UFC is back in action as UFC 274 will take at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona on Saturday night. The event will feature two main events, but one of those matches has been hit with a big blow. The main card UFC 274 will start at 10 p.m. ET and will stream on ESPN+ pay-per-view. The preliminaries will start at 8 p.m. ET and the early preliminaries will start at 5:30 p.m. ET. Both can be seen on ESPN+ and ESPN.ย
One of the main events of UFC 274 is Charles Oliveira vs. Justin Gaethje for the Lightweight Championship. Oliveira was looking to defend his titleย but was stripped of the beltย because he weighed a half-pound over the 155-pound weight limit. The title is now vacant and only Gaethje can win the belt on Saturday.ย
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Oliveira released a statement following the news. “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, per MMA Junkie. “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. Other fighters started talking about it as well. They started talking about those 200 grams, 300 grams. It was exactly the difference of the scale with the UFC. This is what we’re going back to. The champion has a name. His name is Charles Oliveira.”
In the other main event, Rose Namajunas will defend the Women’s Strawweight title against Carla Esparza. Namajunas won the title in April 2021 at UFC 261 against Zhang Weili. She beat her again to defend the title in November at UFC 268. The rest of the card is a lightweight match between Michael Chandler vs. Tony Ferguson, a light heavyweight match between Maurรญcio Rua vs. Ovince Saint Preuz and a lightweight match between Donald Cerrone vs.Joe Lauzon.ย
