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Charles Oliveira has once again claimed that his weight issue at UFC 274 was faked by the Arizona State Athletic Commission. Heading into the UFC 274 event that transpired on May 7, Oliveira held the UFC lightweight title and was set to defend it against Justin Gaethje in the latter’s native Arizona.
Apparently, the general weigh-in scale that the UFC 274 fighters used leading up to the official weigh-in was erroneously calibrated and showed the fighters' respective weights to be two pounds below their actual weights. Fighters were later given a new scale to use instead.
In a recent appearance on the Podpah podcast, Charles Oliveira noted that despite his fight being the main event at UFC 274, he was the last fighter to be informed about the weigh-in fiasco. ‘do Bronx’ recalled making weight the previous night but still cutting two more pounds and trying to make weight on the new scale.
Oliveira alleged that the scale’s reading of his weight wouldn’t budge below 155.5 pounds regardless of how much weight he cut. He believes the scale was manipulated to mess with him, as the Arizona State Athletic Commission wanted to ensure that Gaethje won. Oliveira stated:
“I’ve said it a thousand times, and I’ll say it again. The city Athletic Commission couldn’t take my belt and say, ‘Son [Gaethje], it’s here, it’s yours.' They had to try to do something. I think they tried to mess with my mind on the scales. And then they took my belt because of 0.5 pounds that their scale had kind of put it on.”
“I said to [coach] Diego [Lima], ‘I could have cut off an arm, a leg, put someone else to weigh it… and it would still be missing just the same.’ So, for me, the commission stole from me.”
Watch Oliveira discuss the topic at 4:35 in the video below (*Translation courtesy of Brazilian MMA Legends YouTube channel):
Charles Oliveira’s bittersweet UFC 274 experience and his shot at redemption
Charles Oliveira missed weight at the official UFC 274 weigh-ins, hitting the scale at 155.5 pounds — 0.5 pounds above the limit for lightweight title fights. He was resultantly stripped of the lightweight belt. Regardless, he ended up impressively stopping Gaethje via first-round submission, thereby earning a shot at the vacant title.
Presently, Charles Oliveira is within touching distance of redemption after the bittersweet experience in his last octagon outing. Oliveira is scheduled to face Islam Makhachev for the vacant UFC lightweight title at UFC 280 on October 22. Beating Makhachev would not only extend Oliveira’s ongoing win streak to 12, but also help him reclaim UFC gold.
