The former interim lightweight champion took to Instagram on Tuesday to send a message to his opponent Charles Oliveira that he needs to defeat the scale on Friday if he hopes to compete on Saturday.
Ferguson made the declaration while detailing his diet after cutting ties with his former nutritionists and taking ownership of his own weight cuts moving forward. While he’s confident that he’ll make the 156-pound limit for a non-title lightweight fight, he’s not so sure Oliveira will be able to say the same thing.
“At the beginning of this camp, I made a conscious decision to trust in what got me here and the results are amazing,” Ferguson wrote. “I have been competing in athletics for over 30 years and making weight the same amount of time. Weight is good and eating right.
“I am counting on the Brazilian Charles Oliveira and others to come in overweight like usual. So I’m calling it now. Case law. Short notice fight, Charles Oliveira will not cut weight all week and show up 3-4 pounds over weight and use the excuse of a short notice fight.”
During his UFC career, Oliveira has missed weight on four separate occasions but all of those fights were taking place in the featherweight division.
Since moving to lightweight in 2017, Oliveira hasn’t faced the same kind of struggles with no issues making the 156-pound limit for non-title fights. Of course as Ferguson pointed out, both fighters did accept this matchup on short notice with less than a month of preparation time before clashing at UFC 256.
As he begins his own journey down to the lightweight limit, Ferguson cautions Oliveira that missing weight by a large amount will force him the pull the plug on their fight.
“If he shows up that much overweight, we are not competing,” Ferguson said. “So crew, make sure you visit the kid’s page and encourage him to make weight if you want to see a fight.”
Aside from the weight-cutting issues, this is a huge opportunity for both participants as Ferguson looks to get back on track following his first loss in the past 13 fights after he fell to Justin Gaethje in May while Oliviera will attempt to secure the biggest victory of his lightweight career after rattling off seven consecutive wins in a row.
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