Given how the pre-fight post performed I doubt this'll get a lot of attention, but if you wanna discuss tonight's UFC card do it here.
Some facts:
- Co-main events are Namajunas Vs Esparza & Chandler Vs Ferguson
- Oliveira missed weight
- Cowboy Cerrone and Rua & Ovince Saint Preux are on the card as well
- After this card we may be getting Poirier Vs Chandler, at last
Funny thing is that Oliveira has grounds to sue both the Arizona commission and the UFC since they held an illegal weigh in. He may still be champ regardless of what happens in the ring..
Illegal weigh in?
The Comission violated Arizona State law in the process. https://combatsportslaw.com/2022/05/07/arizona-has-some-explaining-to-to-after-charles-oliveira-weigh-in/
The key points: More importantly, Arizona’s Revised Statute Title 5, Chapter 2 section 225 (which the above Code says the commission must comply with) requires the weigh ins to take place “no more than twenty-four hours before the scheduled time of the event” reading as follows:
E. Weigh-ins for all contests shall not be more than twenty-four hours before the scheduled time of the event or less than three hours before the scheduled time of the event. A representative of the commission shall attend and supervise all weigh-ins. The weigh-in period shall be one hour.
UFC 274 kicks off at 5:30 Eastern time, 2:30 Pacific. Oliveira ‘missed weight’ on a questionably calibrated scale with reports covering the mishap as early as 12:27 Pacific.
The Athletic Commission has a lot of discretion of how to conduct weigh ins. They do not have the discretion to overturn a statutorily prescribed timeline.
Unless Arizona is publishing out of date statutes and regulations Oliveira has a real argument that he never missed weight because the State failed to hold a proper weigh in for everybody on the card.
Arizona has some explaining to do.