Jose
Mariscal was so embarrassed by missing weight for his clash
against Damon
Jackson on Saturday that he almost pulled out of the fight.
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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.