Rafael Alves weighed in at 157.5 pounds for a featherweight (yes, featherweight) bout with Patrick Sabatini scheduled for Saturday’s preliminary card at UFC APEX in Las Vegas. That’s 11.5 pounds over the 145-pound limit.
Sabatini successfully made weight at 145.5 pounds. He took the Alves fight on short-notice as a replacement for Mike Trizano (ankle injury).
It is not yet known if the bout between Alves and Sabatini will proceed as scheduled, and if so, what percentage of Alves’ purse he will forfeit to Sabatini.
Earlier this week, Alves told MMA Fighting that his plan was to return to the lightweight division after UFC Vegas 19. MMA Fighting has reached out to Alves for comment on Friday’s weigh-in miss.
Also missing weight were bantamweights Ketlen Vieira and bantamweight Drako Rodriguez and featherweight Jared Gordon. Vieira came in at 138, two pounds over the limit for her co-main event bout with Yana Kunitskaya, while Rodriguez came in 4.5 pounds over the limit and Gordon four pounds.
Kunitskaya successfully weighed in at 135.5 pounds as did Rodriguez and Gordon’s respective opponents, Aiemann Zahabi (136) and Danny Chavez (145). The official status of these three bouts and potential purse penalties is yet to be announced.
See the ongoing UFC Vegas 19 weigh-in results here.
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