Jessica-Rose Clark Reveals Details from Brutal Weight Cut, Plans Move to 135 Pounds

A harrowing weight cut that ended with a trip to the hospital has convinced Jessica-Rose Clark that she should return to 135 pounds for her future in the UFC.

Clark was forced out of her scheduled fight against Andrea Lee after doctors deemed her medically ineligible to compete.

Following the brutal weigh cut and subsequent removal from the card, Clark released a lengthy video explaining what happened.

“My weight cut was going really well and at 3 a.m. we had just gone down to check my weight and I only had a few pounds to go,” Clark explained. “We were planning on catching the 5 a.m. shuttle down to the sauna to go do the last of it and I was feeling pretty good. I felt a little sick but nothing like the cut for St. Louis so I was like I feel better than I have in the past so I’m good.

“Went back up to the room went to the bathroom and apparently passed out. My coach came and found me and panicked cause he thought he killed me and took me straight to [the emergency room] and they put me on an IV and then when I met with the UFC doctor, the fight got called off.”

Clark was obviously upset by everything that happened but she was also concerned for her opponent, who was no longer able to compete because their bout was scrapped.

The entire experience ultimately led to Clark deciding to pull the plug on her career at 125 pounds as she’s planning to compete at bantamweight going forward.

“I feel bad for Andrea. She’s had a really tough year as well and I know she was relying on that money. I’m just grateful, I got told that UFC still paid her her show fee so I’m glad she still got some money out of it and I’ve apologized to her personally and spoken to her about it,” Clark said. “I know people have been asking about whether there’s a chance of her and I getting a rematch in the future, but honestly I’m going to go back to 135.

“I’ve already spoken to my team about it, I’ve spoken to my nutritionist, I’ve spoken to Mick Maynard about it and every single one of them is aligned with the idea that I need to go back to ‘35. I’ve never missed weight at ‘35, I’ve never even come close to missing. I feel good at ‘35. The reason I went down to ‘25 was because of coaches that I had who were telling me that I was too small to be a bantamweight and that I needed to be a fly, but I’ve tried four times now. I missed in my UFC debut and even though I took that on 10 days’ notice and I got really close, that’s still — I know it’s no excuse — the next couple of times were really, really f–king hard. And it was getting to the stage where my whole camp, my primary focus was just making flyweight.”

Clark joined the UFC as a flyweight but now she will be returning to the bantamweight division where she has competed for much of her career outside the Octagon.

There’s no word yet on how long Clark will be sidelined following the medical issues that were raised with this last weight cut before she’s able to book her next fight in the UFC.

Clark is currently 2-1 in the UFC with wins over Paige VanZant and Bec Rawlings.