What a night!
Over the past 12 hours, this weekend’s main card at UFC 279 in Las Vegas has changed beyond recognition as three new fights were announced to take place after a dramatic turn of events at Friday’s weigh-in at T-Mobile Arena.
The turmoil began when Khamzat Chimaev unexpectedly hit the scales at 178.5 pounds on Friday afternoon, losing a whopping 7.5 pounds for his welterweight main event against Nate Diaz.
This put the competition in serious jeopardy, as earlier in the afternoon Diaz had successfully reached the 171-pound limit legal for a non-title fight.
BT Sport’s Ariel Helwani reported that the reason for Chimaev’s shock-cradle error had been traced to an undisclosed “medical issue”, but the incident incensed the Diaz camp, who were quick to clarify that Nate would not fight Chimaev as a result .
“They believe Chimaev didn’t even try to reach the weight and is basically cheating,” tweeted MMA journalist Cole Shelton.
At risk of the pay-per-view falling apart, the UFC frantically set about repairing the damage by recalibrating the trio of fights previously scheduled during six-fighter talks throughout Friday night about the bill.
UFC chief Dana White took to Instagram Live late Friday night to announce the new-look UFC 279 main card.
Diaz will now take on his veteran and fan favorite Tony Ferguson in a five round welterweight main event where the two Ultimate Fighter winners finally get a chance to tango in an exciting contest between two men at similar stages in their careers .
Diaz reacted to the late change of opponents with typically fruity language: “Tony has been there for a long time, we should have fought a long time ago.
“Khabib [Nurmagomedov]’sb****a** was scared of him just like that b****a** motherf***** was scared of me yesterday. We punched him in the back here and now he’s not gaining any weight.
“You already know what it is. Real Gs come from California.
Ferguson added, “Grab your damn popcorn and your blue slushees mama ’cause we’re gonna have some fun!”
Chimaev, meanwhile, takes on Kevin Holland in one of five catchweight contests now taking place at UFC 279 and fights in the five-round co-main event.
The pair almost got into a fight earlier this week at the Fighter Hotel as well as backstage during part of the skirmish that eventually led to the cancellation of Thursday’s UFC 279 press conference.
Chimaev appeared in front of a booing crowd at the weigh-in ceremony late Friday night but had little to say about his failed weight loss, telling Joe Rogan: “You [UFC doctors] stop that shit [the weight cut]I do not know.
Ferguson’s previously scheduled opponent, Li Jingliang, will now take on Holland’s Daniel Rodriguez in the night’s third realigned fight.
The chaos of the past few hours is unlikely to have pleased UFC executives, but many fans, journalists and even campaigners have hailed the redesigned lineup as an improvement over what was set to take place this Saturday night.
“I don’t want to reward all the shit that went down…but these fights just got a lot better!” UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski wrote on Twitter.
MMA journalist Shaheen Al-Shatti added: “Will the current plan actually go ahead? First time I’ve seen a botched weigh tag make a UFC card infinitely better than its original form. What a sport.”
It wasn’t one of the finest afternoons in UFC history, as two other fighters also missed the weigh-in.
Featherweight Hakeem Dawodu and heavyweight Chris Barnett – who became only the second man to miss the 265-pound mark in promotion history – also failed in their efforts on the scale, although both will remain on the card with penalties.
Click here for all the updated information on UFC 279 and all the ways to watch it live exclusively on BT Sport tonight.
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