Ian McCall suspects 'erratic' Justin Scoggins 'snapped' before UFC 201 in failing to make weight

One of the more exciting fights that was booked for this past weekend's UFC 201 card in Atlanta was the flyweight scrap between Ian McCall and Justin Scoggins. Yet 48 hours before the fight was to go down, Scoggins was forced to withdraw from the fight due to weight cutting issues.

In the aftermath of the scrapped bout, the 24-year-old Scoggins has vowed to leave the 125-pound division and continue his career as a bantamweight. Meanwhile the opponent he left without a dance partner, McCall, vows to not get tricked by people like Scoggins again.

McCall, who was paid both his show purse and win money despite the cancellation — as well as his sponsor money from Reebok — was a guest on the Monday edition of The MMA Hour.

"I feel like I've been played by [Scoggons]," he told Ariel Helwani. "Because he acts like we're friends, and we're nice, and I'm feeling like shame on me. Because all this trash he's talking and all this dumb stuff and personal stuff he's bringing up. He's like screen-shotting text messages from my agent to his agent and like, making up all this stuff. And then a big part of me wants to just bury him as far as making him look like an idiot, because there's a lot of things that the young man has said and done that are very stupid. He tried to come off smart, like him talking about, 'oh, I was at 2 percent body fat and the doctor said I can't cut anymore.' Well, if you understand a thing called science, if you're less than three, three-and-a-half percent body fat, you're feeding off your organs. Like, you're actually feeding off your organs. So you're lying."

McCall refused to fight Scoggins at a catchweight, which he did in his prior fight with John Lineker at UFC 183 in 2015 — a fight he lost via unanimous decision. This became a bit of ammunition when Scoggins later explained that he wanted to continue on with his date in Atlanta. McCall said that the UFC didn't offer him a fight at 135, but that they told him to make the 126-pound weight just in case "something crazy happens."

Still, he thought Scoggins was coming off like an immature person in the aftermath.

"If you're going to try and sound smart, at least be smarter than someone who is at least a little bit knowledgeable like myself," he said. "You're trying to make excuses and I'm sorry but, don't make me look like the asshole when the things you're saying aren't true."

"Uncle Creepy," as McCall is known, has fought just twice since 2014, scoring a victory over Brad Pickett that year before losing to Lineker. At 32 years old, he's been around the fight game for a long time. He had a theory as to what happened with Scoggins out in Atlanta.

"What I think happened, I don't know if it's mental issues, or maybe nerves, or maybe outside stuff -- I mean, maybe he's on drugs, who knows -- he's just acting very erratic and silly," he said. "But I think it was a mental lapse where he broke down -- and this is just speculation, this is just my bro sense -- where he snapped and couldn't make the weight, so he started eating and drinking. Because everybody, and I mean everybody who was on the card -- we're talking trainers and strength coaches and other fighters -- were MFing him to me like crazy. They were like, f*ck him this, and that guy's a piece of sh*t, and I'm like whoa whoa. Everyone simmer down.

"So, I just think he broke down, and it could have been a mixture of personal issues and his lack of discipline or, I don't know. He's a young guy and he'll learn from this. I'm sure he'll come back stronger. He's a stud. But this was just a maturity thing and a self control thing, and he seemed to have lost it, and that's no one's fault but his own."

McCall said if he had his druthers, he would fight Wilson Reis next, because a win over him would put him back into contention. He said he was hoping the fight could happen at UFC 202, which happens on Aug. 20 in Las Vegas.