Conor McGregor set the tone early for Friday’s official UFC 257 weigh-ins.
The former two-division champion was the first fighter to to the scale and he showed up at championship weight, coming in at 155 pounds for Saturday’s headliner against Dustin Poirier. Poirier also successfully hit the mark at 156 pounds to make the rematch official.
In the first meeting between Poirier and McGregor at UFC 178 in September 2014, McGregor defeated Poirier by first-round TKO.
Co-main event lightweights Dan Hooker and Michael Chandler also successfully made weight, both coming in at 156 pounds. Chandler, a three-time Bellator champion, makes his UFC debut on Saturday.
The weigh-ins were not without drama however, as two fighters did not make it to the scale and two others missed weight on their first attempts.
Officials announced early in the proceedings that Ottman Azaitar was out of his main card lightweight bout with Matt Frevola due to “a recent violation of the health and safety protocols involving” Azaitar, per the UFC. Frevola still showed up and made weight at 155.5 pounds.
A middleweight matchup between Andrew Sanchez and Makhmud Muradov is expected to open the pay-per-view main card with the cancellation of Azaitar-Frevola.
Lightweight Nasrat Haqparast did not make an appearance during the two-hour weigh-in window and he will not be competing on Saturday. Officials later announced his withdrawal was due to an illness. Haqparast’s scheduled opponent Arman Tsarukyan also had difficulties, coming in three pounds over the lightweight limit at 139.
Tsarukyan was given an additional hour to cut weight, but could only make it down to 157 pounds on his second attempt. However, a matchup between Frevola and Tsarukyan has been arranged with Tsarukayn forfeiting 20 percent of his purse to Frevola, sources with knowledge of the change told MMA Fighting following an initial report by TSN.
Khalil Rountree also came in heavy, weighing in 0.5 pounds over the 205-pound limit (including a one-pound allowance for non-title fights). He was given an additional hour to make weight and successfully did so on his second attempt, coming in at 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+, 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)
Khalil Rountree (206)** vs. Marcin Prachnio (205)
Early Prelims (ESPN+, 7 p.m. ET)
Nik Lentz (150) vs. Movsar Evloev (150) – 150-pound catchweight bout
Amir Albazi (126) vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov (126)
*A 157-pound catchweight bout between Frevola and Tsarukyan was arranged after their originally scheduled opponents, Ottman Azaitar and Nasrat Haqparast, were taken off of the UFC 257 card. Azaitar was announced as having been removed due to “a recent violation of the health and safety protocols,” while Haqparast failed to show up to weigh-in during the official two-hour window.
**Rountree made weight on his second attempt after initially weighing in at 206.5 pounds
