UFC fighter Julija Stoliarenko FAINTS TWICE on the scales at weigh in for bantamweight clash

UFC fans are used to seeing fighters hit the deck, but even they got a shock on Friday when bantamweight Julija Stoliarenko fainted twice as she weighed in for her bout against Julia Avila in worrying scenes.

The 27-year-old was scheduled to meet bantamweight rival Avila at UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas this weekend. However, the bout was cancelled due to what the UFC described as ‘weight cutting issues’.   

Video footage on social media showed the Lithuanian staggering backwards off the scales before falling at the weigh in. 

Julija Stoliarenko’s fight this weekend has been cancelled after she collapsed on the scales

UFC security man Steve Read can be heard asking ‘Where’s the doc?’ as Stoliarenko insists that she is fine while sitting on the stage.

After recovering briefly on a chair, she stepped onto the scales again with Read in close proximity and made the required weight of 135.5 pounds. 

However, as she stepped off she collapsed again and was later removed from the venue on a stretcher and her fight with Avila was cancelled.

Stoliarenko explained that the cause for her collapse was making weight too early, having hit the 135-pound mark four hours before the scheduled weigh in. 

The Lithuanian was filmed swaying on uneasy legs as she weighed in for her Las Vegas bout

Alarms were raised after the 27-year-old collapsed on stage in very worrying scenes

Security and medics surround the bantamweight fighter. She returned to the scales before fainting again

‘The problem was not my weight cut,’ explained Stoliarenko on Instagram. ‘It was actually one of my easiest weight cuts in my career. Weight was dropping too fast.

‘The main issue I think was that I made weight too early. Basically the weight ins start at 9 a.m. and I was already on weight at 5 a.m. It was just too long of a time on weight.

‘As everybody knows when you cut weight you can not be on this weight for too long because you’re already at the limit of your dehydration. That was an issue why it all happened.

‘I’m so upset because right now I’m feeling great. I feel ready for a fight. My body feels great. I’m still in good shape.

Stoliarenko took to Instagram to explain that she had cut weight too early before the weigh in

‘I know that I can fight. It just happened that the athletic commission did not clear me for a fight because we are taking care of the fighters. That situation looked terrible.’ 

Many combat sports athletes go through a period of severe dehydration in the run-up to weigh-ins, expelling as much water as possible from their bodies in order to make weight and leaving them susceptible to fainting.

Featherweight star Max Holloway was deemed ‘unfit to fight’ former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov after a tough weight cut in 2018, with doctors forcing the fan-favourite to stop cutting weight.