MMA Fighting - Reaction: Charles Oliveira Stripped Of UFC Title After Historic UFC 274 Weight Miss

Episode Date: May 6, 2022

Charles Oliveira is no longer the UFC lightweight champion. In a historic turn of events, Oliveira became the first champion to lose his UFC title on the scale after missing weight on Friday at UFC 274’s official weigh-ins. Oliveira tipped the scales at 155.5 pounds on his first attempt, then hit 155.5 pounds again after being given another hour to make weight. As a result, the UFC lightweight title has officially been vacated and Oliveira will not be eligible to win it on Saturday at UFC 274. MMA Fighting's Shaun Al-Shatti and Jose Youngs react in Phoenix to Oliveira's historic weight miss ahead of his UFC 274 fight against Justin Gaethje. Follow Shaun Al-Shatti @ShaunAlShatti Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And we have an unprecedented situation that has developed here, Jose. UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira misses weight this morning here in the desert. 155.5 pounds. He misses weight by a half pound. And Jose, we have officially seen the first time ever. A UFC champion has lost their belt on the scale, at least in the market. modern era. We do not have a UFC lightweight champion. Charles Olivera has been stripped officially. And now we are left with a situation where Justin Gathe, who met the contractual weight of 155, will be able to win the title on Saturday. But Charles Olivera will not. And we do

not have a lightweight champion right now. A stunning development here. Jose, just your reaction reaction to the news. I don't really have a reaction because like you said, this is unprecedented. Like normally when things happen, I'd be like, like when someone misses weight, I know how to react. When someone pulls out of a fight, I know how to react. When there's like a last minute scratch, I know how to react. This is like you said, this is unprecedented. We've had missed weights in title fights before, like, famously, like Romero missed it twice for like, before his Rockhold fight and the Whitaker fight, so he wasn't eligible to win the fight. David and Sigurdow obviously missed weight before he fought Joe B the first time. He couldn't, and he obviously, and

like Romero and Figaro won and the belt remained vacant. But those were for like already vacant titles. The fact that the champion missed went and was stripped, I don't know how to react because, like you said, this has never happened for. I'm, I guess, disappointed. My morning is fairly ruined right now because I was hoping for a very exciting title fight, but now I just feel like this is just looming over the whole card now. Like, what other storyline is bigger than this?

Like we have the whole media day, like yesterday at the press conference and everything, we've been talking just to the show. Like this card was so good for like how like X amount of bonuses, Shogun's Return, Just Engage, The Most Violent Fighter, the rematch of the Rose, none of that matters right now. it's all about Charles Oliver coming at a 155.5. It's a cruel irony in a wave, right? This is a guy who basically got kicked out of featherweight for missing weight.

Not only that, but he tweeted he was on weight. His coach said he was already on weight like nine hours ago. So it's just more questions I have. I don't like, was their scale wrong? Was this scale wrong? Just a perplexing situation all around. It's a baffling situation because you're right. Charles Oliver earlier today, I think it was maybe 10 hours ago at this point.

One of his coaches tweeted had on Instagram that they were already on weight. Charles, in the moment, looked very confused initially. So let's backpedal just a little bit to the first way in. Happened with about five minutes left to go on the two-hour window we had in Phoenix. Charles strolled in. He looked very confident, and then he looked surprised once that weight was read out of 155.5. What was your read in the moment? Just take me back through that moment.

It was... I saw his tweet, and then obviously our colleague, Gary McRaeus, like, he told us that his coach announced that, like, what, like nine hours ago? When that normally happens, you're usually the first one. to weigh in because you can just go rehydrate immediately. So the fact that Charles was one of the last feet away in, even before missing weight, I just felt like something was off.

Like maybe he overshot it or he got too comfortable or he like maybe he cut weight too early and just peeked too early. I just don't know. My initial reaction when he was late was something's a miss. And then when he missed weight, I was like, ah, something is, something is wrong here. So I don't know. I was just confusion all around. The whole switch, every question I have, there's like 10 more I want to answer it as well.

It's tough too because we, Mike Chandler tweeted out something about this right afterwards, right? Of that mental switch of once you're, and even just physically, once you're done cutting, you feel like your body's done, you're done with the process, you come out here, you think it's over, and then it's really just, you're still going. We saw it. I mean, Charles Oliver walked out here. He was dry as a bone. He didn't look like he was sweating at all that first time. And then now it took basically the entire hour for him and he comes back out and his weight hasn't. his weight hasn't changed.

Are you surprised, I guess, he didn't shave his head, that there wasn't, like, those dire situations because this man just lost his UFC title to this. Yeah, I don't know what they were doing on the back, but like some people were even saying here, like some of the media, like those portable sonnas they have. Like, those are probably all unplugged right now. Like, you got to warm him back up.

