Charles Oliveira missed weight for his UFC 274 pay-per-view (PPV) main event against Justin Gaethje, scheduled for this Sat. night (May 7, 2022) inside Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona. As a result, “Do Bronx” was stripped of the lightweight title and will be ineligible to reclaim it with a victory this weekend in “The Copper State.”
Don’t expect much sympathy from “The Highlight.”
“Poor bastard still cutting,” Gaethje wrote on social media, just minutes after Oliveira came in heavy on his first attempt. “I’m back to 165 while he’s dying. He better make it, he has five minutes.”
As we know, he did not make it.
Oliveira looked surprised when the weight came back at 156 pounds, which was later downgraded to 155.5 when “Do Bronx” stripped inside the box of shame. In fact, the Brazilian sent out a tweet right before the weigh ins indicating he was on weight and ready to make bank.
Oliveira has a history of missing weight throughout his career, but was the former champion to blame this time around … or did someone tamper with the scale?
“Congrats to the ‘genius’ that messed with the fighters’ scale leaving it with a 0.5 pound difference,” fellow Brazilian and UFC 274 fighter Ariane Carnelossi wrote on Twitter. “We only found out when we were informed as we were coming down to check our official weight. Luckily I was under so that didnt hurt me.”
Brazilian featherweight Norma Dumont, who like Oliveira missed weight for UFC 274, also complained about the calibration of the scale, leading to multiple conspiracy theories on Twitter. Not surprisingly, Gaethje was not subscribing to any “B.S.” excuses.
Especially since they’re coming from Brazilian fighters.
“Both Brazilian,” Gaethje said about the Oliveira defenders. “I weighed the same on the digital [scale] and the official. Three of four made championship weight. Cut the BS.”
Rose Namajunas and Carla Esparza, also required to make championship weight in the 115-pound division, sailed through the UFC 274 weigh ins bright and early with zero issue. It’s also worth mentioning that 28 of the 30 fighters effortlessly made their marks.
No word yet from Oliveira or his camp on what went wrong.