UFC Vegas 121 star shaves his head to make weight after failing on first attempt

John Castaneda took some extreme measures to make weight for his fight at UFC Vegas 121.

This coming Saturday, the premier MMA promotion returns to the newly revamped UFC Apex for UFC Vegas 121, headlined by a bantamweight clash between Raul Rosas Jr and Raoni Barcelos.

That isn’t the only 135lb fight on the card, though, as just two fights into the event, John Castaneda takes on Alateng Heili in a Fight of the Night contender.

That fight looked like it could be pulled off the card, that was until Castaneda took extreme measures to make sure he didn’t tip the scales.

The bantamweight prospect, who turns 22 in October, is targeting a record set by Jon Jones when he won UFC gold at 23 years and 242 days old.

The 34-year-old American is heading into his UFC Vegas 121 clash with his UFC career potentially on the line considering the fact he winless in his last three fights.

And his position in the promotion was almost made worse when it looked like he was going to go on to miss weight at the official weigh-ins this Friday.

On his first attempt, Castaneda walked towards the scale already signalling to the commissioner that he would need the box to be brought out.

The commissioner took a while to fiddle around with the scale before telling the 34-year-old to step off it because he was over by 0.5lbs.

Just over 20 minutes later, an unrecognizable Castaneda walked out from behind the curtains with a completely shaved head, with his moustache still intact.

That was enough as on his second attempt, Castaneda weighed in at 136lbs, tipping the scales at the bantamweight limit.

This isn’t the first time a fighter has taken drastic measures to make sure they make weight for their fight. Before her fight at UFC Denver against Rose Namajunas, Tracy Cortez gave herself a haircut after missing weight on her first attempt.

She subsequently weighed in at the limit but caused confusion online as she stood on the scale with the hair that she cut off to make weight.

Castaneda will likely be hoping that the promotion remembers the extreme measure he has taken when he fights in potentially his final fight in the UFC.