UFC 259: Three title fights, 15 bouts overall official – with one miss
LAS VEGAS – MMA Junkie was on scene and reporting live from Friday’s official UFC 259 fighter weigh-ins, where all but one of the 30 athletes scheduled made weight without issue.
In the main event, UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz (27-8 MMA, 10-5 UFC) puts his belt on the line against middleweight titleholder Israel Adesanya (20-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC), who’s moving up a division in hopes of gaining “champ-champ” status.
That’s just one of three title fights, though, as women’t double champ Amanda Nunes (20-4 MMA, 13-1 UFC) puts her UFC featherweight title on the line against Megan Anderson (10-4 MMA, 3-2 UFC), and bantamweight champ Petr Yan (15-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC) looks to defend against Aljamain Sterling (19-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC).
The weigh-ins took place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+.
The full UFC 259 weigh-in results include:
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
Champ Jan Blachowicz (205) vs. Israel Adesanya (200.5) Champ Amanda Nunes (145) vs. Megan Anderson (144.5) Champ Petr Yan (135) vs. Aljamain Sterling (134.5) Drew Dober (156) vs. Islam Makhachev (156) Aleksandar Rakic (206) vs. Thiago Santos (206)PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET)
Dominick Cruz (136) vs. Casey Kenney (136) Kyler Phillips (136) vs. Song Yadong (135.5) Askar Askarov (127)* vs. Joseph Benavidez (125.5) Rogerio Bontorin (126) vs. Kai Kara-France (125.5)PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 6 p.m. ET)
Tim Elliott (125.5) vs. Jordan Espinosa (126) Kennedy Nzechukwu (205.5) vs. Carlos Ulberg (205) Sean Brady (170.5) vs. Jake Matthews (169.5) Amanda Lemos (116) vs. Livinha Souza (116) Aalon Cruz (155) vs. Uros Medic (156) Mario Bautista (135.5) vs. Trevin Jones (134.5)* Askarov missed weight by one pound and was fined 20 percent of his purse