Cynthia Calvillo didn’t want to make any excuses for missing weight ahead of UFC DC, but admitted post-fight that she might be a flyweight next time out.
Washington, D.C. — Co-main event fighter Cynthia Calvillo came out of UFC on ESPN 7 in Washington with a draw, and a question mark moving forward. Not exactly the way she wanted to finish out fight week, and her final bout of 2019.
However, missing weight for her strawweight fight with Marina Rodriguez by a full 4.5lbs, and being unable to overcome the Brazilian’s offense early, means there will be plenty of questions. About the weight, first and foremost. It is, after all, the second time Calvillo has missed the strawweight limit since making her octagon debut in 2017.
Speaking to reporters including Cageside Press following the fight, Calvillo said wasn’t looking to make any excuses. “It’s unfortunate that it happened. It was something we were trying to prepare for again, but once again it had to do with my body shutting down. I don’t want to make any excuses, I just want to go back to the drawing board, and we’re going to work on that,” she said.
“Whether it means me moving up a weight class, then that’s what I’m going to have to do. I would hate to look like I’m unprofessional.”
Unprofessional is how opponent Rodriguez saw it, but Calvillo, clearly disappointed, contended that she works “so god dang hard, man. If you guys knew me and spent a week with me, you guys would know I’m not here to f*ck around.”
She certainly did not want to give up several thousand dollars, which was the end result of missing weight. Calvillo was fined 30% of her fight purse. “[Rodriguez] went home with a nice paycheck with that draw and my missed weight.”
Calvillo added that she apologized to her opponent, and that “we’re going to try to make sure that doesn’t happen again. If that means moving up it means moving up.”
While the cut to 115lbs is rough for Calvillo, “[125], it’s very easy for me. I walk around about 130,” she revealed. “When I go to fight week for 25, I don’t even have to go in the sauna. But 115, and if I get that time of the month, I’m older now — I’m in my 30s, I don’t look like it but — it’s just harder on my body. I’m stubborn. I realize that I can make that weight, but now my body is just kind of giving me a hard time with it.”
If you’re one to look for a silver lining, it might be that the path to a title shot is shorter in the women’s flyweight division, compared to strawweight. For Calvillo, however, that’s not really a selling point.
“I’ve thought about that,” she admitted. “It’s just like, when I first got into the UFC, I think I did that fight on like what, 10 days notice? There was no flyweight division when I got into the UFC. That belt, that strawweight belt, it just means more. It’s deeper, the division, it’s been around longer. The flyweight division is fairly new.”
“I want that strawweight belt,” Calvillo continued. “But if my body doesn’t allow me, that’s fine. I’ll go up to flyweight. I started fighting as an amateur at bantamweight, and slowly started working my way down.”
A 120lb division would have been perfect for her, she added. But if the move to flyweight is necessary, “I’m down. I beat a bunch of the girls that are flyweights.” Among them, Gillian Robertson, Montana De La Rosa, Joanne Calderwood, and Polyana Vianna. Not such a bad resume.
“I’m not scared. I’m not scared to go to the flywegiht division,” exclaimed Calvillo. “They’re not going to be stronger than me. We’ll see what happens later on. I might be a flyweight the next one.”
Watch the full UFC DC post-fight press scrum with Cynthia Calvillo above!
