A bizarre rule means Willie Whitehead vs Romero Cotton will go ahead at Bellator 204.
You probably never heard of Willie Whitehead. The 2-2 MMA fighter isn’t exactly a household name. However, at the Bellator 204 weigh-ins, Whitehead became a bit of an internet celebrity.
The preliminary card bout was scheduled to be at middleweight. This meant that both men had to tip the scales under the 186 lb upper limit.
Cotton did his job, hitting 185.4 lb, but the same cannot be said of Whitehead. When he stood on the scales it read 200.2 lb, a whopping 14.2 lbs over the limit.
Remarkably, this fight will still go ahead as a catchweight thanks to a strange rule.
Tipping the scales
This card is set to go down in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. According to the South Dakota Athletic Commission rules, a fight will only be automatically scrapped if a fighter is “ten percent above the originally scheduled weight class. This, of course, does not apply to the super heavyweight division
Incredibly, this meant that Whitehead could have actually weighed up to 18.5 pounds over the limit if he wanted to. MMA Fighting are reporting that Romero has agreed to fight Whitehead anyway.
Irish fans will be interested in the fight that’s third from the top of the bill. SBG star James Gallagher (7-0) is set to make his bantamweight debut against (10-1) Ricky Bandejos. Just as he told us, ‘The Strabanimal’ appeared to be in the shape of his life at his new weight class. The Tyrone man came in at 135.4 lbs, exactly the same as his opponent weighed in at.
If Gallagher beats Bandejos, he will receive a title shot against Bellator’s bantamweight king Darrion Caldwell. Although judging by what Caldwell told us, he doesn’t want Gallagher to get a crack at his belt on Irish soil.
‘The Wolf’ is actually competing in a featherweight fight in the main event. He weighed in under the limit at 145.2 lbs. His opponent, UFC veteran Noad Lahat weighed 146 lbs.
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Photo credits: Bellator/ Lucas Noonan
