The Apex was electric for Episode 6 of Power Slap: Road to the Title Season 2. Anticipation crackled thicker than the Nevada dust as welterweights clashed, coaches clashed, and a shocking twist turned the competition upside down. But before we dive into the brutal ballet of lefts and rights, let's address the elephant in the room, Chris Debow's brutal weight cut.

Remember Debow? The cocky contender with a chin harder than granite and a right slap that sends souls to Valhalla? Yeah, him. He made the contracted welterweight limit of 170 pounds but the weight cut was too brutal and he was ultimately hospitalized. Debow was then removed from the tournament as he was medically unfit to compete due to receiving an IV while hospitalized which is against the rules to compete. This threw a wrench into his fight and raised ethical eyebrows across the Power Slap world. Was it a strategic gamble gone wrong? Who knows, but one thing's for sure: it landed him in the hospital with dehydration and dashed his immediate title dreams.

With Debow on the sidelines, his replacement, the aptly named Ed “Slambo” Smith, stepped in. From the first slap, it was a war of attrition. Smith absolutely floored his opponent Sean Klimartin knocking him out but unfortunately, he was called with a stepping foul and was disqualified because of it. Fortunately enough for “Slambo” Kilmartin wasn't medically fit to continue in the tournament and he was able to take his place in the tournament as he attempts to fight for the title at the season's end.

Chris Debow revealed to ClutchPoints' The Fight Analyst that the weight cut seemed to go fine up until it was time to weigh in and that is when it started to take a turn for the worse.

“I felt great up until about an hour before weigh-ins is when I started to feel bad. The hospital checked me out afterward because I was having chest pains and s**t. They took me over there and I had low sodium and low magnesium and that low sodium kicked my ass”.

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While Chris Debow's chances of fighting for the title were cut short, he is still optimistic about his outlook and the future of Power Slap.

“I guess a lot of people ain't got balls”

There has been a lot of scrutiny surrounding the severity of Power Slap and the implications of getting hit and not properly ‘defending' yourself. Debow speaks on why that statement is just as true as it is for any combat sports athlete.

“As far as not having defense in Power Slap, I guess a lot of people ain't got balls, man. How much defense do you have in a UFC ring when another dude is whooping your ass and just rag-dolling you around the f*****g cage? You can only do so much when he has you pinned down and he's on top of you, smothering you, and beating the s**t out of you. In this, we get to take turns he's only getting one hit. We get hit less than people do during football practice and we're idiots.”

Power Slap is a brand-new sport that is still growing in popularity and is also getting a lot of pushback from the audience for its brutality. People have to remember that the UFC started the same way when it was referred to as ‘human cockfighting' and for Power Slap and its competitors it is no different in terms of the media backlash they are receiving. The sport in itself will have a lot of growing pains as it tries to legitimize in the combat sports world, so we just have to sit back and watch as it all unfolds for the years to come.