Despite the fact that Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira successfully made weight the day before, the lightweight title fight was in danger of being canceled due to the fact that one of the participants in the fight had serious problems in the final stage of the weight race.
This was told by the reserve participant of the championship match, Alexander Volkanovski.
“The night before the weigh-in, we got a call asking how the weight race was going,” the Australian told The Mac Life. “They didn’t say too much, but it was obvious that someone was in trouble. Previously, this has never happened, so that at night they were interested in the progress of the weight race, which means that everything was not going quite smoothly for someone. I myself was already asleep at that time, and they told me about everything in the morning.
In the morning, Alexander Volkanovski, who holds the UFC featherweight title, had no problem hitting the lightweight limit, showing 70.3 kg (155 lbs) at the official weigh-in ceremony, while Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira recorded 70 kg (154.5 lbs) exactly.
Recall that the fight for the vacant UFC lightweight championship belt between Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira will be the main event of the UFC 280 tournament, which will be held on October 22 in Abu Dhabi.
