Three years ago, Charles Oliveira lost his lightweight title on the scale when he weighed in at 155.5 for UFC 274, half a pound over championship weight. He has a chance to win that belt back at UFC 317 on June 28th against Ilia Topuria, but he hasn’t stopped thinking about what happened in 2022.
“Everyone knows they stole my belt,” Oliveira said in a recent interview with MMA Today. “Man, people think that over 200 grams, they’d let it slide. But really, there was never 200 grams. I made weight Thursday. I was good.”
“Do Bronx” has claimed for years that he hit weight the night before weigh-ins and the whole thing was a massive screw job. But this time he went even further, accusing Justin Gaethje’s team of being in on the plot to take his belt before the fight in Gaethje’s home state of Arizona.
“Check this out,” Oliveira said. “First, his corner, his coach was always around me, all over the place like he was from the commission. This stuff doesn’t happen anywhere else, you know? So honestly, there was nothing I could do. I fought in his town, his commission, his people.”
“They just wanted to hand him that belt, but they couldn’t do that outright. So they were trying to mess with my head, you know. That’s the truth. It won’t change my mindset though.”
“I swear on everything that I made weight in there,” Oliveira concluded. “I made weight on Thursday. So in reality, they just robbed me.”
Charles went on to win that fight against Justin via first round submission, but never regained the title. He’d lose to Islam Makhachev in his next fight for the vacant strap.
Oliveira’s weight cuts always get weird, with videos showing the former champ gaunt and exhausted as twenty of his teammates huddle around him to give him strength. One part sermon, one part exorcism, it always feels like a bit of a miracle when “Do Bronx” finally makes weight.
Did the Arizona Department of Gaming really steal Oliveira’s belt? Was their scale half a pound heavy? Or was it the scale at the fighter hotel that was half a pound light? Both happen more than you’d expect, given the big money ramifications for weight misses.
