Ahead of tonight's UFC 229 weigh-in, Khabib Nurmagomedov's camp claim he has made weight well in advance of tonight's weigh-in deadline.
Nurmagomedov has twice endured complications making weight and left the press conference before Conor McGregor arrived yesterday, declaring that he "had to make weight." There had been some concerns about his weight cut when he revealed he still had 11 pounds to lose with camp finished but now the Russian MMA star has put those to rest by confirming he has made weight, several hours before the deadline.
The 30-year-old assured fans he had made weight via his Facebook page, posting a story and picture.
"Eagle in weight for 5 hours before weighing in ✊ The most difficult thing behind, easy victory brother @khabib_nurmagomedov ?"
It means the 26-0 lightweight will spend a prolonged period in a depleted state, but he can rest easy knowing the final stretch will not be spent in a sauna. Last night UFC president Dana White was asked did he have a backup plan in the event of an issue and he assured fans the company would handle it.
As for Conor McGregor, he touched on the difficulties that the comes with cuts in a recent interview with the Mac Life.
The weight cuts are ruthless. I've gone through every single one of them throughout the years. I've never released footage (of my weight cut) I seen (Darren) Till released some footage and it was an eye opener for people.
This is the game we are in, it's a horrible, horrible part of the business and if I could correct or come in and help a situation like that I would like to come in and spearhead many more divisions in the game so we can figure this whole situation out because it's not correct. You don't see it happen in other sports where there's weigh-ins involved. It shouldn't be like this in this game.
The weigh-in will take place at the Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena later tonight.
