Seven fight UFC veteran Marcos Rogerio De Lima has announced a change in weight classes, as he will now be competing at heavyweight instead of light heavyweight.
De Lima, who earned a 4-3-0 record as a light heavyweight in the UFC, states that his health is suffering due to the weight cuts for light heavyweight.
“It's not healthy for me to fight at this weight,” Lima told MMA Fighting. “I didn’t recover well. I fractured my face cheekbone and my nose with a blow. It wasn’t even that hard, but the doctor said it probably fractured because my potassium and calcium levels were too low."
The former light heavyweight missed weight several times during his run at light heavyweight, that shouldn’t be a problem in the heavyweight division.
Weight cuts were become a huge problem for De Lima, who passed out twice in past weight cutting sessions.
“The first one was in the pool, so no problem,” Lima recalls, "but the second time, I was in the bathroom, so I went down and hit my head. It was the first time something like that ever happened to me. Even when I cut down to 185 I was fine, but this time I had issues. My body was in its limit. I was afraid of how my body would react during the fight because of the high altitude, but thank God I didn’t need to pull out of the fight. It was a good fight. I felt a bit slower, but I still won."
UFC Fight Night 108 was De Lima’s last attempt to competed at light heavyweight, the fighter suffered a submission defeat to Ovince St. Preux.
