A veteran MMA official has defended Ilia Topuria against claims he cheated the scale a day before UFC 317.
June 28 was a successful night for Topuria, as he followed his brief but violent stint at the top of the featherweight division with multi-weight glory up at 155 pounds.
Topuria knocked out Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 to become the latest two-division champ and extend his unbeaten professional record with yet another brutal finish.
But as his reign gets underway, a select few don’t see the Spaniard as the legitimate lightweight king owing to an incident on the scale the day before the International Fight Week pay-per-view.
John McCarthy clarifies commissioner’s mistake during Ilia Topuria’s weigh-in
Despite moving up in weight, Topuria had an initial scare during his weigh-in last Friday.
NSAC executive director Jeff Mullen originally called the Spaniard’s weight as 155.5lbs, half-a-pound over the championship limit for UFC lightweight title fights. Upon realizing that, he quickly returned to the scale before calling out 155 on the dot.
The incident left many eyebrows raised, with some alleging that Topuria had missed weight but had it covered up so the UFC 317 main event did not collapse.
Legendary MMA figure John McCarthy, however, says those claims are ludicrous. ‘Big’ John explained what really happened during a recent episode of his Weighing In podcast.
“This is what happens, you have a triple-beam scale…what they do is they’re told, ‘Lightweight.’ So they’ll take and they will put the weight, usually around 155.5 to 156. Because what does the fighter have to weigh in at (for non-title fights)?
“It’s got that pointer and it does this (levels out) next to it and he goes, ‘155.5!’ Then they go, ‘No, this is a championship fight, it’s got to be exact.’ He goes back, let’s the thing (down) and it goes to 155. It was a mistake in who he thought was fighting.
“The guy who was doing it, Jeff Mullen…it’s not like he’s gonna put his job on the line…he’s been in the sport forever,” McCarthy added. “You’re sitting there trying to make something out of nothing. He did not cheat for Ilia.
“If Ilia was over, he would have said, ‘He’s gotta go lose weight.’ … Jeff would have been honest. … It was just based upon thinking it was a regular fight compared to a championship fight.”
Ilia Topuria’s first UFC lightweight title defense
It remains to be seen when Topuria will need to weigh in again — and who he will be fighting.
Though a face-off between Topuria and Paddy Pimblett appeared to suggest that as the likely matchup, many have pushed back on ‘The Baddy’ receiving a title shot following his victory over Michael Chandler.
With that, some have pointed to Arman Tsarukyan and Justin Gaethje instead, and it appears that the former’s withdrawal from an opportunity this past January has put the latter in pole position.
Despite Dana White criticizing Gaethje’s threat to retire if he doesn’t get a title shot next, Topuria’s manager Lukasz Orzel said in an interview with Kanał Sportowy that ‘The Highlight’ is the “closest” to getting the fight.
“Third belt is a matter of time. For now, we’ve given our word to the UFC that we will stay at lightweight,” Orzel said (h/t Matysek).
“We’re waiting to see who comes up as the natural contender. We’d like to fight again this year. Gaethje is the closest, time will tell if it’s him.”