Charles Oliveira stripped of belt after missing weight

Charles Oliveira checked in a half-pound over the 155-pound limit required to defend the title. Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Charles Oliveira stripped of UFC lightweight title after missing weight by half a pound

By Zac Wassink | Last updated May 6, 2022 4:09 PM ET

The main event for Saturday's UFC 274 pay-per-view card changed dramatically on Friday.

As Brett Okamoto explained for ESPN, Charles Oliveira (32-8-0) has been stripped of the UFC lightweight championship after he failed to make weight on multiple occasions for Saturday's title defense versus Justin Gaethje (23-3-0). Even after Oliveira was presented with an extra hour to drop excess weight, he still checked in a half-pound over the 155-pound limit required to defend the title.

Charles Oliveira has missed weight by .5 pounds ahead of #UFC274 and the UFC lightweight title has been vacated.

This is the first time a UFC champion has lost their belt after stepping on the scale and missing the weight limit. pic.twitter.com/eyQW54y5Wz
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 6, 2022

Gaethje, meanwhile, made weight and, thus, can win what is now considered a vacant championship by beating Oliveira on Saturday night. The 33-year-old was the interim champion when he was defeated by all-time great Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2020 in what has, to this day, remained Nurmagomedov's last professional bout.

Nurmagomedov has repeatedly insisted he's retired.

Following Nurmagomedov's retirement, Oliveira beat Michael Chandler for the vacant strap at UFC 262 last May. The 32-year-old then successfully defended the crown against Dustin Poirier at UFC 269 in December and was hoping to make a second title defense on the first Saturday of May.

It's unclear what would be booked for the title if Gaethje doesn't defeat Oliveira.

Zac Wassink

Zac Wassink is a longtime sports news writer and PFWA member who began his career in 2006 and has had his work featured on Yardbarker, MSN, Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report. He is also a football and futbol aficionado who is probably yelling about Tottenham Hotspur at the moment and who chanted for Matt Harvey to start the ninth inning of Game 5 of the 2015 World Series at Citi Field. You can find him on X at @ZacWassink

More must-reads: