Cleveland Hotel Elevators Threatening to Destroy UFC 203
The Cleveland sports curse is alive and well as UFC 203 was nearly ruined by multiple elevator issues at the Wyndham Hotel on Friday. First championship contender Alistair Overeem was late to weigh-ins because he was stuck in one of the hotel’s “working” elevators. Overeem was fined, but the fight will go on tonight. Things could have been much worse considering…
A group of fighters leaving weigh-ins to return to their rooms – including UFC 203 participants Fabricio Werdum, Urijah Faber, CB Dolloway, Brad Tavares and Yancy Medeiros – were in an elevator when a cable apparently snapped and they fell a floor to the basement of the hotel. Former UFC fighters Renato “Babalu” Sobral and Justin Buchholz were also in the elevator, as was kickboxing legend Ray Sefo. The group was trapped in the elevator for about 10 minutes.
While almost everyone escaped without injury, Dolloway hurt his back in the accident and had to pull out of his fight. Perhaps the fighters should take the stairs for the rest of the weekend.
Apparently Overeem is waiting on an elevator. There’s a bank of five here, but only one was working when we got here.
— John Morgan (@MMAjunkieJohn) September 9, 2016
Elevator actually stuck at hotel where weigh-ins were, part of why Overeem was late #UFC203 pic.twitter.com/kNo2go6FPG
— Mike Allardyce (@mikedyce) September 9, 2016