The main card of UFC Vegas 91 had multiple underdogs earning statement wins, but not every victor was entirely happy with how the weekend went down.
UFC Vegas 91 is officially in the books, with Alex Perez and Bogdan Guskov stealing the show with huge knockout wins in the main and co-main events respectively; yet elsewhere on the card, one of the weekend’s big winners has come out to apologize to fans, the UFC, and his opponent.
David Onama earns hard-fought decision victory at UFC Vegas 91
Despite finding himself in bottom position against the powerful Jonathan Pearce multiple times throughout the contest, David Onama showed that his grappling skills have come on leaps and bounds as he was able to scramble back to his feet and out-point the American en route to a unanimous decision victory.
With the hard-fought triumph, Onama moves to 12-2 as a professional MMA athlete – with UFC Vegas 91 actually being the first decision win in his career, having previously earned seven wins by KO/TKO, and four via submission.
Whilst last night’s bout was arguably one of Onama’s best all-round performances to date inside the UFC octagon, the contest was somewhat spoiled by him missing weight by around 2.5lbs on Friday.
Onama reveals the NSAC commission told him to stop cutting weight
Speaking to media at the post-fight press conference, Onama shared that by the time he hit the scales on Friday morning as he made a final cut down to 135lbs, his body had already started to abandon him.
“Friday morning, my body just gave up on me. I had two more pounds to cut, and I just couldn’t cut no more, I couldn’t stop sweating, my body was hurting me. I’ve never had that issue before; in my whole career I’ve never missed weight and that’s my first time missing in the UFC.”
Onama admitted that he was still furious at himself for not being able to make the contractual limit, especially when he was reportedly told to stop cutting weight by the Nevada State Athletic Commission against his initial wishes:
“I had an hour left and the commission told me ‘You can’t cut anymore’, and it’s not like I quit – I had an hour left and I was going to keep cutting, but they said I couldn’t make that weight in an hour.”
Onama, understandably frustrated by the situation which has stained what was a career-best performance in terms of all-round MMA skills, then took the opportunity to apologize to opponent Jonathan Pearce.
“To my opponent, I’m sorry. My body gave up on me. It’s part of the game, sometimes you might have a good weight cut, sometimes you might not. It’s never happened before and I apologize for that happening, it’ll never happen again.”
The ‘Silent Assassin’ chose to call for a location next, not an opponent
Given that the featherweight division is one of the most stacked in the entire UFC roster, there’s no shortage of top-tier talent whom Onama could face next.
However, the ‘Silent Assassin’ refused to call out anyone specifically: “No names from me right now, whoever they give me is who they give me.”
“Give me a striker – I took this fight because a lot of people doubted my wrestling, so I had to show the people that doubted me that I can wrestle and grapple whatever round it is, I’m going to stay in there.”
However, Onama did state that he wants to return for an event in Colorado: “Honestly, [give me] anybody – I can compete at this level, whoever wants it, sign the contract and let’s get it. I want to get back in Denver, that’s the next time I want to fight in Denver.”
At the time of writing, the UFC has not yet announced a return to Denver, Colorado for 2024.