UFC star Cat Zingano reveals terrifying weight cut that forced her to move back up a division

Cat Zingano wasn't always a bantamweight.

Prior to signing for the UFC, Cat Zingano was taking catchweight 130 lb bouts and flyweight fights. In fact, she actually a flyweight champion of two promotions - Ring of Combat and Fight to Win. The latter, she won by scoring a slam KO over Japanese fighter Takayo Hashi. As 'Alpha' explained on the Joe Rogan MMA show, that was her last fight at 125 lbs. A nightmarish weight cut forced her back up to bantamweight.

" I just remember being so happy that we were at altitude because I think I had a heat stroke at the water cut - the bathtub cut. I was in the water for like 20 minutes and I remember at like 10 minutes, I was like, 'Something's wrong, something's wrong, something's wrong.' And they're like, 'You have to say. You have to stay.' So, at the 20-minute line I dove like a salmon out of the water and I passed out on my floor." "I gave no shits that my manager's there. I'm naked. I don't know, I'm out to the point where they're doing the knuckle-rub on my sternum to try to get me up. It's like something with the nerves here, it hits your adrenaline and wakes you up."

https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/969237081397620736 This sternum-rubbing technique worked. After being revived, she knew she had enough of the tub. She continued the cut, through shaking fists.

"So I'm up and my hands and arms are tingling because I'm waking up. I'm like, 'I don't want to get back in that bathtub. Put the sauna suit on me. Put it on me.' Healthwise, I was not ok, but I was not getting back in there. So they put the sauna suit on me." "My hands are freaking out, doing this weird shaky T-Rex arm thing and cramping so bad. My feet were doing the same thing. They had to cover me in the blankets and put all the stuff on me to keep me hot because I was not getting back in the bathtub. It was terrible."

Zingano admitted feeling the effects of the cut in the fight. She knew she couldn't do that again, so back to 135 lbs she went.