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On the UFC 280 preliminary card, Lucas Almeida and Zubaira Tukhugov were slated to square off. However, the UFC had already stated that the Russian fighter would not be participating in the card due to "weight management difficulties."
There have been numerous fights canceled for this particular event. Along with Marina Rodriguez, Magomed Mustafaev, and Shamil Abdurakhimov, Zubaira's battle has now also been postponed. Every fighter on the PPV card made weight, with the exception of Katlyn Chookagian, who weighed in at 127.5 pounds for her flyweight match. She was 1.5 pounds off the mark.
There was a lot of anticipation in the weigh-in because Charles Oliveira missed weight in his previous bout against Justin Gaethje at UFC 274. Both main-event competitors made weight, with Oliveira weighing in at 154.5 pounds and Makhachev at 154.5 pounds, which will please fans. Both Aljamain Sterling and TJ Dillashaw weighed 135 pounds for the co-main event.
Sean O'Malley and Petr Yan square off in the other important match on the schedule. O'Malley entered the ring at 135.5 pounds, while the former champion tipped the scales at the bantamweight limit of 136 pounds.
Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov are teammates with Zubaira Tukhugov. As a result, he got the chance to make an impression on a PPV bill that included the main event between some of his closest pals. Tukhugov, though, has previously struggled to maintain his weight. When competing at featherweight against Hakeem Dawodu at UFC 253, the fighter failed to make weight.
Since September 2020, Zubaira only had one fight in almost two years. But not only injuries and weight cutting, but Tukhugov was also pulled out of his fight against Tiago Trator by UFC as he failed a drug test, for which he served a 2-year suspension. He was also involved in the UFC 229 brawl which saw Team Khabib and Team Conor McGregor going at it after the event.