Charles Oliveira is not happy with the UFC stripping him of his lightweight title in 2022.
Oliveira was stripped of his belt prior to his title defense against Justin Gaethje at UFC 274. Oliveira came in 0.5 pounds over the championship lightweight limit at Friday’s weigh-ins, but insisted to have already made weight Thursday night.
He wound up submitting Gaethje in Round 1, but the entire situation did not sit well with him.
“What the UFC did was straight up disrespectful,” Oliveira said on the “JAXXON PODCAST” through an interpreter. “I always like to make weight on Thursday, the night before. So I already had the confidence, I already checked the weight, I was already on weight, but I was already hearing rumors around – not just by me, but the other fights around that the scale was calibrated.
“The weight wasn’t right. … I was confident when I came back to the hotel, and I was 0.8 pounds over. I came back to the hotel and thought it was weird because that’s what the scale was saying. It was a very awkward situation, and I felt disrespected because they took it from me.”
Several fighters competing at UFC 274 claimed the test scale they used all week was wrong, until it was recalibrated Friday morning. After coming in half a pound over the championship weight limit, Oliveira was given one hour to cut the remaining weight. He took the full hour, but once again weighed in at 155.5, resulting in him being stripped of the title.
“I felt like I should have been the first person to know if the scale was messed up or not,” Oliveira said. “I felt disrespected by them not doing that. So when they said that I had to lose that (0.5) pounds, I came back to the hotel room and started doing what I needed to do to get some sweat off. I had to do one of the things I hate the most which is the hot tub. I didn’t want to do the bathtub. I soaked in there for a minute, and then my underwear was all wet.
“I went down to weigh in again. I was about to jump on the scale again and my underwear was all wet and they said, ‘Yo, take it off because that’s going to cause some weight.’ So, I was already 0.2 pounds overweight. So when I went up on the scale, underwear off and everything, it was already still on 0.2 pounds. So, that’s when I knew something was wrong with the scale. I just thought the UFC did a injustice with me, and I wish that I had a fair chance.”
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