The world is in shock since the long-expected lightweight bout scheduled for this Saturday, the 7th of May, is about to happen, but without the current titleholder having the chance to really ‘defend’ it. Since a couple of hours ago, the official information from the UFC is that Charles Oliveira failed to match the requested weight before the bout and missed it by half a pound.
“Charles Oliveira missed weight for his UFC 274 main event bout against Justin Gaethje on Friday afternoon in Phoenix, weighing in at 155.5 pounds. Due to the weight miss, Oliveira will forfeit a percentage of his purse,” the UFC’s statement read.
Are UFC Scales Calibrated – Ex-UFC Competitor Alpha Cat Zingano Is Sure They Aren’t
“As of this moment, Charles Oliveira remains the UFC Lightweight Champion, but upon the start of the Main Event Headliner tomorrow night he will vacate the 155-pound title. The fight will proceed as scheduled, but the championship will only be on the line for Gaethje.” – The official UFC statement says and continues. “If Oliveira wins, he will be the number one contender for the vacant Lightweight Championship and will fight the next challenger for the undisputed title belt at a time and placed to be determined.”
As this statement happened, one question is raised. Is it fair?
After all, we are speaking about half a pound. Half a pound to reach the goal! That is equal to a handful of hazelnuts for God’s sake. He could have thrown up the glass of water that he drank earlier and reached the weight. And it is not like Gaethje was much lighter as well. He weighed exactly 155lbs. So we are speaking for a 0.5lbs difference.
If this would have been a non-title fight, the 1lbs tolerance rule would have been active. Now, because a title is at stake there is zero-tolerance.
And most probably this is the correct way to go. A sport is legitimate if and only if it follows its rules. And they need to be strict about it. So if the weights were as presented, there is no going around that. Finally, there is a conspiracy that starts after the official weighing – that the scales did not have a valid calibration.
What started this conspiracy is Charles’s tweet from just hours before the official weight in. He tweets – “weight – check, peso – check.”
One of the many that backed up this conspiracy is the ex-UFC competitor Alpha Cat Zingano.
“Olivera shouldn’t get stripped for half a pound. Especially if the commission can’t get their official scale and weight check scales to match. Definitely not the first time (or 900th time) that they don’t make sure the scales have the exact same calibration. Sucks.” – The Alpha states.
However, being a serious promotion, and basically the most popular one, we are not to believe that the UFC made such an omission. If this is the case, then this is a disgrace for the promotion. What do you think? Should the UFC start using digital scales?
