Florida Commission alters weigh-in rules for Sean O’Malley and other UFC 299 fighters
Sean O’Malley and all combatants on this weekend's card will have to do things a bit differently for UFC 299 weigh-ins.
Initially reported to Cageside Press, the Florida Athletic Commission will have weigh-ins at 9 am to 11 am in the area time zone. That two-hour window is not out of the norm but it will be broken up to where all fighters must weigh in during the first hour with no initial weigh-in options during the second hour.
The first hour (9 am to 10 am) will be for all fighters to weigh in. The second hour (10 am to 11 am) is for fighters who did not hit their contracted weight the first time and for them to weigh in again. This obviously shortens the normative weight-cutting window in half with combatants generally being offered a couple of hours to weigh in.
Rules can vary among athletic commissions on rules regarding second weigh-ins but the Florida regulatory body will be curating sophomore trips to the scales this way.
The weigh-ins go down live on Friday morning and then it's UFC 299 on Saturday night.
Check out some of the fighters taking part in these weigh-in protocols below
What is Sean O’Malley weight generally?
Sean O’Malley's last fight at UFC 292 saw him win the bantamweight belt but his weight was a bit of a topic of discussion.
The 29-year-old posted a video of him weighing himself a few hours after hitting championship weight to fight Aljamain Sterling last August. Malley clocked in at 157.4 pounds which means he gained over 20 pounds since he officially stepped onto the scales for his title bout.
It's important to note that he was also holding a pack of drinks known as Happy Dad in a sponsorship-related post. So it remains to be seen how much that 12-pack may or may not have affected that figure on the scales but he was still a fair bit north of the bantamweight limit not long after hitting it.
It will be curious to see if this change to the weigh-in methodology will affect the Montana native as he aims to make his first UFC bantamweight title defense in a main event rematch with Marlon 'Chito' Vera. It seems like O’Malley is dialed in on all fronts as he looks to even up his series with Vera at UFC 299.