Top 5: Greatest Fails on the Scale

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Failed weight cuts litter mixed martial arts history, but none proved any more costly than the flub by then-Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight titleholder Charles Oliveira at UFC 274 a little more than two years ago.

Everything seemed to go according to plan until “Do Bronxs” tipped the scale at 155.5 pounds—half a pound over the contracted limit—at the official weigh-in, forcing the organization to strip him of the championship ahead of his scheduled showdown with Justin Gaethje. A day later Oliveira, ineligible for the title, put away the Arizona native with a rear-naked choke in the first round of their May 7, 2022 main event at the Footprint Center in Phoenix. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and his Chute Boxe teammates, including longtime coach Diego Lima, claimed he was at 155 pounds on the eve of the weigh-in.

“Since Charles went up to 155, we always go to sleep on Thursday with the weight made in order to not have problems with different scale setups,” Lima told Sherdog.com. “This time, we didn’t bring our scale in order to follow the official one. We even published a photo on our social media to make fans aware that Charles had already made weight Thursday night. Considering the natural weight loss during the night, we joked with the team that Charles would weigh 154 the following morning.”

That was not the case, and Oliveira had to settle for an undeniably hollow victory over Gaethje while wiping the egg off his face.

“Imagine what that means for a champion to see that after beating all the records, training so hard and doing everything right,” Lima said. “How can you get motivated knowing that no matter the result of the fight, you won’t carry your belt back home [all while] being found guilty for a mistake that you didn’t commit? Thank God teammates and family were enough to motivate him.”

Oliveira, now 35, has yet to regain the lightweight crown, having failed in two subsequent bids. He tapped to an arm-triangle from Islam Makhachev at UFC 280 and succumbed to punches from Ilia Topuria at UFC 317. His weight miss remains a cautionary tale for all combat sports athletes. Here are four more violators of the scale who made headlines for all the wrong reasons:

Travis Lutter: In what was hailed as a career-defining triumph, the Carlos Machado protégé won Season 4 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series and the accompanying title shot in 2006. Lutter needed just 2:18 to submit Patrick Cote with an armbar at the finale, then turned his attention to middleweight champion Anderson Silva—arguably the most feared fighter in the sport at the time. It devolved into a series of unfortunate events for the South Dakota native. Lutter stubbed his figurative toe before he ever reached the starting line, as he checked in at 186.5 pounds at the weigh-in. The bout moved forward as planned, with the American ineligible for the championship. Silva proceeded to trap him in a triangle before forcing him to submit to a volley of unanswered elbow strikes to the head in the second round of their UFC 67 headliner at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

Khamzat Chimaev: The undefeated Allstars Training Center rep sent Ultimate Fighting Championship brass into panic mode when he weighed in seven and a half pounds over the welterweight threshold for his main event opposite Nate Diaz at UFC 279. As a result, Chimaev was removed from the headlining assignment and placed in the 180-pound catchweight co-feature against Kevin Holland, who had been slated to meet Daniel Rodriguez. Diaz instead faced Tony Ferguson atop the bill and tapped “El Cucuy” with a fourth-round guillotine, earning a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus for his efforts. Rodriguez was shifted to a 180-pound catchweight affair with Jingliang Li, Ferguson’s original opponent. Major events rarely see a deck reshuffled to such an extent. Chimaev went on to submit Holland with a brabo choke, then cut a fiery post-fight promo in which he showed no remorse for his failure on the scale.

Justin Tafa: The New Zealand native made history of the ignominious kind when he became the first heavyweight in history to miss weight in the UFC. Tafa tipped the scales at 267 pounds—one pound over the non-title limit—for his UFC Fight Night 199 prelim against Dana White’s Contender Series alum Harry Hunsucker on Dec. 18, 2021 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. He was fined a percentage of his purse, then went on to knock out Hunsucker with a head kick less than two minutes into their encounter.

William Knight: A collective groan made its way through the mixed martial arts community when “Knightmare” clocked in at 218 pounds for his light heavyweight battle with Maxim Grishin as part of the UFC 271 undercard on Feb. 12, 2022 at the Toyota Center in Houston. At a shocking 12 pounds over the limit, Knight was responsible for what remains the biggest weight miss in UFC history. It cost him 40% of his purse. A short-notice substitution for “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 3 finalist Ed Herman, Knight completed three takedowns against Grishin but lost a three-round unanimous decision to the onetime World Fighting Championship Akhmat titleholder.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Sarah Frota, UFC Fight Night 144; Yoel Romero, UFC 225; Joe Riggs, UFC 56; Paulo Filho, WEC 36; Bethe Correia, UFC Fight Night 193; Anthony Pettis, UFC 206; Christopher Ewert, UFC 317; Nicco Montano, UFC 228; Deiveson Figueiredo, UFC Fight Night 169; Rafael Alves, UFC Fight Night 185; Anthony Johnson, UFC 142; Kelvin Gastelum, UFC 183; Aaron Cobb, Legacy Fighting Championship 63; Darren Till, UFC Fight Night 109; Mackenzie Dern, UFC 224; Quinton Jackson, UFC 144