UFC lightweight title was declared vacant after the former champion Charles Oliveira missed weight by 0.5 lbs prior to UFC 274 earlier this month.
The Brazilian cited issues with the scale as the reason why he couldn’t hit the mark. According to Oliveira he was on track the day before.
Oliveira was given an hour to cut more, but he was unable to make the 155 lbs championship weight. Hence, he was stripped of his title.
Although the title was vacated, the challenger, Justin Gaethje was still able to win the belt should he beat Oliveira.
Unfortunately for him, ‘Do Bronx’ was the better man that night as he submitted Gaethje in the first round.
Serving in the commentator booth that night, Joe Rogan has shared his thoughts on the controversy. He also claimed that Oliveira was screwed by the “shenanigans” in the scale.
“He’s a very, very nice guy, and he got screwed in his last fight,” Rogan said. “There was some shenanigans with the scale. ”
“Some people had messed with the scale. Here’s a problem with these digital scales: Foreign fighters, they use kilograms and in America, obviously we use pounds.”
“These scales are calibrated and then the foreign fighters would reset the scale so they could switch it back to kilograms. So it f*cks up the whole calibration. ”
“He weighed in the night before the weigh-ins, and he was like, ‘Oh, I’m good to go.’ And then in the morning, he goes and shows up for the weight cut, and it’s a pound plus off, and that is directly related to this calibration thing.”
UFC will be hiring a security guard for the scale – as per Dana White.
The lightweight title now vacant and some potential matchups are rumored to be made for the belt, with Oliveira sitting in the No.1 contender spot.
UFC President Dana White has now prepared a fight between the No.4 Islam Makhachev and No.6 Beneil Dariush. However, he also doesn’t rule out the possibility to match Oliveira and Makhachev.