Borg Confident He Can Make Weight: ‘I Just Need to Find a System That Works for My Body’

Ray Borg dominated Rogerio Bontorin on Saturday night in one of the featured bouts of UFC Fight Night 167, but he was not overly enthused about how his entire fight week unfolded.

Borg (13-4) did virtually whatever he wanted against his Brazilian counterpart when they fought. Borg landed timely strikes, won the clinch war and took Bontorin down repeatedly. The only thing “The Tazmexican Devil” didn’t do was stop his opponent. Instead, Borg settled for a unanimous decision win, but he said he was fighting under pressure and had weird feelings going into his fight because he was fighting at home.

“Fighting at home can bring extra pressure, but also extra motivation,” Borg said after his victory. “There was the weirdness of having to tell myself that I was actually fighting today and not just hanging out at home. It was a lot of emotions, but ultimately the pressure helps me. I’m a pressure fighter and I perform well under pressure.”

Borg looked tremendous against Bontorin, as his victory was never in doubt. However, his triumph was clouded due to the fact that he failed to make weight on Friday.

“Feels great to kick off the year with a win,” he said. “It would feel even better if the weight went my way. [It] kinda sucks, but getting the win was the most important thing tonight. I didn’t think the cut would impact me too badly. I knew how good of shape I was in and it’s not like I was cutting 20 pounds or something; the weight cut just wasn’t working for some reason.”

The Jackson’s MMA Acoma representative tried his best but he couldn’t put his finger on what went wrong and why he missed the 125-pound flyweight limit by two pounds, the fourth time in his UFC career that he has come in heavy for a fight. For his infraction at the scale, Borg was fined 30 percent of his fight purse and he said that he knows something must be done immediately.

“I have to talk to the UFC and my manager to see what comes next,” he said. “It’s obviously a big thing with my weight issue. I know I can make the weight. It wasn’t a discipline thing how it normally is. I just need to find a system that works for my body.”