The best and worst from UFC Fight Night 140: Magny vs. Ponzinibbio

#1 Worst: Calvillo should never have been allowed to fight

Cynthia Calvillo did not look healthy at the weigh-ins and should never have fought

Strawweight prospect Cynthia Calvillo actually picked up one of the night’s better victories, as she outworked opponent Polania Botelho across the first round of their fight before finishing her off with a unique no-hooks rear naked choke late in the round, but the question has to be asked; should she have been allowed to fight in the first place?

The weight limit for a Strawweight fight is 115lbs, and with the pound allowance non-title fights are given, 116lbs. Calvillo came in at 118lbs – not a massive miss, admittedly – but she looked terrible on the scale, having to strip naked and stand behind a towel to even hit 118lbs, and she looked barely able to stand at points and appeared to be on the verge of collapse.

Sure, in the end it didn’t matter too much as she won, and didn’t really use her illegal weight advantage to pull the victory off, but can you imagine if she’d taken a bad beatdown from her Brazilian foe? Who knows how bad things could’ve gotten for her?

The UFC dodged a bullet with Calvillo’s win but they cannot keep playing the odds like this with fighter safety when it comes to weight cuts. Something needs to be done – whether it’s the UFC pulling more fights when a fighter looks ill during weigh-ins, or putting a limit on the amount of weight a fighter can lose – before someone gets badly hurt or worse.