UFC Vegas 39: Brown wants harsh penalties for weight misses: ‘Gotta start hitting these dudes for 50 percent’

Randy Brown wants harsher penalties for fighters who miss weight ahead of their fights.

The UFC welterweight meets Jared Gooden at UFC Vegas 39 on Saturday, but the co-headliner was in jeopardy of being canceled after the official weigh-ins on Friday. Brown hit the scales at 170.5 pounds and made weight. Gooden came in later and weighed 174 pounds, which is three pounds over the non-championship welterweight limit. The fight will proceed at a catchweight, with Gooden forfeiting 20 percent of his purse that will now go to Brown.

Brown responded to the situation on social media and was unhappy with his opponent for missing weight. He explained why he believes the penalty for that infraction should be much higher since fighters are essentially gaining an unfair advantage when they are over the weight they agreed to.

“Dude misses weight by 4 1/2 pounds lol [laughing out loud],” wrote Brown on Twitter. “OK, I get 20 percent from purse, but the issue is homie only got three fights in the UFC. He’s prob making like 15 grand. So I get 20 percent of that in exchange for a weight advantage smh [shaking my head]. Gotta start hitting these dudes for like 50 percent.”

Other fighters agreed with Brown and even suggested their own alternative changes to the way those who miss weight are penalized, with UFC welterweight staple Michael Chiesa writing that an automatic point deduction in the first round would also be reasonable.

Both Brown and Gooden are entering the fight off of first-round wins. Brown submitted Alex Oliveira with a rear-naked choke at UFC 261 this past April, while Gooden snapped a two-fight losing streak with knockout of Niklas Stolze at UFC on ESPN: Hall vs. Strickland in July.