Charles Oliveira could’ve been aiming to tie the UFC’s all-time record for consecutive lightweight title defenses in his next fight, if not for a half-pound.
Oliveira must instead return to square one every time he participates in a competition.
And in Max Holloway’s eyes, it isn’t right.
“I feel bad for the guy, man,” Holloway said on The MMA Hour ahead of his UFC 276 trilogy match against featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. “I don’t know. The guy who was weighing him in was a stickler, bro. This is .”
Oliveira made the wrong kind of history in May when he became the first UFC champion to ever lose his belt on the scale. Ahead of his UFC 274 title defense against Justin Gaethje, “Do Bronx” weighed in at 155. 5 pounds, a half-pound over the legal limit for a lightweight bout title bout. Oliveira lost his belt and, even though he stopped Gaethje in under four minutes with a rear-naked choke, the UFC lightweight champion is not him. Oliveira’s next fight is expected to be for the vacant 155-pound strap.
For Holloway, the whole scene felt as if the scale operator for the Arizona Boxing & Mixed Martial Arts Commission was trying too hard to prove a point.
Holloway stated that
“[The scale] was “moving, you know”. “You go to ’55, you should’ve let it move a little like that and say ’55. It has happened so many times that you have seen it. It’s so bizarre. It’s a pathetic situation. He is going to lose his title defense. He’s winning back the title. So that’s history getting taken away from Oliveira and I feel bad for the guy, man. You know, he was out doing his stuff — and, like, half a pound. You’re crazy. I feel bad for the guy, for sure.”
Had Oliveira gained weight, he would have won his second consecutive UFC lightweight title defense with victory over Gaethje. The all-time record is three, currently held in a three-way tie by B.J. Penn, Benson Henderson, and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
It’s also possible Oliveira lost on out specific contractual language and revenue that only applies to UFC champions, although that has yet to be determined or revealed.
Holloway thinks Oliveira was wronged in any way.
“They should’ve put it on ’55 and see how it is,” he said. “I mean, if you put it on ’55 and that makes the scale go up high, then it’s like, OK, obviously. But if it’s bouncing like that, it’s like, come on — that’s ’55. Do you know what? So I feel bad for him, man. It that hurts him a lot. It hurts with legacy. It probably hurts him contract-wise. We’ll wait to see .”
what the future holds.
