Ray Borg, Keoni Diggs cut after Bellator 295 weigh-in misses

Ray Borg’s Bellator career is over before it ever started.

Borg and fellow MMA veteran Keoni Diggs were both released from their Bellator contracts on Friday after failing to make weight for their scheduled Bellator 295 bouts.

Bellator officials confirmed the cuts with MMA Fighting following an initial report by MMA Junkie.

Borg was scheduled to make his promotional debut in a 125-pound contest against former Bellator bantamweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi. After initially being booked as a flyweight bout, Borg vs. Horiguchi was then changed to a 130-pound catchweight bout to accommodate Borg’s struggles on the scale, however Borg ultimately failed to weigh in due to those struggles, leading to the bout being cancelled altogether.

Borg has missed weight numerous times throughout his career. His UFC run came to an end in 2020 due to similar weight-related issues.

Diggs was set to fight Weber Almeida in a featherweight bout, which was also cancelled.

“I think Ray and Keoni both had catchweights to begin with, and we started with one contract price, and then they negotiated a catchweight because they couldn’t make weight,” Bellator president Scott Coker told MMA Junkie on Friday. “And then for them to miss weight completely again when it’s time to fight, this is a professional fight league. This is not an amateur tournament. So, to me, I think that maybe it’s time to say goodbye to both of them, and we’re going to move on and let them fight somewhere else, and good luck.”

“Ray couldn’t even make it to ‘35,” Coker added of Borg. “I think Horiguchi would’ve probably fought him at ‘35 today, just because he wanted to fight so bad. But listen, in the past, I get it — but his management and my team assured me that he was going to be able to make weight and make the catchweight, which was 130, for sure, no problem. And so you go by their word, because usually we don’t have a problem like this in a fight that big. But unfortunately, that’s what happened.”

Borg’s snake-bitten week continued as the one-time UFC title challenger was also dropped on Friday by his management team, Dominance MMA, following the weigh-in miss.

That statement can be read below.