UFC 244 weigh-in drama: Did Kelvin Gastelum lean on his coach while on the scale?

We had “towel-gate” with Daniel Cormier back at UFC 210 in Buffalo and now, looking at the footage from the UFC 244 weigh-ins, it seems the New York State Athletic Commission could’ve been hoodwinked again.

As the official early morning weigh-ins were progressing ahead of Saturday night’s huge event at Madison Square Garden, we started to hear rumors of a potential weight miss involving the co-main event. But, somewhat surprisingly, they didn’t involve Darren Till.

Despite Till being forced to delay his entry into the U.S. because of visa issues that were thankfully smoothed over, the Brit stepped on the scale and made weight with ease, coming in at a ready 186 pounds.

The issue, so it appeared, was with Till’s opponent, Kelvin Gastelum, who no stranger to weigh-in dramas. He’s missed weight twice before in his UFC career, but that was during his welterweight days. Now seemingly comfortable at 185 and fighting better than we’ve ever seen him, it appeared his weigh-in issues were behind him.

But this morning in New York there may have been another. Gastelum arrived as the final fighter on the card to weigh in, with just a minute or two to spare. His team frantically rubbed him down behind the curtain to remove as much sweat as possible from his skin, a sure sign he was going to be very close.

But when he tentatively took to the scale and raised his arms to show he wasn’t touching the towel, the readout said he’d actually made weight with poundage to spare, with the commission official confirming Gastelum’s weight at 184, two full pounds inside the 186-pound middleweight limit.

No dramas, then.

Any cynics watching the weigh-in would surely have been keeping a close eye on the towel, looking for a repeat of Cormier’s incident from 2017. But perhaps people looking for any desperation tactics on the scale were looking in the wrong place.

Eagle-eyed British journalist Chisanga Malata spotted something that demanded closer inspection as he tweeted a photo of Gastelum weighing in, asking whether he was leaning on coach Rafael Cordeiro as he stood on the scale.

The photo he shared certainly appeared to show contact between the pair and, after taking a closer look at MMA Junkie’s own footage, we can confirm his elbow definitely was touching his coach.

Was it enough to affect his weight? Was it a deliberate ploy to shave off an errant pound or two? Or is it all a great big nothingburger? Take a look at the footage for yourselves and make up your own minds.

What we do know is the fight is ON, and that means we’re in for a cracker, with both men looking to make a statement and position themselves for a possible shot at Israel Adesanya’s title in 2020.

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