Uriah Hall was supposed to fight former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Vitor Belfort at UFC Fight Night St. Louis, but health issues during the weight cut caused the bout to be canned on the eve of the event.
The fighter claimed that he almost died due to the weight cut, which is one reason why the Association Of Boxing Commissions (ABC) is recommending that Hall move up to light heavyweight in the future.
“The ABC does have the ABC registry and we will post that Uriah Hall won’t be able to fight at that weight (185 pounds),” ABC President Mike Mazzulli told MMA Junkie. “There will be notes on the registry that state that he missed the weight and that he can’t fight at that weight.”
UFC President Dana White also suggested that Hall move up a weight class, which is a weight class that Hall’s coach believes he would dominate at.
Mazzulli also knows the issues aren’t exclusive to Hall, but notes that the culture surrounding weight cutting needs to change.
“I go back to the education aspect of it,” said Mazzulli. “We have to change the culture (of weight cutting), and we’re not going to change the culture overnight.”
Hall has spent his entire UFC run competing at middleweight, earning a record of 6-6-0 in the promotion (13-8-0 overall).
