Strawweight contender Cynthia Calvillo recently missed weight for the second time in her last three fights this past weekend. She would then go on to score a draw at UFC D.C. against her opponent Marina Rodriguez.
Following the draw result, Rodriguez said she doesn’t want to have a rematch with Calvillo because of the fact she missed weight, but Calvillo has a different mindset about it. On Monday, Calvillo was a guest on The Luke Thomas Show and she did not hide from the weight miss, and provided an update on potentially moving up in weight.
Knowing that the flyweight division is looking for contenders and including the fact that she’s missed weight in two of her last three fights, Calvillo acknowledged that she could be even more competitive if she moved up.
https://twitter.com/MMAonSiriusXM/status/1204222141081817091
“Yeah, 100% I think that once I go up to [125], they’ll still put me in good positioning as far as the rankings, as well and like heading up there. I’m 100% definitely open to it, I talked to my manager, I talked to everybody already about it, you know my coaches. I’m going to head to the UFC P.I this week and really get the ball moving on what I need to do. Definitely, it’s something that I’m looking forward to do.”
Despite the fact that she’s discussing moving up to the flyweight division, Calvillo would go on to say that no matter what weight class the fight is in, she really wants the rematch against Rodriguez.
“I do want the rematch [against Rodriguez], I’ve never really wanted a rematch before with anybody, not even Carla [Esparza] I was never gunning for it, but I want this rematch. I want this rematch with Marina and I’ll do whatever I can to make sure that it doesn’t fall on the day I need to cut that weight if it needs to be at 115, or if she wants to do it at 125, that’d be great. I really want to make this draw right and you know then she can really say whether the weight was a difference as to why she was on her back for so long.”
While Calvillo is a young and upcoming prospect in the UFC, she knows she has to get her weight cut issues fixed if she wants to take a spotlight in the division. Calvillo told Thomas that she believes the UFC prefers her to move up to the flyweight division as well.
“I think they would prefer me to move up to [125]. Because I don’t want this to happen again, I don’t want to take that gamble, I don’t want to put those stresses on myself again where I’m like woah, I hope my body doesn’t do f***ed up things this time.”
When discussing the issue with her weight cuts, Calvillo explained that she currently needs to have her walk-around weight at 130 pounds otherwise her body will feel weaker if she is training at a weight lower than that.
“For me, I’m naturally healthy walking around at 130 [pounds], if I walk around any lower than that any time that I have tried, I just feel weaker. More injuries pop up in training and I need to stay at 130 when I’m training in order for me to feel the strongest and the healthiest, so yeah, the best thing for me to do is move up honestly. Especially for the future and longevity, we’re going to figure things out. I talked to [UFC matchmaker] Mick [Maynard] already, kind of bothered him a little bit, I want to hurry up and get a fight so I can put this behind me.”
Calvillo is not avoiding her issues making weight and seems pro-active in correcting her mistakes. While her eyes are on a rematch with Rodriguez, the UFC will likely decide what to do next following her visit to the Performance Institute. Recently she took aim at her former teammate Paige VanZant who has openly admitted she makes more money from her social media than she does fighting, which didn’t sit well with Calvillo.
Would you like to see Cynthia Calvillo move up to flyweight?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 12/11/2019