Like, what was he doing? Like Michael Chandler himself said like that, when you think you're on weight and you sucked out the last bit of sweat you have, and all of a sudden you miss weight and you have no more sweat to give, that has to be the most demoralizing feeling you can have as a fighter. I don't know what they did.

There were jokes here like, oh, could you pull out half a pound of blood from your body with that? And then obviously that wouldn't even go against. You saw it apparently because it's not injecting anything. So I don't know what they did back there or if they tried. I remember I went into the bathroom after Yolo Romero missed away in Chicago, and it looks like he had been just like sweating profusely the whole time. I don't know what he did, what Charles did back there.

I'm just, it didn't seem like he was hurting on the scale. Like when Ovin St. Prue got up on the scale and he made 205 and he needed the box, you could tell that was a bad cut. Because he walked down and was like, I need the box. It was kind of wobbly up there. That wasn't Charles. So I don't know what he did back there. So that's even another question I have.

Like you didn't look bad up there. You looked like you could have lost weight, but I don't know the injuries of the weight cut of the fight camp. It's just a disappointing situation all around. The tension in this room as the countdown got close. and closer this second time around as we're finding out, you know, he only has five minutes to go, four minutes to go. You have Trevor Whitman

in here, Justin Gachey's coach, watching from the side. It's very boxing-esque of watching the way and advising the commission members, hey, make sure his hands are up. Make sure he's not leaning on it. I like to that part. Like, more coaches should honestly do that when people away in. Like, you obviously family, like, when Kelvin Gasselm weighed in,

and we had that debacle in, like, New York with, like, the elbow or something like that. So, yeah, kudos to Trevor Woodman. He was right there. And then the second he heard 155, he picked up the phone and was immediately talking to somebody. So I'm sure they're going to take the fight, obviously, because Justin can win the title. But, yeah, I was happy to see Trevor, like,

kind of instructing to, like, hey, like, when his chest got close to the edge, he, like pointed it out, commission walked over. Instantly. So, yeah, I like to see more of that. We're still doing this in the moment, so we still don't know what the fine is going to be. Ultimately, there will be a fine levied on Charles that will hit. 15 pounds of gold, that's the fine.

15 pounds of gold, sure, but also I'm sure that man has a healthy purse. some of that is now going to Justin Gachi. We still ostensibly have a fight on Saturday. This is a giant blow for the champion or the former champion now, I guess, this is crazy to say, but the former champion now to have to deal with 24 hours before the fight of his life against a man who is, you know, a wrecking ball who's going to take him to hell and back. Does this change your read on the fight at all? I mean, it's a half pound.

When we heard it initially of just a half pound, I think everybody in this room assumed it'll be fine. Easy, yeah. Does this change your read on the fight now? Probably a little bit, but at the same time, like I said, like Charles didn't look like debilitated up there. But that emotional aspect, too, that's part of it now. He is not the champion anymore. This is crazy to say. It is. I was already picking Justin to win anyway, but I think I'm a little more confident right now. It's similar to when the last time we were here, when Figueroa and Moreno

waited all week, I thought Figueroa was going to win. And then after official Wayans, remember, he came out and barely made weight and was like being held up there. I flipped. I already know if you remember our preview show. I think I was the only one on the site that Pixar winner went because I saw him on the scale. So if anything, this just makes me a little more confident that Justin is going to win. But again, like, Charles wasn't physically debilitated up there, but mentally he just has to be in such a weird place. And I'm pretty confident Justin Gatry is not the happiest man in the world right now. Oh, I think Justin Gage is probably thrilled. Well, thrilled to get some monetary bonuses or anything. But, you know, Justin kind of prides himself and being a

professional. So I think he's just an note, maybe he's probably annoyed. I'm not, I'm sure he's not happy that he missed weight, that Charles Olivera missed weight. So I think the ceremonial face off is going to be a little more spicy than we initially thought it would be. Just an incredible turn of events all around, incredible drama here in Phoenix. Again, an unprecedented situation. The man who for for so long could not seem to figure out his weight at featherweight, moves up to lightweight, and becomes this great champion, now loses his title on the scale. Just unbelievable turn of events. Thank you for sticking with us at MMA fighting.

We'll continue to cover this situation as it develops. We have way-ins, ceremonial weigh-ins here soon. And so keep it locked to MMA fighting as we continue to give you coverage for UFC 274. My name is Sean O'Shti. That man is Jose Young's. We'll see you. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap.

You're almost at the finish line. But first... There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.