Junior Tafa nearly regretted returning to the octagon so quickly.
The Australian mild heavyweight surpassed his restrict towards Iwo Baraniowski at UFC Vegas 118 and stepped on the size at 206.5 kilos, half a pound heavier, on his first try at Friday’s official weigh-in. After taking off his garments, sitting across the field and weighing himself once more, Tafa nonetheless could not acquire weight.
Nevertheless, Tafa was allowed to weigh in a second time and was in a position to weigh in at 206 kilos on that try.
It must be famous that Tafa accepted the combat towards Baraniowski with simply over two weeks’ discover as a substitute for Billy Elekana, who was absent for undisclosed causes. This shall be Tafa’s second combat in 35 days, having knocked out Kevin Christian at UFC Perth in Could.
The remainder of the principle card was wonderful, together with welterweight headliners Belal Muhammad and Gabriel Bonfim. Each males took benefit of the 1-pound allowance for non-title fights and clocked in at 170.5 kilos.
Muhammad, a former UFC champion, is in determined want of a win after shedding back-to-backs to Ian Machado Garry and Jacques de la Maddalena. Muhammad is at the moment the No. 7 welterweight on the earth MMA preventing rankings, and Bonfim, who’s No. 15, is aiming for that spot.
Bonfim is 4-0 since struggling his solely loss to Nicholas Dalby in November 2023. The Brazilian stands out at 19-1 as an expert, coming off a powerful second-round knockout of Randy Brown in November of final yr, when Bonfim headlined his first UFC occasion.
UFC Vegas 118 co-main occasion middleweights Brendan Allen and Edmen Shahbazyan additionally made it to the weigh-in.
Primary Card (Paramount + 8 p.m. ET)
Belal Muhammad (170.5) vs. Gabriel Bonfim (170.5)
Brendan Allen (185.5) vs. Edmen Shahbazian (186)
Fares Giam (156) vs. Tom Nolan (155)
Bryce Mitchell (135.5) vs. Santiago Luna (136)
Iwo Baraniwski (206) vs. Junior Tafa (206)*
Spare card (paramount+ 5 p.m. ET)
Matt Schnell (129.5) vs. Alessandro Costa (129.5) — 130-pound catchweight match
Marcus McGee (136) vs. John Giannis (136)
Bruno Silva (126) vs. Edgar Chiles (126)
Priscilla Cachoeira (135.5) vs. Chelsea Chandler (135)
Jordan Leavitt (145.5) vs. JoAnderson Brito (145.5)
Jaysla Chavez (124) vs. Eunacy April (125)
Ketlen Souza (116) vs. Ariane Carnerossi (116)
*Preliminary weight was 206.5 lbs, efficiently weighed on second try
