Chael Sonnen details how Charles Oliveira could have avoided the weight-miss fiasco
![Chael Sonnen (left) and Charles Oliveira [Image Courtesy: @ufc on Instagram]](https://staticg.sportskeeda.com/editor/2022/05/83a37-16520948662840-1920.jpg?w=500)
It came as a shock when Charles Oliveira missed the mandatory lightweight title fight limit by a mere 0.5 pounds prior to his championship fight against Justin Gaethje this past weekend.
Per Chael Sonnen, the former UFC lightweight champion could have easily avoided the weight-miss fiasco if only he was in possession of one crucial item.
During his YouTube show, Sonnen shared his take on the entire situation as he recalled his days as an active fighter.
According to ‘The American Gangster’, all the publicly accessible scales, those provided by the athletic commission included, are getting out of calibration due to being used by a group of people, in this case, fighters. With that said, he believes that the easiest way to avoid a weight miss due to wrong scales is to travel with a personal one that only you can step on.
This allows you to check the measurements of the official scale and compare them to the ones provided by the personal one. Sonnen said that’s how everybody present at the UFC 274 weigh-ins knew that the check scale was off by 0.5 pounds.
Chael Sonnen said:
"The reason that the other fighters could tell Charles and tell the media and post it to you guys on Twitter, that they believed the check scale was off half-a-pound was not because they were juxtaposing that against the official scale. That’s why they all made weight. They knew it was a half a pound off because they checked the scale and then they went to their room on their private scale they brought."
The former two-division UFC title challenger couldn’t believe that the fighter headlining UFC 274 didn’t have a personal scale with him. Sonnen said that the entire situation should be a lesson for Oliveira.
Watch Chael Sonnen's full video below:
UFC fighters take issue with the official scale in light of Charles Oliveira missing weight
When the news about ‘Do Bronx’ missing weight broke, there was some confusion because, according to the Brazilian and his team, Oliveira had previously always reached the 155-pound limit.
Some fighters took to Twitter to post about the issues with the check scale and the official one provided by the Arizona State Athletic Commission, which supervised all of the UFC 274 bouts.
After hearing that Charles Oliveira had made weight according to an unofficial scale, UFC women's flyweight Casey O'Neill discussed the process fighters go through away from the official equipment.
Apparently scale out the back said he was on weight and then official up front said he wasn’t. For context, we weigh in twice infront of officials before we head to the real scale, once at the hotel and once at the back of the arena. 2 scales say he is 145, official says 145.5
According to Ariane Carnelossi, who was also in action at UFC 274, someone decalibrated the behind-the-scenes scale, resulting in a 0.5 difference:
Congrats to the “genius” that messed with the fighter’s scale leaving it with a 0.5lb difference. We only found out when we were informed as we were coming down to check our official Weight. Luckly I was under so that didnt hurt me.
Charles Oliveira's weight fiasco cost him the UFC lightweight title as he was stripped of it after his win over Justin Gaethje. The Brazilian is now the number one contender and will fight for the vacated belt against an opponent yet to be declared.