Charles Oliveira made history at UFC 274 last Saturday as the first champion in the promotion’s history to lose the title on the scales.
‘Do Bronx’ tipped the scale at 155.5 lbs, a mere 0.5 lbs above the championship weight. With the weight miss, he was stripped of his title and the lightweight crown was declared vacant.
Although the challenger Justin Gaethje could’ve still won the vacant title, he came up short – Oliveira submitted him in the opening round.
MMA journalist Ariel Helwani blasted UFC for the way they’re treating Oliveira.
To add to his argument, he brought up examples of the overweight champions that were still cleared to compete for the title.
Khabib Nurmagomedov and Daniel Cormier are among the names he mentioned.
“We all saw the clip, I reposted it – not because I have an ax to grind with Khabib – [but] because it was very noticeable. Khabib, Gaethje, that thing wasn’t even settled. Boom, boom, please go to the back and rehydrate. ”
“We’ve seen this time and again. And in case you’re gonna sit there and say, ‘Call out you’re boy DC.’ Of course, and I’ve called him out to his face. In Buffalo, he didn’t make the weight, he held on to the towel. GSP in Montreal – my other boy – he was over 170 and they rounded it down.”
“So time and again, people in championship fights have been over. If you think your that your favorite champion fighter hasn’t been over back in the day… you’re fooling yourself.”
Charles wishes he had this guy manning the scale. Look at that speed! pic.twitter.com/oukFztLLza
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 6, 2022
He also added that 0.5 lbs won’t make any difference in an athlete’s performance. Helwani also pointed out that it was “absolutely criminal” for the promotion to strip Oliveira.
“All of a sudden, Charles gets the bad luck, the misfortune of running into a stickler, who’s gonna be like, ‘Nope, we’re gonna get this on the dot.’ I’m not even talking about the conspiracy the the weight thingy, the calibration and the scale…”
“I’m not even talking about that. But for half-a-pound to be that big of a stickler, when there is nothing that is going to happen in this fight on Saturday as a result of a half a pound over – that is not a performance enhancer.”
“The fact that he was stripped of the belt, to me is absolutely criminal.”
Now with the title stay vacated, Oliveira is awaiting the next contender to fight him for the belt. Islam Makhachev and Beneil Dariush are currently rumored to fight for the spot.