The fighters competing at UFC 251 hit the scale this morning,and out of 26 that stepped to the scale, there were only two that missed weight, and both fights affected are on the early prelims. Other than the 2 fighters that missed, the rest of the athletes made their contracted weight without issue.
Main event fighters Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal made weight easily. Many felt Masvidal would have issues because of the short notice nature of the booking, and him eating a lil pizza in Rome on his way to Abu Dhabi. Masvidal is a professional as is Welterweight Champion Usman, and both men had no problem doing the job of stepping on the scale at championship weight.
Below are the official weigh in results as well as start times for the different segments of the card, and where to watch.
Main Card (10 p.m. ET, ESPN+ PPV)
Kamaru Usman (170) vs. Jorge Masvidal (170) – for UFC welterweight title
Alexander Volkanovski(145) vs. Max Holloway(145) – for UFC featherweight title
Petr Yan(135) vs. Jose Aldo(135) – for vacant UFC bantamweight title
Jessica Andrade(115) vs. Rose Namajunas(116)
Amanda Ribas(126) vs. Paige VanZant((126)
Preliminary Card (8 p.m. ET, ESPN & ESPN+):
Volkan Oezdemir(205.5) vs. Jiri Prochazka(205)
Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos(171) vs. Muslim Salikhov(171)
Makwan Amirkhani(146) vs. Danny Henry(146)
Leonardo Santos (156) vs. Roman Bogatov (155.5)
Early Preliminary Card (6 p.m. ET, ESPN, ESPN+ & UFC Fight Pass)
Marcin Tybura (252) vs. Maxim Grishin (223)
Raulian Paiva (129)* vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov (126)
Karol Rosa (136) vs. Vanessa Melo (141)**
Davey Grant (136) vs. Martin Day (136)
*Raulian Pavia missed the flyweight limit of 126 lbs by 3 pounds and will forfeit 20% of his purse. **Vanessa Melo missed her target of 136 lbs by a whopping 5 pounds and will forfeit 30% of her purse.
Christopher James has been in the MMA industry for 15 years, Working as a ring announcer for promotions like the XFC, Island Fights, Combat Night and Fight Nights Global during his career. Chris’ love for the sport and the athletes that partake in it led him to writing and doing face to face interviews with the athletes he admired and respected. Chris isn’t conventional by any stretch of the imagination, he has his own style, and takes pride in not being a “cookie-cutter” member of the media. Unique and sometimes controversial takes are what he brings to the table, forcing folks to think a little differently about the world of MMA. He also has a love for music as he has been a dj for 25 years and his love for music gets brought to the MMA world when he gets his guests to sing on his weekly show Cage Side with Christopher James which can be seen Wednesday nights on FACEBOOK LIVE, and soon via podcast.