2 fighters miss their weight and are fined

UFC Vegas 101 takes place on Saturday, January 11th at the Apex in Las Vegas. While each fight is scheduled to take place, two fighters on the card will be fined a percentage of their purse for missing weight.

Both Ihor Potieria and Jose Johnson have lost quite a bit of weight. Potieria weighed two pounds over the middleweight limit and Johnson missed the weight by 2.5 pounds.

Potieria will be fined 25 percent of his purse, and that money will go to his opponent Marco Tulio. Their fight proceeds as a catchweight.

Johnson was fined 20 percent of his purse, and those funds will go to his opponent Felipe Bunes. Their fight will also be a catchweight bout.

Luckily, the main event rematch between Mackenzie Dern and Amanda Ribas is intact as both women successfully made the strawweight limit.

Here’s a look at the entire card, including the weigh-in results:

• Mackenzie Dern (116) vs. Amanda Ribas (116)
• Santiago Ponzinibbio (171) vs. Carlston Harris (170)
• Abdul Razak Alhassan (185.5) vs. Cesar Almeida (185.5)
• Chris Curtis (185.5) vs. Roman Kopylov (185.5)
• Christian Rodriguez (145) vs. Austin Bashi (145.5)
• Uros Medic (171) vs. Punahele Soriano (171)
• Jose Johnson (128.5)* vs. Felipe Bunes (126)
• Marco Tulio (185.5) vs. Ihor Potieria (188)*
• Thiago Moises (155.5) vs. Trey Ogden (155.5)
• Preston Parsons (171) vs. Jacobe Smith (170.5)
• Ernesta Kareckaite (126) vs. Nicolle Caliari (125.5)
• Magomed Gadzhiyasulov (205) vs. Bruno Lopes (205.5)
• Fatima Kline (116) vs Viktoriia Dudakova (116)
• Nurullo Aliev (155.5) vs. Joe Solecki (155)
• (*Missing weight)

To be clear, both Potieria and Johnson are in dangerous situations when it comes to their UFC careers. Weight misses and disappointing performances in the Octagon are usually part of the path that leads to a fighter’s release.

Johnson, the rare 6-footer attempting to compete at flyweight, has lost weight for the first time in his UFC career. However, Johnson is trying to cut down to 125 pounds after previously competing at bantamweight.

Johnson secured a spot on the UFC’s roster at the Dana White Contender Series in August 2022 as a bantamweight. Including his roster-clinching win over Jack Cartwright, Johnson compiled a 2-1 record as a bantamweight in the UFC.

However, in June 2024, Johnson dropped down to flyweight to face strong contender Asu Almabayev. Johnson lost that fight via unanimous decision and was preparing to fight Bunes on Saturday.

Win or lose Saturday: Johnson will have to decide whether to continue putting himself through the strain of gaining 125 pounds. The combination of another loss in the Octagon and a failure to make weight could be his ticket to release.

Potieria’s predicament is perhaps a little more desperate.

Like Johnson, Potieria secured his spot on the roster with a Contender Series win over Łukasz Sudolski in September 2021. That win came at light heavyweight.

After being eliminated in his debut on the main roster by Nicolae Negumereanu, Potieria earned a victory over the struggling Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in January 2023. Since then, Potieria has lost four of five fights, coming to a close in all but one of those defeats, and has now missed weight twice while trying to move up to middleweight.

If ever there was a fighter who needed to win on Saturday, it’s Potieria. If Potieria loses to Tulio on Saturday, don’t be surprised if he gets fired next week.

Look out for more UFC coverage on Saturday night as we welcome the return of the world’s No. 1 MMA promotion after a three-week break.