Charles Oliveira is officially set to fight for the lightweight title again.
Five months after losing his championship on the scale, Oliveira was first to step up at the UFC 280 official weigh-ins and he successfully hit the mark at 154. 5 pounds. Opponent Islam Makhachev was the second fighter to weigh in and he too hit 154. 5, making their lightweight championship main event bout official.
Oliveira was stripped of a UFC title this past May after missing weight by 0. 5 pounds for his UFC 274 main event clash with Justin Gaethje in Phoenix. Many fighters complained later about the discrepancies in the official and hotel scales.
Alexander Volkanovski, the UFC featherweight champion was on-hand as an assist for the main event. He successfully weighed in at 155 pounds.
Saturday’s bantamweight co-main event is also official, with champion Aljamain Sterling and challenger T.J. Dillashaw both weighing in at 135 pounds. Sterling defends the UFC bantamweight title for the second time.
All but one of the 24 fighters competing at UFC 280 successfully made weight, with flyweight contender Katlyn Chookagian being the lone miss. Chookagian tipped the scales at 127. 5 pounds, 1. 5 pounds over the limit for a non-title bout. Her main card fight with Manon Fiorot is still unknown. If so, how much of Chookagian will she forfeit.
At the start of Friday’s official weigh-ins, it was announced that a featherweight bout between Zubaira Tukhugov and Lucas Almeida had been cancelled due to weight management issues.
See the UFC 280 official weigh-in results here.
Main card (ESPN+ PPV at 2 p.m. ET)
Charles Oliveira (154. 5) vs. Islam Makhachev (154. 5)
Aljamain Sterling (135) vs. T.J. Dillashaw (135)
Petr Yan (136) vs. Sean O’Malley (135. 5)
Beneil Dariush (156) vs. Mateusz Gamrot (156)
Katlyn Chookagian (127. 5)* vs. Manon Fiorot (125. 5)
Preliminary Card (ESPNews/ESPN+ at 10 a.m. ET)
Belal Muhammad (170) vs. Sean Brady (171)
Makhmud Muradov (185. 5) vs. Caio Borralho (186)
Volkan Oezdemir (206) vs. Nikita Krylov (206)
Abubakar Nurmagomedov (170. 5) vs. Gadzhi Omargadzhiev (171)
Armen Petrosyan (186) vs. AJ Dobson (185)
Malcolm Gordon (126) vs. Muhammad Mokaev (126)
Karol Rosa (135) vs. Lina Lansberg (135)
Alexander Volkanovski (155) — weighed in as backup for main event
*missed weight
