
Tony “El Cucuy” Ferguson has posted via Instagram that he will not fight if Charles Oliveira misses weight. Ferguson called Oliveira overweight and thinks that will probably miss weight by 3-4 lbs.
He told fans to encourage his opponent to make weight or else the co-main event will be canceled. The co-main event is crucial for the PPV event since one could argue that it draws more attention to the title fight main event. The UFC countdown episode for Figuerido vs Moreno only has 88k as of this moment, while the Ferguson vs Oliveira attracted 568k. It is safe to assume that it is the more popular fight of the card.
Ferguson was the former interim champion after beating Kevin Lee. During that time, he was scheduled to fight Khabib but as we all know that the fight did not happen. Conor Mcgregor was the Undisputed Champion during that time as well but was not active.
Oliveira has a history of missing weight which is why Ferguson is threatening him to cancel the fight if he does. Ferguson always made weight even made two weight cuts prior to fighting Justin Gaethje.
Oliveria has missed weight four times which is many compared to some professional fighters. Usually, if the fighter misses weight, they give 30% of their purse to the opponent if both agreed to make the fight happen. The opponent can also choose to cancel the fight if he does not want to fight someone who has a clear advantage.
The UFC has had a history of fighters missing weight and oftentimes the overweight fighter wins but not all the time. The overweight gives a clear advantage since they do not drain themselves out prior to their fight thus much easier recovery.
Yoel Romero missed weight twice for a title fight, it was against Luke Rockhold and Robert Whittaker. Unfortunately for Rockhold, he got knocked out and lost a title shot for the undisputed title belt. Whittaker won a close decision but had he lost, he would have still retained his belt because of Romero’s missed weight.
The good indication is Oliveira has not missed weight for his last 9 fights, so Oliveira is probably not gonna miss weight. Ferguson said he thinks he will miss because of the short notice fight so he can make an excuse.