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In the world of the UFC, there are few more powerful things than the art of a good callout. If a fighter can challenge their next opponent right after beating their previous one, then essentially, everyone’s a winner.
While the UFC’s top fighters often choose to call out logical opponents, at times, they instead decide to call out potential foes from a different weight class, looking to mix things up instead.
Whether the idea behind this is to settle a personal feud, or simply to make money, sometimes these callouts work. Other times, they seem simply bizarre.
With that in mind, here are five times when a UFC fighter called out an opponent from a different weight class.
#5. Colby Covington – UFC welterweight contender
We begin with the most recent example of a UFC star calling out a fighter from a different weight class. We’re only a couple of weeks removed from former welterweight title challenger Colby Covington challenging former interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier.
The callout took place after Covington’s impressive win over Jorge Masvidal earlier this month. On the face of it, a battle between ‘Chaos’ and ‘The Diamond’ at some point in the near future makes perfect sense.
The two fighters have been sniping at one another on social media for some time now, dating back to Covington’s expulsion from American Top Team in early 2020.
Allegedly, Poirier complained about Covington’s behavior to the team’s top brass, to which ‘Chaos’ responded by calling him a “doofus,” before releasing some sparring footage that appeared to show ‘The Diamond’ mistreating an amateur fighter.
However, while there’s clearly an existing feud between these two, there’s an obvious caveat to Covington’s callout of his former teammate: Poirier has never fought above 155 pounds before, while ‘Chaos’ has never fought below 170 pounds.
In this instance, though, the UFC may choose to overlook the fact that Covington has called out a smaller foe and simply book the fight anyway. It’s too big of a rivalry to ignore and Poirier is a big enough lightweight to be able to match ‘Chaos’ for size if he doesn’t cut any weight.
With both men now out of their respective title pictures, this is one ‘superfight’ that does make sense, so expect to see it perhaps later in 2022.
#4. Jon Jones – former UFC light heavyweight champion
While former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has been talking about a potential move to the heavyweight division for a number of years now, the first time he called out a foe from the higher weight class came back in 2017.
That summer saw ‘Bones’ leave no doubt as to who was the best 205lber in the world. He dismantled bitter rival Daniel Cormier, unifying the UFC’s light heavyweight titles in the process.
After the fight was over, though, rather than call out another light heavyweight contender, Jones had other, bigger, plans.
He decided to call out former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, despite the fact that ‘The Beast Incarnate’ had only fought once since 2011, a 2016 victory over Mark Hunt that was overturned for a positive drug test, and had been performing in WWE rather than the octagon.
At the time, though, the fight did at least make some sense. Jones had no fresh contenders at 205 pounds and a fight with Lesnar almost certainly would’ve drawn millions of dollars. It would also have likely been an easy win for ‘Bones’ too.
However, any idea of the fight actually happening went right down the pan when Jones also tested positive for banned substances after the fight with Cormier, resulting in a lengthy suspension.
By the time he returned just over a year later, any chance of a fight with Lesnar had long gone. In the time that has followed, Jones’ mooted move up in weight still hasn’t happened.
#3. Lee Murray – former UFC middleweight contender
While his legal issues meant that he ended up being little more than a footnote in UFC history, nearly two decades ago, British brawler Lee Murray was one of the hottest prospects in MMA.
While ‘Lightning’ came into the promotion with a decent enough record of 7-1-1, the hype around him actually came from a notorious incident that took place in London after the UFC’s visit there in the summer of 2002.
According to multiple sources, during a wild drinking session that followed the event, a brawl broke out between various fighters, resulting in Murray, attending as a friend of welterweight champ Matt Hughes, knocking out then-light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz.
When Murray arrived in the octagon nearly two years later and submitted Jorge Rivera, then, it was hardly a surprise to hear him issue a challenge to Ortiz. That was despite the fact that had a fight between the two taken place, ‘Lightning’ probably would’ve been giving up at least 30 pounds in weight.
Murray simply stated that if Ortiz wanted to fight, he’d be ready for him. When ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ taunted him from the crowd, he went onto say that he’d always be in Tito’s head unless he got in the octagon to face him.
Of course, before the fight could be made, Murray’s career with the UFC fell through when he was refused a visa to enter the US. He later became one of Europe’s most notorious criminals, torpedoing his MMA career altogether.
Whether the promotion would’ve bitten and booked a fight between Murray and Ortiz at the time remains a question mark, but the fact that a 185lber had gotten into the head of their biggest star at the time remains fascinating nearly two decades on.
#2. B.J. Penn – former UFC lightweight champion
When B.J. Penn defeated Joe Stevenson to win the vacant UFC lightweight title in early 2008 and then destroyed former champion Sean Sherk in his first defense, it felt like the Hawaiian had finally reached his full potential in the octagon.
Unlike the unfocused ‘Prodigy’ who had drifted around in different weight classes, this Penn was lean, mean and seemed unstoppable. Fans across the world wondered if any 155lber could stop him. Naturally, in his mind, the Hawaiian had bigger fish to fry.
So three months after his win over Sherk, Penn burst into the octagon after Georges St-Pierre’s dominant welterweight title defense against Jon Fitch, intent on challenging the Canadian to a champion vs. champion bout.
While the callout came off as a little corny – Penn yelling “let’s do this!” in a high-pitched voice – it definitely worked, drumming up plenty of interest for a potential fight between the two.
Of course, the fact that ‘The Prodigy’ had already fought GSP once, with the fight ending in a controversial decision in favor of the Canadian, definitely helped matters. Despite St-Pierre having more deserving contenders waiting in the wings, the UFC unsurprisingly granted Penn’s callout and signed the bout.
Unfortunately for the Hawaiian, the fight went terribly for him as he suffered a horrific beatdown en route to a fourth-round stoppage. The promotion would have to wait another seven years for their first double champion and Penn duly returned to the lightweight division.
#1. Nate Diaz – UFC welterweight contender
While some fans criticized Colby Covington’s recent callout of Dustin Poirier, feeling that no fighter should really challenge a foe in a lower weight division, it’s easy to forget that arguably the most famous callout in UFC history featured just that.
The callout in question, of course, saw Nate Diaz, who competed as a lightweight at the time, call out then-featherweight kingpin Conor McGregor in an impromptu, sweary rant that instantly went viral across the world.
According to Diaz, McGregor was “taking everything he’d worked for.” While at that point, it felt like a fight between the two was simply a pipe dream, the callout had a huge effect on both the UFC’s fanbase and its matchmakers.
Sure enough, just three months later, when McGregor’s planned lightweight title challenge against Rafael dos Anjos fell through thanks to the Brazilian suffering a broken foot, the promotion swiftly turned to Diaz to replace him.
Evidently, ‘The Notorious’ cared as little for the boundaries of weight classes as Diaz did, as he agreed to fight the Stockton-based fighter at 170pounds. That was 25 pounds heavier than he’d ever competed at in the octagon before.
The rest, of course, is history. Diaz stunned everyone by choking out McGregor in the second round of their clash. The pay-per-view drew well over a million buys, resulting in the UFC booking an instant rematch that the Irishman won via decision.
Six years on, fans are still waiting for a potential trilogy bout between the two, making it one of the most highly-anticipated fights in MMA history. That's not bad considering the rivalry began with an unorthodox callout of a fighter in a lower weight class!
