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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
There's been some controversy brewing over the last week surrounding UFC 158 in Montreal earlier this month. A video surfaced from Diaz's camp from the day of the weigh-in, showing UFC VP Michael Mersch talking to Diaz's camp about a tweak in rules.
"Here, they're going to allow you and Georges to have an extra hour. Just in case somebody doesn't make it," Mersch said in the video (which has been removed multiple times from YouTube). "But the good news is, they don't count the decimal. If you're 170.2 it's 170. If it's 170.9. it's 170."
Members of Diaz's entourage asked why they hadn't been informed of that quirk from the Montreal commission earlier, and Mersch's response is what's caused the most reaction.
"It's just something to keep in mind. That's kind of an off the record type of thing," Mersch said. "But keep that in mind. As long as he's under 171, we should be good."
The Quebec commission has now commented on the matter, confirming the fact that they don't "count the decimal", and according to a report from MMAFighting.com, they haven't in the last five UFC events to run in the state.
"I wish to inform you that, during UFC 158, no contestants exceeded the weight determined in their contracts," Quebec commission representative Joyce Tremblay commented. "Currently, the Regie does take into consideration the maximum weight determined by contract when it carries out the weight-ins before a bout. However, our regulation on combat sports does not take decimals into account. Their consideration is a question of interpretation likely to be debated between the two parties under contract."
Penick's Analysis: The "off the record" comment is the biggest issue here. It seems like it's simply the way Montreal conducts their weigh-ins, even though that runs contrary to every other North American commission which requires on the dot weight or below for title fights. But if that was the case, it's something the competitors should be made aware of well ahead of time, not shortly before the weigh-in. It may be a case of that information coming to Mersch and him passing it on, but it certainly didn't come off well, and gives fuel to the conspiracy theorists in the MMA world.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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