Jay-Jay Wilson Blames Natural Body Growth for Missing Weight ahead of Bellator 265

In his most recent appearance, Jay-Jay Wilson missed weight for the first time in his professional fight career. Wilson (8-0, 7-0 Bellator) had been scheduled to fight Adam Borics at Bellator 265, in a pivotal clash for the Bellator MMA featherweight division, as the winner would have likely been rewarded with a title shot. Nonetheless, the bout fell off the card after Wilson passed out during his weight cut. While the Alliance Jiu-Jitsu standout proposed a catchweight, Borics ultimately refused. Three months after the incident, Wilson shared his version of the story with Sherdog.com.

“I was taking that fight very seriously, I was actually really excited for that fight,” Wilson said. “That fight was super exciting. I was really excited to fight him because after I fought him, I was going to get a title shot. It wasn’t something I took lightly and I was doing my best to make the weight. What ended up happening is I passed out during the weight cut and then due to me blacking out, the coaches [called off] the weight cut because they’re like, ‘This can lead, the next thing that happens is he doesn’t get up, he could die, right?’ That is something that is major as a really bad health concern. That was the reason why we stopped the weight cut. I didn’t want to say anything at that moment because I was hoping that he would still take the fight and we could fight, but he then refused at that weight. That’s why the fight got taken off.”

The New Zealander attributes the difficulty to his growing body, and admits that he can’t cut as much weight as he did in the past.

“I’ve been fighting in the featherweight division since I was 16 years old. I’m 24 years old now. I’ve been making that weight cut for like eight years. I was cutting weight even when I was a 16-year-old. I think I’ve grown naturally, I walk around 175, 180, and I have [5-6%] body fat. Naturally, I don’t have much body fat to lose. I’m a tall, skinny, lanky guy. I think by the time I’ve just slowly gotten bigger. It was hard for me to make weight when I was 18 years old, and it never got easier. As I’ve grown, my body grew bigger.”

Wilson also discussed his work as a vlogger on Youtube, his transition to the lightweight division, his sparring partners in preparation for Alfie Davis at Bellator 272 this weekend, and much more.

(00:00) Intro
(01:10) Coming up with “The Maori Kid Adventures” series on YouTube
(03:05) The reason his life has become hectic lately
(05:20) Missing weight before facing Borics
(08:28) Moving up to lightweight
(10:53) Preparing for Davis’ peculiar fighting style
(11:46) Outro

Tudor Leonte started writing about mixed martial arts in 2013 for Italian media outlets. His journey with Sherdog began in 2018 and he now covers One Championship and countless European shows. You can follow him on Twitter @MrTudorLeonte.