Saturday night’s main event at UFC 274 got thrown a major curveball during weigh-ins on Friday afternoon. Charles Oliveira, the promotion’s lightweight champion, failed to make weight in the lead-up to his highly-anticipated bout against Justin Gaethje, and as a result, he was stripped of the title that he’s held for nearly a year.
Oliveira’s first attempt to make weight saw him come in at 155.5 pounds, a half-pound above the maximum weight for a featherweight. After being an hour to try and drop that little bit of weight, Do Bronx attempted to weight in again but saw the scale read 155.5 pounds once again.
VIDEO: Charles Oliveira weighs in at 155.5 lbs on his second attempt one hour after missing on his first attempt at 155.5 lbs.
Lightweight title will be vacated. Fight is still on and only Gaethje will be eligible to win it. If Oliveira wins, belt remains vacant. pic.twitter.com/zbuVhQbOFl
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) May 6, 2022
As Aaron Bronsteter explained in his tweet, this means that Oliveira has been stripped of his title, giving him the unfortunate distinction of being the first champion in UFC history to lose their title because of an inability to make weight. The fight will go on as planned, but Oliveira is not able to win back his belt. Gaethje, however, is still able to win the title in the event that he’s able to win the fight — Gaethje has ever been UFC’s undisputed lightweight champion, but did hold the interim championship in 2020 before losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov in the final fight of his career.
Oliveira is the favorite to win Saturday night’s fight, coming in at -165. Gaethje hold +140 odds to pull the upset.
