Jose Aldo is again at featherweight, although that wasn’t the plan.
The previous UFC and WEC champion was scheduled to face Aimeann Zahabi in a bantamweight bout on Saturday’s UFC 315 principal card. Nevertheless, moments earlier than Aldo stepped to the dimensions at Friday’s official weigh-ins, officers introduced that Aldo vs. Zahabi would now be contested at a weight restrict of 145 kilos.
Watch their weigh-in under.
Sources with data of the scenario instructed MMA Preventing’s Mike Heck and Guilherme Cruz that the change was made attributable to points on Aldo’s facet. By 8 p.m. Thursday night, Aldo was reportedly nonetheless 9 kilos over the bantamweight restrict for a non-title struggle (136) and was instructed by a physician he couldn’t reduce anymore weight.
In gentle of the change, sources knowledgeable MMA Preventing that Zahabi renegotiated his purse for the struggle, although the quantity was not reveal.
The highest-two fights of the occasion are each official, with welterweight champion Belal Muhammad and challenger Jack Della Maddalena each hitting 170 on the dot for Saturday’s principal occasion, and Valentina Shevchenko coming in a shade underneath the restrict at 124 kilos for her co-headlining flyweight title protection towards Manon Fiorot (125).
Aldo wasn’t the one fighter who had difficulties with the dimensions. Featherweight Daniel Santos weighed in above the 145-pound restrict on his first attempt, however later returned and efficiently hit the mark after stripping down whereas lined by a field.
Middleweight Bruno Silva wasn’t so fortunate. “Blindado” was the final fighter to point out up within the official two-hour weigh-in window and he got here in at 187 kilos, one pound over the middleweight restrict for a non-title struggle. Regardless of repeated makes an attempt to weigh-in with help from the field, Silva’s weight didn’t change.
The UFC later introduced that Silva’s bout with Marc-Andre Barriault proceeds at a catchweight with Silva forfeiting 20 % of his purse as penalty.
Try the UFC 315 weigh-in outcomes under.
Essential Card (ESPN+ PPV at 10 p.m. ET)
Belal Muhammad (170) vs. Jack Della Maddalena (170)
Backup fighter: Ian Machado Garry (168)
Valentina Shevchenko (124) vs. Manon Fiorot (125)
Jose Aldo (143) vs. Aiemann Zahabi (142) — struggle moved to featherweight
Alexa Grasso (126) vs. Natalia Silva (126)
Benoit Saint Denis (156) vs. Kyle Prepolec (156)
Prelims (ESPN/ESPN+/Disney+ at 8 p.m. ET)
Mike Malott (171) vs. Charles Radtke (171)
Jessica Andrade (126) vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius (124)
Modestas Bukauskas (203) vs. Ion Cutelaba (205)
Navajo Stirling (205) vs. Ivan Erslan (205)
Early Prelims (ESPN+/Disney+ at 6:30 p.m. ET)
Marc-Andre Barriault (185) vs. Bruno Silva (187)*
Daniel Santos (147 on first try, 146 on second attempt) vs. Jeong Yeong Lee (146)
Brad Katona (136) vs. Bekzat Almakhan (136)
*Silva missed weight. His bout with Marc-Andre Barriault will proceed at a catchweight with Silva forfeiting 20 % of his purse as penalty, per UFC.
**Replace** An earlier model of this put up incorrectly acknowledged that Zahabi negotiated for a portion of Aldo’s purse. This has been up to date to mirror that Zahabi renegotiated his purse for this struggle, however not on the expense of Aldo.
