There were no soundbites or tears present at Friday’s official UFC 305 weigh-ins unlike at the memorable pre-fight press conference earlier in the day. Instead, the fighters that stepped on the scale were all business just 24 hours before the weekend’s anticipated card.
Undisputed middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis and former longtime titleholder Israel Adesanya both successfully made weight on their first attempts ahead of their main event clash.
The event takes place at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia and will feature many fighters from the ANZAC region.
The co-main event will see Perth’s own Steve Erceg take on New Zealand’s Kai Kara-France in an important flyweight matchup. Kara-France is looking to snap a two-fight losing streak, while Erceg attempts to bounce back from his close decision loss from earlier this year to reigning 125-pound champ Alexandre Pantoja.
The main card also features heavyweight knockout artists Tai Tuivasa and Jairzinho Rozenstruik, ranked lightweights Dan Hooker vs. Mateusz Gamrot, plus streaking Carlos Pratas taking on the seasoned welterweight Li Jingliang.
Typically there is more time between the official weigh-ins and the start of the event the following day but because of the geographical time difference involved there will be less time for the athletes to rehydrate before competing – the event is in Australia but still being catered to a North American audience so the start times for the standard fight week media events such as weigh-ins and press conferences were affected. The event begins Saturday night in North America but takes place Sunday morning local time.
All but one athlete made weight on their initial attempt Friday.
Jesús Santos Aguilar weighed 127.5 pounds, which is 1.5 pounds above the flyweight limit. Aguilar has won two in a row since being submitted by Tatsuro Taira in his UFC debut last year. He is slated to face UFC newcomer Stewart Nicoll in the opening bout of the early prelims. Nicoll is 8-0 and weighed in at the non-title limit of 126 pounds.
It was not immediately clear if the bout would proceed as scheduled. In most cases, when a fighter misses weight by this small amount, they are fined a percentage of their purse, and the fight proceeds if both athletes are medically cleared and agree to compete at a catchweight.
Official UFC 305 weigh-in results and projected bout order below:
MAIN CARD
— Dricus Du Plessis (185) vs. Israel Adesanya (184)
— Kai Kara-France (125) vs. Steve Erceg (125.5)
— Mateusz Gamrot (156) vs. Dan Hooker (155.5)
— Tai Tuivasa (265) vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik (259)
— Li Jingliang (170) vs. Carlos Prates (170)
PRELIMINARY CARD
— Junior Tafa (244) vs. Valter Walker (252)
— Joshua Culibao (146) vs. Ricardo Ramos (145.5)
— Casey O’Neill (125.5) vs. Luana Santos (126)
— Jack Jenkins (145.5) vs. Herbert Burns (146)
— Tom Nolan (155.5) vs. Alex Reyes (156)
— Song Kenan (171) vs. Ricky Glenn (171)
— Stewart Nicoll (126) vs. Jesús Santos Aguilar (127.5)**
**Fighter missed weight
