Former UFC heavyweight kingpin Tim Sylvia has been forced to withdraw from his latest fight after being declared dangerously overweight.
Sylvia was scheduled to fight Juliano “Banana” Coutinho in the main event of Reality Fighting 53. However, he was not cleared to fight by the Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletic Regulation after weighing in at a scale-shattering 371lbs, which is the equivalent of nearly three and a half times the weight of Paddy Barnes or 2.3 Robbie Keanes.
Standing at 6ft 8ins, this gives the fighter a dangerously high body mass index (BMI) of 40.8, which is considered to be clinically morbidly obese. The fight was subsequently cancelled.
The Maine-iac’s weight has fluctuated dramatically over recent years but his recent weight gain, pardon the pun, really takes the cake. At UFC 61 in 2006 the fighter was 258lbs. Four years later he weighed in at 305lbs at the promotion Moosin. He then dropped down to, by his standards, a relatively lean 265lbs when he fought at ONE FC in 2012. It took Sylvia just two years to gain over 100 pounds to reach his current weight.
To put it into context, the maximum weight a heavyweight can be in the UFC is 265lbs, or 106lbs lighter than what Sylvia is currently. Sylvia retired after being pulled from the fight.
Tim Sylvia is looking well. He didn't get cleared to fight he's so big pic.twitter.com/8QAq0t45L6
— chris fields (@chrisfieldsmma) January 4, 2015
Hat-tip to Mixed Martial Arts
