Former UFC champion Miesha Tate didn't hold back in her scolding of Aspen Ladd after she failed to make weight ahead of an ultimately canned fight against Macy Chiasson, accusing the bantamweight of 'cheating' at the weigh-in.
Ladd, who is ranked third in the UFC's female 135lbs fold, initially failed to make weight for the fight while still fully-clothed, which prompted her to try again without clothing behind the UFC's so-called 'privacy box' – with Ladd stepping on and off the scales several times before ultimately weighing in a full pound over the allowed limit for a non-title fight.
What was more concerning, though, was the manner in which Ladd appeared to struggle, with the 26-year-old appearing very unsteady on her feet and coming close to losing her balance.
Video footage of Ladd's struggles quickly circulated on social media, receiving concern from fans and media alike, and eventually leading to the UFC cancelling the fight entirely.
Ladd later blamed her failed weigh-in on her period, and wrote on Instagram afterwards that she was uneasy because she didn't want to "bleed in front of the media".
Former UFC champ Tate, though, isn't buying it and wrote in a social media post of her own that she suspected Ladd was cheating on the scales by attempting to disguise her true weight.
"It’s one thing to miss weight; it’s another thing to try and cheat the scale and use every excuse in the book to not weigh in properly," Tate alleged on Twitter.
"Everyone saw you cheat and still came in a lb over. I bet you were every bit of 139."
Tate's allegations appear to reference some of the darker arts of fight weigh-ins, where some cases have been noted where fighters removed certain parts of their body from the weighing scales, or grabbed on to a towel for leverage – further disguising their true weight.
"Guaranteed she didn’t want to put both hands up because she wanted to grab the curtain structure placed around her. Nice try," added Tate.
However, one member of Ladd's entourage wasn't accepting 'Cupcake's' analysis of events.
"Please try and stand still, with hands in the air while dehydrated, dizzy, and nauseous all while trying to hold yourself because you are bleeding," wrote Ladd's coach, Jim West, in response. "You better hope you never have to fight Aspen. Oh wait, you probably won’t – you coward."
Tate, who has been linked to a fight with Ladd, made her return to MMA in July with a win against Marion Reneau, some five years after announcing her retirement from the sport following defeat to Raquel Pennington in New York.
She was scheduled to fight Ketlyn Vieira this month but the fight was pushed into November after Tate tested positive for Covid-19.
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