by Dane McGuire

Charles Olivera may no longer be the UFC lightweight champion after coming being a half-pound over the weight limit but he is the number one contender.

 

Olivera, who disputed the weight miss by citing issues with the scale used, defeated Justin Gaethje by rear naked choke in the second round.

 

Prior to the fight, Olivera said:

 

“The champion has a name. His name is Charles Oliveira,” Oliveira said with the use of an interpreter on the ESPN ceremonial weigh-in broadcast. “The story is that I went up to my room. I made weight on the UFC scale on Thursday night.

 

I go up to my room (and) didn’t consume anything. No water, no food, no anything. I swear to God. In the name of my daughter, the most sacred thing in my life. I went to bed. I wake up the following day and it’s a pound over.

 

“I’m looking at it. I’m one kilogram over, actually. I’m one over and I don’t understand what happened. I can’t understand. We work. We’re professionals. I didn’t do anything wrong. To me, it just didn’t make sense.

 

Following the contest, UFC President Dana White responded to the situation.

 

“We have this issue where guys come out and they’ll start checking the scale the night before and all the Europeans and guys from other parts of the world do kilos, so they all start f****** with the scale to look at kilos and, who knows… ,” White said.

 

“There’s so many moving parts to this beast of a machine that we run every week, and we’ve got to have a security guard in there where the scale is now. It’s something we’re going to have to do,” White continued.

 

The Arizona State Boxing and Mixed Martial Arts Commission oversaw the event and has since issued it’s own statement.

 

“Any scales used for any purpose other than official weigh-ins (such as those that may be used for fighters to unofficially test their weight) are not calibrated or inspected by commission staff as they are typically provided by the promoter,” the commission said.

 

As noted by MMA Fighting, this is the fifth time in his career Olivera has failed to make weight, and the first time he has done so since moving to 155 pounds.

 

At the time of this writing, Olivera’s opponent for the pending title fight is unknown.