In the latest installment of the weight-cutting chronicles we look at the UFC Greenville card, which features John Lineker and Luis Pena, both of whom have had past difficulties at the scales.
Like it or not, weight-cutting is deeply rooted in mixed martial arts. MMA adopted its weight-cutting from the sport of wrestling, where it is presumed to be very advantageous to be the biggest and strongest in your weight class. Known as the ‘fight before the fight,’ most UFC fighters cut anywhere from 5-25 pounds, with some fighters even in excess of 30 pounds.
Weight-cutting is the ultimate test of discipline and willpower. Many fighters in the sport consider it very unprofessional to miss weight. In this series, we will shine a light on fighters who cut a massive amount of weight, who have missed weight multiple times in the past, who have made weight-class changes, along with how the weight-cut and weigh-in could affect possible upcoming match-ups. Basically, every aspect of weight-cutting and how it affects the fight game in the UFC.
John “Hands of Stone” Lineker (31-9 MMA, 12-4 UFC)
John Lineker is one of the most violent men in the UFC, he is also one of the smallest in stature. John stands at just 5’3″ and posses a 67″ reach. But, what John gives up in physical stature, he makes up for in raw punching power. Lineker has some of the most brutal one punch knockout power out of anyone in the lighter weight classes in the UFC. Lineker’s power could have something to do with the fact that “Hands of Stone” cuts a lot of weight. And obviously Lineker cuts an excessive amount of weight as he has missed weight multiple times in the UFC and at 2 different weight classes. “Hands of Stone” missed weight for his UFC debut back in 2012 and has been missing the mark ever since then. John had an especially hard time making it down to the flyweight weight of 125lbs but when he was forced to move up he even missed weight at 135lbs. All in all, Lineker has missed weight a total of 5 times with his last miss coming against John Dodson in 2016.
They call him 'Hands of Stone' for a reason!@JohnLineker #UFCGreenville pic.twitter.com/3YdEWbIOIH
— UFC (@ufc) June 18, 2019
Luis “Violent Bob Ross” Pena (6-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC)
Luis Pena is a promising young 25 year old prospect. Luis has incredible physical attributes especially for the featherweight weight class. Violent Bob Ross stands at a towering 6’3″ tall and posses a massive 78″ reach. This easily makes him one of the longest 145lb fighters in the UFC. The Ultimate Fighter Season 27 product originally fought at 155lbs, up until his most recent fight where he revealed that he could probably go down another weight class with relative ease. However this was not the case, earlier this year Luis missed weight for his first featherweight bout, weighting in at 148.5lbs. For this fight, Luis is moving back up to the lightweight division where he will still have a sizable length advantage against the vast majority of his opponents.
"Violent Bob Ross" Luis Pena misses weight for his featherweight debut, coming in heavy at 148.5 pounds #UFCNashville pic.twitter.com/VBVrQmAQqj
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 22, 2019
Deron Winn (5-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC)
This American Kickboxing Academy product might be slightly vertically challenged, standing at about 5’6″ tall and possessing only a 71″ reach, but he makes up for it with his wrestling technique and skill. In Winn’s last fight against Tom Lawlor he fought at 205lbs, the same weight class as his teammate, training partner and UFC double champ, Daniel Cormier. For Winn’s UFC debut he will be fighting at 185lbs., a weight that he has yet to fight at during his professional mixed martial arts career thus far.
Deron Winn end of R2 HL's vs Tom Lawlor at Golden Boy MMA (2018) #UFCGreenville pic.twitter.com/SmcpqW2emu
— LORD HONKY HUMUNGUS (@Mr_Honky) June 10, 2019
