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Weight cut case studies
Nine fighters, nine different ways a weight cut can go. Every number on this page comes from the public record, and every case has its own page with the sources.
Which division each case sits in, with the limits and the allowances, is on UFC weight classes.
I have not worked with any of these fighters or their teams. The figures are official weigh-ins, the fighters' own interviews and videos, and published reporting, each cited on the individual case page. Where I add my reading, I say so.
Read side by side, the nine cases make the same point from different ends. The size of a cut is decided long before fight week, by the division and by the weight carried between camps. The risk concentrates in the final 48 hours. And the only reading that counts is the official scale's.
The nine cases
| Fighter | The number that matters | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Kayla Harrison | 136 on the scale, 154 the next morning | A large gap spread across a 15-week camp |
| TJ Dillashaw | about 12 lb of fat against a 29.4 lb gap | Not enough fat to reach the limit, and a positive EPO test |
| Khabib Nurmagomedov | hospital the night before the UFC 209 weigh-in | The last night, and why the stop rule belongs in the plan |
| Conor McGregor | 168 for a 170 fight, with no cut | Fight week still needs a plan when there is no cut |
| Paddy Pimblett | 14 lb in the final 48 hours | Plenty of fat, and a 40-pound descent before every fight |
| Charles Oliveira | 155.5 for a 155 title fight | Margin and timing at the official scale |
| Khamzat Chimaev | 185 with twenty minutes left, 46 pounds reported | A camp built for 205 and a target of 185 |
| Max Holloway | 145, 155 and 170 in under two years | The cut shrinks as the limit rises; the 2018 cut a commission stopped |
| Alex Pereira | 204.5 on the scale, 230 the next day, then 251 with no cut | The number nobody set when the limit went away |
How far above the limit they started
The band this site uses comes from the 2025 ISSN position stand on combat sports: between camps, sit 12 to 15 percent above the division limit. Six of the nine cases have a figure to measure against it, three of them reported rather than measured.
| Fighter | Before the cut | Above the limit |
|---|---|---|
| Kayla Harrison | 160 to 165 lb, limit 135 | about 19 to 22% |
| TJ Dillashaw | 154 lb, limit 125 | 23% |
| Paddy Pimblett | 198 lb, limit 155 | 28% |
| Khamzat Chimaev | about 231 lb, limit 185, reported by a teammate | about 25% |
| Max Holloway, 2018 | over 180 lb, limit 155, his own estimate | about 16% |
| Alex Pereira | about 225 lb a month out, limit 185, his coach's figure | about 22% |
The starting points are not identical. Harrison's figure is her own walk-around weight in the PFL years, Dillashaw's is his weight when he agreed to the fight 12 weeks out, and Pimblett's is his weight a week after UFC 314. Chimaev's is his teammate's figure for the start of the camp, Holloway's is his own estimate at the start of a six-day fight week in 2018, and Pereira's is his coach's figure a month out.
All six started above the band. Starting further above it means a longer camp or a faster descent, and the faster the descent, the more of it is muscle. How the band works.
The final 48 hours
The second reference figure comes from the same position stand: a manageable loss of about 5.7 percent of body mass at 48 hours before the weigh-in. Two of the cases published numbers for that window.
| Fighter | Left to lose at 48 hours out | Share of body weight |
|---|---|---|
| Paddy Pimblett, UFC 314 | 14 lb | 8.2% |
| TJ Dillashaw, flyweight | 9.6 lb | about 7% |
Both went past the reference, and both made weight. Khabib Nurmagomedov's night before UFC 209 fell in the same window, and it ended in hospital. Two of the newer cases give last-day figures rather than 48-hour ones: Pereira's coach described 20 pounds removed the day before a middleweight weigh-in, and Chimaev's final stretch was reported at 13 or 14 pounds. When the last day stops being a weight problem.
What the nine have in common
My reading, from the outside:
- The cut is decided early. Harrison's 15 weeks, Dillashaw's body fat and Pimblett's weight between fights set the size of each cut long before fight week.
- The risk sits at the end. Both published final-48-hour losses exceeded the reference, and the one hospital night came in the last hours before a weigh-in.
- The scale is binary. Half a pound took a title from Oliveira, so a margin under the limit belongs in the plan.
- No cut is not the same as no plan. McGregor's own account of the first Diaz fight shows what a fight week without structure costs.
- The number that matters is set between camps. Chimaev at a reported 231 for a 185 fight, Holloway over 180 for a six-day cut to 155, and Pereira around 225 a month out for 185 had each decided the size of the cut before fight week began.
Run your own numbers
The cases are useful because the arithmetic is the same for everyone. Put your weight between camps against your division, and your own fight-week plan against the reference figures. The calculator runs the fight-week side for your weight, sex and weigh-in format, choosing the division covers the other side, and the stages of a UFC cut explains what happens in between.
How much comes back overnight, measured on fight night across three UFC cards, is in how much weight UFC fighters gain after the weigh-in.
Common questions
What is a normal walk-around weight for a UFC fighter?
The band this site uses, from the 2025 ISSN position stand, is 12 to 15 percent above the division limit between camps: roughly 174 to 178 pounds for a 155-pound fighter. The public cases here started well above it, from about 19 to 28 percent.
How much weight can be lost in the last 48 hours before a weigh-in?
The reference figure for a manageable loss is about 5.7 percent of body mass at 48 hours out. In the published cases here, Paddy Pimblett lost 8.2 percent in that window before UFC 314, and TJ Dillashaw had about 7 percent left to lose with 2 days to go.
Which UFC fighter lost a title on the scale?
Charles Oliveira, at UFC 274 in May 2022. He weighed 155.5 pounds for a 155-pound title defense, was stripped before the fight, and then won it.
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Oleksandr Foka is a sports nutritionist with over a decade in professional sport. He wrestled freestyle from the age of 4 until he was 22, competing as a medallist and champion at Ukrainian and international level, and has worked with amateur boxers since 2017, including champions and medallists at world championships. He has worked in world title camps in boxing with Oleksandr Usyk, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Denys Berinchyk, Vladyslav Sirenko, Murodjon Ahmadaliev, Israil Madrimov, Sergiy Bogachuk, Sabirzhan Akkalykov and Abylaikhan Zhussupov, and with the Kazakhstan national boxing team and with Kazakhstan judo athletes, and currently works on the WTA tour.
Oleksandr Foka — sports nutritionist. Questions: fokaoleksandr@gmail.com
Educational content, not medical treatment. For adults 18+. Sanctioning body rules change: confirm the current requirements with the body governing your bout before planning around them. Extreme cuts require supervision by a physician and a qualified specialist.