Saimon Oliveira had a major malfunction at the scale ahead of UFC Rio.
The Brazilian bantamweight didn’t come close to hitting the 135-pound limit at the official weigh-ins for Saturday’s event in Rio de
Janeiro, coming in at 144 pounds, eight pounds over even with a one-pound allowance for a non-title contest. His opponent Luan Lacerda successfully made weight at 136 pounds.
Oliveira vs. Lacerda is expected to proceed as a catchweight with a purse penalty still to be determined for Oliveira, who is in a must-win situation, having gone 0-3 since being signed off of Dana White’s Contender Series in 2021.
It was only good news for the more famous Oliveira on the card as Charles Oliveira successfully made weight for his main event clash with Mateusz Gamrot. “Do Bronx” weighed in at 156 pounds, as did Gamrot, who steps in on short notice for an injured Rafael Fiziev.
In the co-main event, bantamweight contenders Deiveson Figueiredo and Montel Jackson both hit the mark at 136 pounds.
There was more drama at the weigh-ins as Valter Walker decided to step to the scale despite his bout with Mohammed Usman being canceled due to medical issues on Usman’s side. Walker was fired up as he weighed in, shouting in Portuguese that “this motherf*cker ran” from their fight.
Watch Walker’s weigh-in here.
Check out UFC Rio official weigh-in results below.
Main Card (ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET)
Charles Oliveira (156) vs. Mateusz Gamrot (156)
Deiveson Figueiredo (136) vs. Montel Jackson (136)
Vicente Luque (170) vs. Joel Alvarez (171)
Jhonata Diniz (257) vs. Mario Pinto (255)
Ricardo Ramos (146) vs. Kaan Ofli (145.5)
Lucas Almeida (125.5) vs. Michael Aswell (145.5)
Preliminary Card (ESPN+ at 4 p.m. ET)
Jafel Filho (126) vs. Clayton Carpenter (126)
Vitor Petrino (250) vs. Thomas Petersen (246.5)
Bia Mesquita (136) vs. Irina Alekseeva (135.5)
Lucas Rocha (126) vs. Stewart Nicoll (126)
Julia Polastri (116) vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz (116)
Luan Lacerda (136) vs. Saimon Oliveira (144)**
*Valter Walker weighed in at 246 pounds for his fight with Mohammed Usman despite the bout being cancelled late Thursday evening
**Saimon Oliveira weighed in eight pounds over the limit for his bantamweight bout with Luan Lacerda. The bout is expected to proceed at a catchweight with a purse penalty for Oliveira still to be determined
Guilherme Cruz contributed to this report.
