Jose Mariscal was so embarrassed by missing weight for his clash against Damon Jackson on Saturday that he almost pulled out of the fight.
UFC on ESPN 61 allowed only one hour for fighters to weigh in instead of the usual two. Mariscal, who weighed in at 3.5 pounds over the featherweight limit, was one of three fighters who missed weight for the event. However, Mariscal doesn’t blame the short weigh-in window and instead takes responsibility for his weight miss.
A lifetime martial artist, Mariscal knows the importance of making weight. “Chepe” didn’t even want to be seen in the arena, but his coaches put his mind back on track. An undisclosed portion of Mariscal’s purse was offered to Jackson, who agreed to proceed with the fight. Mariscal went on to earn an impressive unanimous decision win over Jackson in a high-paced, entertaining affair.
“We kind of calculated the weight cut kind of wrong, especially with the Vegas heat and everything — and kind of shot my body,” Mariscal said during a p post-fight media scrum. “Honestly, I was so embarrassed at it, probably got to throw the fight. Because I have so much respect for the people who lose the weight, do the time, do everything else.
“That’s why I kind of felt bummed and didn’t want to embarrass myself. I didn’t even want to come to the arena and stuff like that. But my corner kept me aligned, was like, ‘Hey man we gotta do what we can. If they don’t want to fight that’s fine, but we gotta do what we can.’ And that’s what we did. They got a little extra percentage on it and I was willing to give up the pay. They were down to fight. We just said yes and we went out there and performed.”
Mariscal has won his first four UFC outings and is riding a seven-fight winning streak overall.
