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After RFA 31 title loss, Zoila Frausto hospitalized, warns of weight-cutting dangers

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Former Bellator women’s strawweight champion Zoila Frausto said a botched weight cut tapped into her central nervous system and ravaged her body prior to and during a bid for the vacant RFA 115-pound title.

“Take the lesson from me ladies & gentlemen, cutting more than 10 (percent) of your body weight for a fight, though it doesn’t seem like much at the time, you will ending up paying for it, if not during, then after the fight,” Frausto (12-5), who dropped a unanimous decision to now-champ Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger (6-1), wrote on Instagram. “Don’t tap into your central nervous system for a weight cut!!!”

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Take the lesson from me ladies & gentlemen, cutting more thn 10% of your body weight for a fight, though it doesn't seem like much at the time, you will end up paying for it, if not during, then after the fight. Don't tap into your central nervous system for a weight cut!! Though, I knew this fact from previous cuts early on in my career, I was still stubborn & desperate to make it to this fight. I'm not at all trying to make excuses, just going to give my reasoning & story so other athletes don't make the same mistakes. 3weeks before the actual cut, we were ahead of schedule, dropping the weight down to a science, day by day, with the proper nutrition & cardio & sessions needed to cut the fat & a little muscle to get the weight down safe & effectively, to be at my strongest, come fight night. The only problem that we ran into was I sustained a shoulder injury that kept me from doing anything, except cardio for about 7days. It ultimately ruined our schedule on the safe cut. But as hard headed & focused as I was, I wanted nothing more than to make it to the fight/opportunity & win. I was confident with the shape I was in, I'd be able to beat anyone with or without injury. I wasn't expecting everything else that happened to my body in the first round, that unable me to do everything I needed to, to come out victorious. Again, none of this is an excuse. It's just my story to warn those of you that think weight cuts aren't dangerous, when 100% they are! I've been hit way harder & have thrown harder punches, kicks and elbows at practice & none of them hurt me the way every first initial blow effected me during this fight on Friday. Yes, I won't take anything away from Lybarger that night, she won that fight fair & square & was the better fighter. But I alone put myself in an unhealthy situation to fight when my body wasn't nearly ready from tapping into my CNS & cutting too much weight. None of this was because I was careless or from bad dieting(like most), it was simply a few days too less on not being able to put out the proper training sessions & drop a little more weight before the actual cut. Take it from me athletes, be smart when it comes to cutting!!!

A post shared by Zoila💋WarriorPrincess🥊Frausto (@zoilafrausto) on

In the co-main event of this past Friday’s RFA 31 at Downtown Las Vegas Events Center in Nevada, Lybarger dominated Frausto, a former muay Thai and boxing titleholder, in a largely standup fight, pitching a shutout on the judges’ scorecards for the title win (watch the highlights above).

Frausto, whose fight this past weekend was her first in MMA following a two-year layoff, is the latest pro MMA fighter to detail a botched weight cut. Earlier this month, ex-UFC welterweight champ Johny Hendricks was forced to withdraw from a UFC 192 co-headliner against Tyron Woodley when he was hospitalized due to a kidney stone while trying to make the 171-pound limit. But, of course, several high-profile athletes have been involved in severe weight cuts that have gone awry, resulting in poor performances, withdrawals, and even death.

The California State Athletic Commission earlier this year took action to keep athletes from cutting too much weight by preventing them from dropping below five percent body fat.

Frausto’s manager, Gary Ibarra, told MMAjunkie that the fighter spent two days in the hospital dealing with health complications after the title bout. Frausto retweeted a post from MMAjunkie’s women’s MMA columnist, Robert Sargent, detailing facial fractures and injuries to her hand, shin, ankle and shoulder.

Frausto wrote that a shoulder injury she suffered one week prior to the bout prevented her from cutting weight safely. She said she doesn’t wish to make excuses for her performance, but rather to explain the circumstances around the fight.

“(Three weeks) before the actual cut, we were ahead of schedule, dropping the weight down to a science, day by day, with the proper nutrition & cardio & sessions needed to cut the fat and a little muscle to get the weight down safe and effective, to be at my strongest come fight night,” she wrote. “The only problem that we ran into was I sustained a shoulder injury that kept me from doing anything, except cardio for about (seven days). It ultimately ruined our schedule on the safe cut.

“But as hard headed & focused as I was, I wanted nothing more than to make it to the fight/opportunity & win. I was confident with the shape I was in, I’d be able to beat anyone with or without injury. I wasn’t expecting everything else that happened to my body in the first round, that unable me to do everything I needed to, to come out victorious.”

Frausto wrote that the first blow she took hurt her much more than expected, and that while she takes nothing away from Lybarger, she blames herself for stubbornly going ahead with the fight.

“She won that fight fair & square & was the better fighter,” Frausto wrote. “But I alone put myself in an unhealthy situation to fight when my body wasn’t nearly ready from tapping into my CNS & cutting too much weight. None of this was because I was careless or from bad dieting(like most), it was simply a few days too less on not being able to put out the proper training sessions & drop a little more weight before the actual cut.

“Take it from me athletes, be smart when it comes to cutting!!!”

For more on RFA 31, check out the MMA Events section of the site.


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