Nicolau Slams ‘Disrespectful’ Kape For UFC Vegas 84 Weight Miss

Matheus Nicolau was prepared to fight fellow flyweight contender Manel Kape tomorrow night (Sat., Jan. 13, 2024) at UFC Vegas 84 live on ESPN+ from inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, but now he will watch from the sidelines after “Starboy” badly missed weight early Friday and the fight was eventually canceled.

Needless to say, Nicolau was not happy with Kape’s inability to hit weight and allow their co-main event clash to continue.

After the weight miss and subsequent cancelation, Kape took to social media to explain his side of the story. According to the flyweight contender, he got sick two weeks ago and has been draining his energy with antibiotics ever since. Check it out below:

“Guys, I couldn’t make the weight this time, two weeks ago I was extremely sick due to a virus that happened here in Las Vegas and I had to stay out of training for five days and filling myself with antibiotics not only affected me, but many of my training partners,” Kape wrote. “My coaches and my manager thought it was better for me to cancel the fight due to the state I was in but I decided to move on and not cancel. My opponent didn’t accept to fight or accept my purse.”

“I would give him my entire purse if he wants to fight but things are as they are, and I take all the responsibilities,” Kape continued. “Last year I had five fights canceled, one of them my opponent was 11 pounds above, even so I agreed to fight. Thank you to all the UFC PI nutritionists who tried everything for me to make the weight. See you guys soon.”

Regardless of what happened to Kape prior to Friday’s weigh ins, he still failed to hit the 126-pound flyweight benchmark. Nicolau, on the other hand, did make weight. His frustrations boiled over in a recent Instagram post in which he blamed Kape for trying to “gain an undue advantage by manipulating the system.”

Check it out below and give us your thoughts:

Unfortunately for the MMA fan, my fans and of course me and my entire team the fight with Manel Kape has been cancelled. And the only one responsible for this is Manel Kape himself, who has been irresponsible throughout this whole process. It’s the duty of the martial artist to fulfill his obligation regarding weight the day before the fight. I went through that whole first war Been cutting weight for 5 weeks now on a restrictive diet. Focused (and not regretting) on Christmas, New Year & my birthday with dieting, working out, and spending time away from my family. Today, I woke up at 5am to finish the process and weigh the 126 pounds needed for the fight to happen.

Kape nah. He showed up for weigh-ins with 30 minutes left, to even give UFC time to charge him to lose his weight further. He showed up weighing 3.5 pounds overweight, knowing if he showed up 0.5 pounds overweight the fight would automatically be suspended by the athletic commission. So he tried to gain an undue advantage by manipulating the system.

Kape was irresponsible, inconsistent and disrespectful. Disrespected me as a fellow sportsman, opponent and martial artist. Disrespected MMA Disrespected the UFC. Disrespected the companies that support sports. But most of all disrespected you UFC fan MMA fan Matheus Nicolau fan Manel Kape fan.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Vegas 84 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the ESPN+ preliminary card bouts at 4 p.m. ET, followed by the ESPN+ main card start time at 7 p.m. ET.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC Vegas 84 news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive here. For the updated and finalized “Ankalaev vs. Walker 2” fight card and ESPN+ line up click here.