For UFC vice president of regulatory affairs Marc Ratner, the UFC 274 weigh-in controversy surrounding Charles Oliveira is black and white.
Oliveira submitted Justin Gaethje in the first round of the UFC 274 headliner this past Saturday at Footprint Center in Phoenix, but he’s no longer the lightweight champion because he weighed in over the championship limit of 155 pounds one day earlier. Oliveira registered a mark of 155.5 on his first weigh-in attempt. Per the Arizona commission’s rules, Olivera was allowed one hour to cut the half-pound. When he returned for his second try, Oliveira still weighed 155.5, which forced him to vacate the lightweight once the UFC 274 main event began.
Oliveira, who tweeted he was on weight the morning of official weigh-ins, was stunned by his miss. But what really raised the level of controversy was the fact that several fighters questioned the accuracy of the unofficial scale being used to check weights before stepping on the official scale.
UFC president Dana White called the situation “a nightmare” after UFC 274. Ratner, though, doesn’t view it the same.
“Well, first of all, let me say that the official scale, which is the one they weighed in on Friday with the athletic commission … 28 of the fighters made weight,” Ratner said Tuesday on Sirius XM’s “Unlocking the Cage.” “So I’m very, very sure that there was nothing untoward on that scale. That scale was accurate.
“What people are talking about, the night before, there’s a scale where the fighters can come down and check their weight. Some fighters wanted to change the scale from pounds to kilograms, which you can do, and I think that may have knocked it – we don’t have any proof of anything, but it may have knocked the (practice) scale out of calibration. When we found out that there was a problem with the scale early on Friday morning somewhere around 8 or 8:30, we got another scale that was calibrated and put it out there.”
Ratner’s explanation aligns with what White said after UFC 274, that non-American fighters are prone to change the backstage scale from pounds to kilos. How the accuracy of the backstage scale may have affected Oliveira in this instance is unclear.
“I am not sure what time that Charles or his camp came down on Friday,” Ratner said. “But he’s saying that he checked the weight on Thursday night, and he was fine. But I can say for sure that Friday there was nothing wrong with the official scale.”
Given the UFC prefers to use a traditional beam scale for its official weigh-ins, there is a human element to consider since a commission member must operate it. Some people are quick to determine weights, which wasn’t the case with Oliveira.
A change to a digital scale seemingly would eliminate the human element, but Ratner doesn’t see a reason for that to happen.
“Digital scale, sometimes you get tenths of ounces. Or not even tenths – a pound is 16 ounces,” Ratner said. “You’d hate to have just a regular fight, and the weight is supposed to be 155 and you can weigh up to 156, and on the digital scale you could weigh 156.2. Well, that doesn’t make sense either. We’ve always used the meat scale. It’s accurate, it’s balanced, it’s calibrated, so I have no problem using it.”
