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Conor McGregor set the tone early for the official UFC 257 weigh-ins on Friday.
The former two-division champion was the first fighter to reach the scale and he came forward at championship weight, with 155 pounds for Saturday’s headliner against Dustin Poirier. Poirier also managed to hit the 156-pound mark to make the rematch official.
In Poirier’s first meeting with McGregor at UFC 178 in September 2014, McGregor defeated Poirier by TKO in the first round.
Main event lightweight weights Dan Hooker and Michael Chandler also managed to gain some weight, both weighing 156 pounds. Three-time Bellator champion Chandler makes his UFC debut on Saturday.
The weigh-ins did not go without drama, as two fighters failed to reach the scales and two others lacked weight in their first attempts.
Officials announced early in the proceedings that Ottman Azaitar was out of his light primary card fight with Matt Frevola due to “a recent violation of health and safety protocols involving” Azaitar, by the UFC. Frevola always showed up and weighed 155.5 pounds.
A middleweight game between Andrew Sanchez and Makhmud Muradov is expected to open the main pay-per-view card with Azaitar-Frevola’s cancellation.
Lightweight Nasrat Haqparast did not make an appearance during the two-hour weigh-in window and he will not compete on Saturday. Officials later announced his removal was due to illness. Haqparast’s expected opponent Arman Tsarukyan also struggled, weighing three pounds over the lightweight limit at 139.
Tsarukyan had an extra hour to reduce the weight, but was only able to reduce it to 157 pounds on his second attempt. However, a clash between Frevola and Tsarukyan was staged with Tsarukayn confiscating 20% of his handbag from Frevola, sources familiar with the change told MMA Fighting following an initial report by TSN.
Khalil Rountree also came in heavy, weighing 0.5 pounds above the 205 pound limit (including a one pound allowance for untitled fights). He had an extra hour to gain weight and did so successfully on his second attempt, hitting 206 pounds.
See the official UFC 257 weigh-in results below:
Main card (ESPN + pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
Dustin Poirier (156) vs. Conor McGregor (155)
Dan Hooker (156) vs. Michael Chandler (156)
Jessica Eye (126) vs. Joanne Calderwood (126)
Marina Rodriguez (116) vs. Amanda Ribas (116)
Makhmud Muradov (186) vs. Andrew Sanchez (186)
Preliminary card (ESPN, ESPN +And 8 p.m. ET)
Matt Frevola (155.5) vs. Arman Tsarukyan (157) *
Brad Tavares (185.5) vs. Antonio Carlos Junior (185)
Sara McMann (135) vs. Julianna Pena (136)
VfL Bochum v 1. FC Union Berlin Marcin Prachnio (205)
First preliminaries (ESPN +, 7 p.m. ET)
Nik Lentz (150) vs. Movsar Evloev (150) – 150-pound grab fight
Amir Albazi (126) vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov (126)
* A 157-pound grab fight between Frevola and Tsarukyan was staged after their initially planned opponents Ottman Azaitar and Nasrat Haqparast were removed from UFC 257. Azaitar was announced as having been removed due to a ” recent violation of health and safety protocols ”, while Haqparast did not show up for the weigh-in during the official two-hour window.
** Rountree gained weight on his second attempt after initially weighing 206.5 pounds
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