Jessica-Rose Clark confirms move back to bantamweight following UFC on FOX 31 weight cut issue

Jessica-Rose Clark isn’t taking any more chances with the scale.

Following a scary weight cut earlier this week that resulted in Clark being ruled “medically unfit” to compete against Andrea Lee at UFC on FOX 31 on Saturday, the 31-year-old confirmed that she will be leaving the 125-pound division and returning to bantamweight via social media.

Clark had mentioned on Twitter that she intended to make the move and she elaborated on that decision in a video testimonial.

“I feel bad for Andrea,” Clark said. “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. 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*cking hard. And it was getting to the stage where my whole camp, my primary focus was just making flyweight.”

According to Clark, she only had a few pounds left to cut early Friday morning and the plan was to hit the sauna to shed the last of it. At one point she went to the bathroom and didn’t come out and that’s when the situation took a turn for the worse.

“I felt a little sick, but nothing like the cut for (UFC Fight Night 124 in) St. Louis. So I was like, I feel better than I have in the past, so I’m good,” Clark said. “Went back up to the room, went to the bathroom and apparently passed out. My coach, Walker (Vivian), came and found me and panicked ‘cause he thought he’d killed me and took me straight to ER and they put me on an IV. Then when I met with the UFC doctor, the fight got called off.”

Watch the full video above to hear Clark talk about dealing with “underlying issues” with her health, her plans to get more blood work done, and why she felt she had to leave Syndicate MMA.