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The last-minute fighter change for the UFC 279 main event marks the first time a main event match has been changed due to a fighter missing weight.
The main event for the 279 fight card was initially going to be contested between Nate Diaz and Khamzat Chimaev. However, the bout will now proceed with Tony Ferguson as Diaz's opponent.
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'Borz' weighed in at 178.5 pounds for the September 10 fight, which is 7.5 pounds above the proposed welterweight limit.
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Chimaev has since been pushed down to the co-main event. The Chechen-born Swede will take on Kevin Holland in the weekend's fights. The bout will be contested at a 180-pound catchweight.
Meanwhile, Ferguson's original opponent Li Jingliang will now take on Daniel Rodriguez as part of the main card.
In the past, when fighters missed weight for UFC main events, the fights usually still took place with appropriate penalization, rather than being subjected to last minute changes.
In a recent video uploaded by Bram MMA, Dana White explained why Chimaev's missed weight:
"What happened was he was cutting weight, if you saw him yesterday he was very very lean already and he should've come in on weight. He started to cut weight and he started locking up and cramping and all the things that happen... that are from a bad cut... We sent a doctor up and the doctor determines whether he should keep cutting weight or not and the doctor told him he shouldn't. "
Watch the full video below:
Some of the recent weight miss blunders in the UFC
Weight misses are not a rare sight in the UFC. In the race against time to tame the weighting scale, many fighters have faltered miserably. Let's take a look at some of the more recent weight misses in the promotion.
Former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira was stripped of his title at UFC 274 as he weighed half a pound above the allowed 155-pound weight limit for the lightweight title bout against Justin Gaethje.
The Vegas 41 fight card, headlined by a middleweight clash between Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori, was also a casualty of weight misses. After Costa was unable to make weight, the fight was first bumped to 195 pounds and eventually to light heavyweight.
Former middleweight title contender Yoel Romero once missed weight on two occasions, that too back-to-back. Romero came in at 2.7 pounds over the 185- pound limit for this UFC 221 clash against Luke Rockhold.
Four months later, he once again came .2 pounds overweight for his 2018 interim title clash against Robert Whittaker.
