Following up on my earlier blog post, and the weird scene where Gina Carano weighed in nude twice, coming in at 142.5 the first time and making weight at 141 mere seconds later: I've received word from Showtime and CBS officials that were on the stage during Carano's weigh-in that a misplaced towel caused the problem.After Carano missed weight at 142.75 with minimal clothing on, she stripped off her clothes and tried again, but still missed weight at 142.5. Seconds later, she got back on the scale and made weight at 141.0 with no visible difference to the audience. Many observers (including yours truly) were scratching their heads as to what made such a quick difference. I've been told that during the second weigh-in attempt, Carano had a towel draped over her shoulder. In the commotion, nobody caught this unti Carano's father Glen yelled for someone to get the towel off of her.
By time the Glen Carano mentioned it, the second weigh-in had already been announced at 142.5. She then got back on the scale moments later, sans towel, and made weight.
That's the official word from those who were close to Carano at the time. It would explain the weight difference, as well as the reason why we all didn't see a change that would lead to an instant 1.5 pound loss. We couldn't see Carano except from the neck up and the calves down, so we would not have seen anyone take a towel off her shoulder. Furthermore, there was a lot of noise during this debacle, and it would have been hard for us to hear Glen Carano's mention of the towel over the ambient noise.
So, there you have it.
On a side note, several people at the weigh-in noted it was odd that Cristiane Cyborg and Yoko Takahashi were fighting at 148, but Carano and Kelly Kobold were asked to make 140... especially in light of the fact that Cris Cyborg just fought at 140 for EliteXC in July. By the looks of things, Carano probably would have appreciated the extra eight pound allowance.
I was told there was no set reason for the odd weight limit of 148 for Cyborg vs. Takahashi. It's apparently just the catch weight that both fighters mutually agreed to. I'm told there was no mandate from the organization to have the bout at a higher weight, nor was there any reason to insist otherwise once the fighters agreed to 148.
