UFC 300 is almost upon and fighters are putting the final touches on their preparations ahead of Saturday night. Having gotten a good glimpse of their opponent during the press conference, it is now time for the fighters to undergo what is the most stressful part of fight week. However, for Charles Oliveira, it is seemingly looking like an uphill task.
For the most part, cutting weight ahead of a fight has been a pain point for many fighters, especially in the lower-weight classes. As a result, some fighters, like Jalin Turner appeared severely depleted during the press conference. Another fighter who has been working really hard to shed weight is former lightweight champ, Charles Oliveira.
During fight week, we have seen the fighters touchdown in Las Vegas and do their final preparations at the UFC Performance Institute. In a recent episode of UFC 300 Embedded, ‘Do Bronx’ and the rest of his team from Chute Boxe-Diego Lima were filmed during a training session. Notably, Oliveira could be seen grappling with a teammate whilst wearing a lot of clothing, despite the climate, leading to a lot of questions.
Chael Sonnen believes Charles Oliveira is failing to cut weight
Naturally, it is common practice for fighters to have a lot of clothing on to help them shed weight. However, seeing that Charles Oliveira, of all people, was still looking to cut down was a worrying sight. In the past, Oliveira has been no stranger to missing weight or the devastating consequences that it brings.
Despite the Embedded being some ways out, many were still a little nervous. However, in a recent episode of ‘Good Guy / Bad Guy’, Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen shed further light on the situation. According to Sonnen, Oliveira, and Co. are extremely worried about the fighter not making weight.
“Right now with Team Oliveira, their biggest concern is not Saturday, they got one (other) opponent first and this one has beat him before, several times, and that is the scale. “Right now, they are getting some weight off and they are a little bit worried about their athlete.”
Whilst fighters usually cut the final bit of weight the night before the weigh-ins, it is often an amount that they know they are capable of shedding. Thus, for Charles Oliveira’s team to be worried about his weight, is a bad sign of things to come. With that said, we have now received word that the fighter has successfully made weight, coming in at 156lbs.
Charles Oliveira has missed weight on numerous occasions
As mentioned previously, Charles Oliveira is no stranger to missing weight. In the past, Oliveira’s tenure as a featherweight was rife with weight misses and was a major part of his eventually moving up to lightweight. Despite starting his UFC tenure as a lightweight, Charles was at risk of being cut very early on, as a result, he made the switch to go down to featherweight.
Notably, Charles missed weight on four separate occasions during his featherweight run between 2012 and 2016. For his fight against Ricardo Lamas in 2016, Oliveira came in at 155lbs, the lightweight limit. Thereafter, he would move to the lightweight division, making weight for all his fights since. In 2021, Oliveira claimed the vacant lightweight title after beating Michael Chandler at UFC 262.
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With that, he would then make his defense against Dustin Poirier at UFC 269 before facing Justin Gaethje at UFC 274. For this occasion, Oliveira weighed in at 155.5 lbs despite stating that he was on weight. Although given an additional hour, Charles Oliveira was unable to shed the excess weight. As a result, he was stripped of his title. Thus, in order to avoid missing out on the opportunity at a #1 contender spot, Charles will do his best to make weight in time.