Charles Oliveira‘s missed weigh-in ahead of his lightweight title defence at UFC 274 initially generated an outpouring of shock and disbelief on Twitter.
That tone shifted within hours to sympathy and support for Oliveira. Questions have been asked less about his integrity but more about the scale, and of the weigh-in official’s competence. The overall feel is more “hard luck, son” than “you dumb bastard.”
More importantly is the feeling that Oliveira was robbed. That he remains the rightful champ. Below is a selection of top posts from MMA Twitter.
That type of commentary prompted the commission doing the weighing to issue a statement in its defence.
Oliveira clearly has support from fighters, including division contender Islam Makhachev, who doesn’t care who his next opponent is.
For his part, Oliveira was incredulous, claiming that he had made weight during his own weigh in prior to the official weigh in:
Regardless, Oliveira’s fight against Justin Gaethje will go ahead, with lots of questions about how this weigh-in drama will affect both fighters. Oliveira issued one simple tweet of his own after the weigh in with a simple inference: The show will go on.
