Takashi Sato has successfully weighed for his fight at UFC London despite posting a worrying weight-cut picture.
Sato fights UFC veteran Gunnar Nelson in the English capital this Saturday, replacing the injured Claudio Silva on less than two weeks' notice. The Japanese native makes his return to the cage at the London event for the first time since 2020.
He posted a picture of himself whilst cutting weight on Thursday evening in a sauna suit with the caption: "I feel like I'm going to die." But Sato later backtracked on his original post by claiming it was "fake" and his weight cut was going well.
"Sorry, this one is real," Sato wrote as he posted another picture of himself smiling. "Easy work!". Sato was clearly fooling fans with his original post, as he successfully made weight for his fight with Nelson by stepping on the scale at 170lbs with no issues.
Sato signed a new deal with the UFC earlier this year after fighting out of his contract against Miguel Baeza in his last fight. The 31-year-old, who was signed to the UFC in 2019, said he has been training for over a year despite taking a short-notice fight with Nelson.
The former Pancrase fighter stopped Ben Saunders in his UFC debut, but has experienced a mixed run since then by losing fights to Belal Muhammad and Baeza. He welcomes Nelson to the octagon in the Icelander's first fight since 2019.
Nelson is without a win in the UFC since stopping Alex Oliveira in 2018. He lost consecutive fights to Leon Edwards and Gilbert Burns before suffering a string of knee injuries that would delay a UFC comeback for over two years.
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The UFC was supposed to hold a London event but the card was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A Fight Night targeted for the English capital last year was relocated to Las Vegas, so Nelson is thankful to finally be competing in London again after two years of cancellations.
"There's been a couple of times where I fought I was going to fight here in London, a few times where I was ready then the card was cancelled. It's very good that's it finally here so hopefully nothing weird happens this time around," he told MMA Junkie.
All other fighters competing at UFC London successfully made weight. Dan Hooker hit the 145lb mark in his return to featherweight, whilst rising star Paddy Pimblett completed his 40lb body transformation to make 155lbs for his fight with Kazula Vargas.
