French MMA fighter William Gomis, whose fight scheduled for Friday at the UFC was canceled for medical reasons linked to his “cutting” to lose weight, returned on Saturday to the ordeal he experienced and said he “seen death”. Gomis was scheduled to face Brazilian Jean Silva on Saturday on the UFC 301 card but his match was canceled after the Frenchman weighed in on Friday. The 26-year-old fighter nicknamed the “Jaguar” appeared there in a worrying state, staggering, staring into space and even having difficulty getting on and off the scale. The chilling images caused a lot of reaction on social networks. Gomis first wanted to reassure his fans: “As you can see, things are much better. Thank you for all the messages I receive, it’s incredible,” he said in a video posted on Instagram .
He then returned to his “cutting”, the sometimes extreme weight loss phase, often consisting of intense dehydration to lose the last kilos, that fighters must endure before a fight. “I had a big problem during my cutting which was only 2 kilos. I have already done a lot more, 2 kilos is not much. But I had a stomach ache, (… ) and it went bad,” he said, explaining that he drank tap water in Brazil. “When they tried to rehydrate me, I started to vomit, my body no longer accepted water.”
“After my cutting, I was at the weight, and then I vomited four times in a row. I no longer had any water in my body but I was vomiting puddles that were impossible,” he continued. Before describing himself as “stubborn, determined, ready to fight”, which pushed him to continue the process until the end. It was “completely stupid because it was becoming dangerous for my health. I refused to let (my manager) call the doctors, but luckily he did it anyway. I think he probably saved my life.” life because I’ll tell you the truth, I saw death I’m super happy to be alive and to have gotten out of it.
A version questioned by certain media specialized in MMA, who believe that Gomis is covering up his trainer who would have made serious mistakes in the weight loss process, endangering the life of the fighter. Moreover, the latter appeared on the scale with a weight of 1.3 kilos lower than the limit of his weight category, which almost never happens in MMA, the goal being to flirt with the limits to be as heavy as possible. Weight-cutting, an intense – and controversial – process of losing weight quickly before weigh-ins, is practiced by almost all professional fighters in the sport. The most intense phase takes place in the hours preceding the weigh-in. The fighters alternate hot baths and heating blankets until they sweat out several kilos of water. A rehydration phase follows in order to regain in a few hours the pounds lost before entering the cage, and thus hope to have a weight and power advantage over your opponent.
