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Charles Oliveira Stripped of UFC Title After Missing Weight for Justin Gaethje Fight
May 6, 2022
The UFC 274 main event has lost some of its luster after Charles Oliveira failed to make weight Friday.
Per ESPN's Brett Okamoto, a UFC official ruled the lightweight title is now vacant and only Justin Gaethje will be eligible to win it.
Oliveira was stripped of the championship after weighing in at 155.5 pounds. He was given an additional hour to lose the half-pound necessary to make the lightweight limit, but he was unable to do so.
Earlier in the day, Oliveira posted on Twitter that he was going to make weight:
Oliveira has had weight-cutting issues multiple times in his mixed martial arts career. This marks the fifth time the Brazilian star has been unable to make the weight dating back to 2012.
UFC originally signed Oliveira in 2010 after he went 12-0 in various promotions around the world. After winning his first two fights as a lightweight, he went winless in his next three bouts with two losses against Jim Miller and Donald Cerrone. He also had a win overturned to a no-contest after officials determined he hit Nik Lentz with an illegal knee.
Following that three-fight stretch, Oliveira moved down to featherweight in an attempt to revive his career. He had intermittent success, but missed weight four times in a 10-fight span from 2012-16.
The most egregious one came in November 2016 prior to a fight against Ricardo Lamas. Oliveira weighed in at 155 pounds, nine pounds over the featherweight limit.
Lamas agreed to go ahead with the bout, but Oliveira was fined 30 percent of his purse. Lamas won the bout by submission with a guillotine choke.
After that debacle, Oliveira moved back up to lightweight. This is his first time missing the 155-pound weight limit in this division. He has won 10 consecutive fights dating back to 2018 and defeated Michael Chandler at UFC 262 to win the lightweight title for the first time in his career.
Oliveira successfully defended the championship in December when he defeated Dustin Poirier.
This marks the first time a UFC fighter has failed to make weight for a title fight since 2016. Anthony Pettis weighed in an 148 pounds and was ruled ineligible to win the interim featherweight title. He lost to Max Holloway, who was awarded the championship, in the UFC 206 main event.
Nicco Montano defeated Roxanne Modafferi in The Ultimate Fighter finale in December 2017 to win the inaugural women's flyweight championship. She was later stripped of the title nine months later because of weight-cutting issues that resulted in her being taken to the hospital.
Oliveira is the first reigning champion to miss weight before a title fight in UFC history.