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UFC Quick Quote: Ross Pearson explains why the featherweight division wasn't a good fit - MMAmania.com

"Yeah, I'm staying at '55, I feel healthier there, I feel stronger there, I can lift and I can eat right, I can be strong, I can be healthy the whole week of fight week. When I was fighting Junior [Assuncao] at 145 the first fight, I was in bed the whole week leading up to that fight, the only time I got out of bed was to go run on the treadmill, cut weight, sit in the sauna, it was so hard. I couldn't speak, I couldn't talk, I felt like I was dying. My girlfriend and my parents were crying, you know, like, ‘What are you doing to yourself?' And I - normally on a fight day, fight week I have so much energy, I'm ready to go I'm so excited for the fight and for that I was just laying in bed looking like I was going to die, I was green, I wasn't in a good place, I was hurting man. So yeah, I think at 145 I lost love for the sport trying to make a crazy weight, you know? To me it doesn't matter about size, it doesn't matter about weight, it's all about technique and skill. You know the jiu-jitsu was based on a smaller guy beating a bigger guy. So, size and weight to me has nothing. It's about skill and technique, so that's what I'm going back too. Going back to my roots. To me, size and weight isn't really an issue, I don't mind fighting bigger guys...I'm not a wrestler, you know, I come from a striking background, trying to cut weight like a wrestler it just doesn't work for us. Guys who have been wrestling for 20 years, cutting weight every week they get it down to an art form. Yes I can make the weight and kill myself to do that weight, but it just wasn't me stepping in the cage 24-hours later. Although we did it right, my body wasn't used to it, I couldn't take it."