Backups will not be necessary, as every fighter ahead of the the
Ultimate Fighting Championship‘s final pay-per-view of the year
successfully made weight on Friday.
UFC 296 is headlined by two championship bouts, with the
welterweight title fight between Leon
Edwards and Colby
Covington as the main event. Meanwhile, flyweight king Alexandre
Pantoja will look to make his first defense against Brandon
Royval. Both title fights are now official, as each set of
champ and challenger successfully made weight.
Edwards (21-3, 1 NC) hasn’t lost a fight since 2015. Riding high
with two wins over Kamaru
Usman, “Rocky” will look to take out Covington next. The
English fighter stepped on the scale weighing 170 pounds on the
dot.
Primed for a third shot at the undisputed 170-pound title,
Covington (17-3) previously came up short twice against Usman. “Chaos” most recently defeated Jorge
Masvidal last year but hasn’t been active since. The
35-year-old will look to make the most out of his potentially last
shot at championship glory and weighed 169.5 pounds.
UFC 296 will air live on ESPN+ pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT
on Saturday. Prelims begin at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT on ESPN+
and UFC Fight Pass before transitioning to ESPN+ and ESPN2 at 8
p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
UFC 296 Weigh-in Results:
Leon
Edwards (170) vs. Colby
Covington (169.5)
Alexandre
Pantoja (125) vs. Brandon
Royval (124.5)
Shavkat
Rakhmonov (171) vs. Stephen
Thompson (171)
Tony
Ferguson (155.5) vs. Paddy
Pimblett (155.5)
Josh
Emmett (146) vs. Bryce
Mitchell (145.5)
Dustin
Jacoby (204.5) vs. Alonzo
Menifield (204.5)
Irene
Aldana (136) vs. Karol Rosa
(135.5)
Cody
Garbrandt (136) vs. Brian
Kelleher (136)
Ariane
Lipski (126) vs. Casey
O’Neill (125)
Cody
Durden (126) vs. Tagir
Ulanbekov (126)
Lucas
Almeida (146) vs. Andre Fili
(145.5)
Martin
Buday (264.5) vs. Shamil
Gaziev (259.5)
Belal
Muhammad (169.5)*
Brandon
Moreno (125)**
* Muhammad weighed in as an alternate for the headliner.
** Moreno weighed in as an alternate for the co-main event.