The UFC 221 weigh-ins didn’t come without some little extra drama sprinkled on top. In the main event, former UFC and Strikeforce middleweight champion, Luke Rockhold is set to take on Yoel Romero for the interim title while champion, Robert Whittaker recovers from his staph infection.
First to weigh in between the two was Rockhold who made the championship weight limit of 185-pounds on the nose. Romero came out next, looking ready to weigh in with no issues…but there were. He hopped on the scale, waited and Jon Anik read off the weight of 188-pounds.
For title fights, fighters must be AT the division limit or under. Romero now has two hours to shed the three pounds otherwise he will not be able to win the interim championship. Now…this does not mean that the fight is canceled. This situation is identical to UFC 206’s main event between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis when Pettis missed weight. What happened was, since Pettis missed weight, if he won he would not become the champion but if Holloway did, he would become the champion(and he did). That is the same case here.
Now all we have to do is wait to find out if Romero will be able to take the extra weight off.
Romero stated after weighing in: “No excuses. I’m here to fight this guy. Now, I go to the sauna and tomorrow I fight.”
For “The Soldier of God” Romero, he was initially scheduled to take on David Branch at UFC on Fox 28 in two weeks. But after Whittaker was forced out of the Rockhold bout, Romero jumped in.
Here are the rest of the UFC 221 weigh in results:
Mark Hunt – 265 lbs
Curtis Blaydes – 255.5 lbs
Tai Tuivasa – 263.5 lbs
Cyril Asker – 243.5 lbs
Jake Matthews – 170.5 lbs
Li Jingliang – 170 lbs
Tyson Pedro – 205 lbs
Saparbek Safarov – 204.5 lbs
Damien Brown – 156 lbs
“Maestro” Dong Hyun Kim – 156 lbs
Rob Wilkinson – 186 lbs
Israel Adesanya – 183 lbs
Alexander Volkanovski – 145.5 lbs
Jeremy Kennedy – 145 lbs
Jussier Formiga – 126.3 lbs
Ben Nguyen – 125.5 lbs
Ross Pearson – 156 lbs
Mizuto Hirota – 156 lbs
Teruto Ishihara – 135.5 lbs
Jose Alberto Quinonez – 135 lbs
Luke Jumeau – 170.5 lbs
Daichi Abe – 170.5 lbs
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/9/2018.