC before he even got to step on a scale at UFC 317.
Ewert was scheduled to face fellow newcomer Jackson McVey this Saturday. As Friday’s official weigh-ins were set to begin, Jon Anik announced that the middleweight fight was cancelled due to weight issues for Ewert, and that the fighter was released from his contract.
Following the news, Ewert’s coach Javier Torres responded to a request from MMA Fighting for a statement.
“People don’t understand how much we tried and we started the cut at 216,” Torres told MMA Fighting. “When we got to Vegas, we checked in at 216 pounds. [Friday] morning we got to 195. We got the call Tuesday [afternoon]. …
“[Our] flight was leaving from Phoenix 8:30 a.m., [and got] delayed until 11:05 a.m. and we got to Vegas 1 p.m. We did bunch of media, pictures, obligations for UFC. We [had] a small window from 4-6 pm, [so] we did a small cut — a 30-minute run, pad, mitts, sauna, [and] mummy.”
Torres says they started their cut to middleweight between 6 and 7 p.m. local time on Thursday, going through multiple rounds of procedure until Ewert got down to 197.3 pounds at around 1 a.m. About 90 minutes later, Ewert began getting small cramps before going through a bath and mummy wrap. After checking the weight again, Ewert had only dropped to 197.
When accepting the fight, Ewert and his team were hoping the contest would take place at a catchweight — especially considering they accepted the fight on less than a week’s notice.
“We told our business partner [we wanted] catchweight since Tuesday,” Torres said. “We always said 195.
“[Mick Maynard, our business partner] and I [talked] at 4 a.m., I told him what was happening. Chris started getting cramps, small ones. “I let him rest, he couldn’t sleep for shit. We checked his weight at 6:45 a.m., then we started [the cut again] at 7:15 — run and pads with the sauna suit on, and we got in the sauna and we did the mummy with sauna suit on. And we did this process again until 9:30 am.
“We did try super f*cking hard. We cut 22 pounds from Wednesday to Friday morning.”
