Kayla Harrison has shared images from her torturous UFC 316 weight cut and it has sparked concern from an expert nutritionist.
This past Saturday at UFC 316 in Newark, New Jersey, Kayla Harrison dethroned Julianna Pena to become the new women’s bantamweight champion after a dominant second round submission win.
Immediately after her title-winning performance, Harrison faced off with her next opponent, Amanda Nunes, who announced she will return for one of the biggest fights in women’s MMA history.
Despite the magnitude of the fight, there is widespread concern regarding the fact that it will likely take place at 135lbs.
Expert warns Harrison against continuous ‘torture’ weight cut
Ahead of the likely fight between Harrison and Nunes, the newly crowned champion’s manager has admitted that he has his ‘doubts’ that Nunes will actually return to fight the Olympic gold medalist.
With ‘The Lioness’ now 37 years old, fans are concerned that the Brazilian may not be able to make 135lb at this stage in her career.
As well as that, Harrison made 135lbs for the first time in her career ahead of UFC 316 and worried fans with her skeletal look.
The women’s bantamweight champion has been open and honest about how much she struggles to get down in weight, labelling it as ‘torture’.
Ahead of her UFC 307 fight against Ketlen Vieira, Harrison revealed that she ‘peed blood’ in a concerning look into her brutal cut.
And with that, Harrison has been warned against her continuous ‘torture’ cut by nutritionist expert, Tom Coughlin.
“I wouldn’t imagine she could do this any more than twice during a calendar year. Once would be bad enough,” the expert told Bloody Elbow.
“The prolonged dieting period and the evident excessive dehydration is putting her at a really high risk of injury. There could be significant down regulations of her bone health, her immune system would be severely impaired. She’d be picking up illnesses and injuries consistently through the year.
“Her hormonal health would also be significantly impaired. And risk of kidney issues during the dehydration phases would be incredibly high,” he continued.
Harrison shares terrifying image during scary weight cut process
Coughlin’s comments come after Harrison shared a scary image of herself in the sauna during her ‘torture’ weight cut process.
Despite the consensus being that Nunes could struggle even more to make weight considering the amount of time she has spent away from fighting, Coughlin has claimed that it could actually make it easier for Nunes to hit the 135lb mark.
“She is older now and has taken time away from the game so she might not find the weight cut as easy as before. On the other side of things, if she’s not been training as much she may have lost a bit of lean mass/weight and she could find it easier,” Coughlin stated.