William Knight had a massive weight miss on Friday.
The light heavyweight made history at the UFC 271 official weigh-ins, coming in way over the 205-pound limit (plus one-pound allowance) as he stepped onto the scale at 218 pounds for his bout with Maxim Grishin (206). Knight’s 12-pound miss set a dubious UFC record, surpassing the 11.5-pound weight miss of Rafael Alves from UFC Vegas 19 last February.
William Knight missed his mark by 12 pounds, weighing in at 218 pounds for his light heavyweight bout at #UFC271 pic.twitter.com/MmxsmSfD4T
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) February 11, 2022
However, shortly after Knight weighed in, it was announced that his bout with Grishin would now be contested at heavyweight with Knight forfeiting 40 percent of his purse as penalty.
Later, Knight indicated his weight miss was due to the short-notice fight.
“I tried my best on short notice definitely not the kinda fighter I am and it definitely won’t happen again,” he wrote. “Crazy I turn into the bad guy trying to save a fight on short notice..... im [sic] happy the real snakes have shed their skin today ill [sic] remember this moving forward for sure.... . God has blessed me with this as a lesson and I’ll definitely make sure I do better next time.”
That wasn’t the only hiccup at Friday’s official weigh-ins. Alex Perez came in at 128 pounds, two pounds over the limit for his flyweight bout against Matt Schnell (126). It was later announced that the bout has been cancelled, with UFC officials telling MMA Fighting that Schnell declined the fight. This is the fourth time that a bout between Perez and Schnell has fallen through.
Perez took to Instagram afterwards to apologize for his gaffe, writing, “I missed weight by 2 pounds and its 1000000% my fault.”
Middleweight title fight main event fighters Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker made weight without issue, with both champion and challenger hitting the mark at 184 pounds.
See the UFC 271 weigh-in results below.
Main Card (10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ pay-per-view)
Israel Adesanya (184) vs. Robert Whittaker (184)
Derrick Lewis (266) vs. Tai Tuivasa (265)
Derek Brunson (185.5) vs. Jared Cannonier (185)
Kyler Phillips (136) vs. Marcelo Rojo (136)
Nasrat Haqparast (156) vs. Bobby Green (155.5)
Preliminary Card (8 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN+)
Andrei Arlovski (246) vs. Jared Vanderaa (265)
Roxanne Modafferi (126) vs. Casey O’Neill (125.5)
Alex Perez (128)* vs. Matt Schnell (126)
William Knight (218)** vs. Maxim Grishin (206)
Early Prelims (6 p.m. ET on ESPN+/UFC Fight Pass)
Mana Martinez (136) vs. Ronnie Lawrence (136)
Alexander Hernandez (156) vs. Renato Moicano (156)
Carlos Ulberg (204) vs. Fabio Cherant (206)
AJ Dobson (185) vs. Jacob Malkoun (186)
Douglas Silva de Andrade (136) vs. Sergey Morozov (135)
Jeremiah Wells (170.5) vs. Mike Mathetha (170)
*Perez missed weight for his flyweight bout with Matt Schnell. The bout has been cancelled due to Schnell declining the fight
**Knight missed weight for his light heavyweight bout with Maxim Grishin. The bout will proceed as a heavyweight contest with Knight forfeiting 40 percent of his purse as penalty
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