All four championship competitors successfully made weight Friday in Las Vegas, rendering both UFC 323 title fights official.
Dominant men’s bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili made weight for the fourth time this year as he seeks a fourth consecutive defence in 2025. The 34-year-old from Georgia stepped on the scale at an even 135 pounds ahead of his rematch with Petr Yan, who was also 135 on the dot.
Dvalishvili defeated Yan via unanimous decision in a five-round non-title bout more than 2.5 years ago and has won 14 fights in a row overall. Yan, a former champion, has won three straight since losing to Dvalishvili.
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Watch UFC 323 on Sportsnet+
Merab Dvalishvili defends his bantamweight title against Petr Yan and flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja faces Joshua Van in the co-main event. Watch UFC 323 on Saturday, Dec. 6, with prelim coverage beginning 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, and pay-per-view main card starting at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT.
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“It’s always the same. It’s never easy,” Dvalishvili said of his weight cut during an appearance on Sportsnet’s live weigh-in show. “Every fight is different but I do want to finish him and out-strike him. I’m much better now everywhere (compared to our first fight). It’s going to be a great fight. A great scrap.”
Men’s flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja weighed 125 pounds, and his challenger Joshua Van came in with a half-pound to spare at 124.5 pounds.
Pantoja, 35, will be going for his fifth consecutive title defence against Van, 24, who is 8-1 in the UFC since debuting just two years ago and riding a five-fight winning streak.
Van is the first fighter born in the 2000s to contend for a UFC title and averages more significant strikes per minute than any fighter in UFC history.
Former two-weight world champion Henry Cejudo is set for his retirement fight. He made the non-title bantamweight limit of 136 pounds, as did his opponent, Payton Talbott.
Maycee Barber made the flyweight limit without any issues as the 27-year-old returns for the first time since March of 2024. Barber has been dealing with prolonged, unspecified health issues and she withdrew from a Fight Night main event in late May against Erin Blanchfield literally minutes before she was scheduled to walk to the cage. Barber is the No. 5-ranked contender at 125 pounds and can inch closer to a women’s flyweight title shot with a good showing against Karine Silva on Saturday.
It was not all smooth sailing on Friday, though, with Brunno Ferreira missing the non-title middleweight limit by three pounds, stepping on the scale at 189 pounds ahead of his scheduled bout with one-time title challenger Marvin Vettori.
Mairon Santos, the season 32 featherweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter, also missed weight. He was a pound and a half overweight for his preliminary card opener against Muhammad Naimov.
Ferreira will be fined 20 per cent of his purse and his bout with Vettori will proceed. Santos will also forfeit 20 per cent of his purse and the fight will remain on the card.
Below are the official weigh-in results for UFC 323:
— Merab Dvalishvili (135) vs. Petr Yan (135)
— Alexandre Pantoja (125) vs. Joshua Van (124.5)
— Brandon Moreno (125) vs. Tatsuro Taira (126)
— Henry Cejudo (136) vs. Payton Talbott (136)
— Jan Blachowicz (206) vs. Bogdan Guskov (206)
— Grant Dawson (156) vs. Manuel Torres (156)
— Terrance McKinney (156) vs. Chris Duncan (156)
— Maycee Barber (125.5) vs. Karine Silva (125.5)
— Nazim Sadykhov (155.5) vs. Fares Ziam (156)
— Marvin Vettori (186) vs. Brunno Ferreira (189)*
— Edson Barboza (155.5) vs. Jalin Turner (155)
— Iwo Baraniewski (206) vs. Ibo Aslan (205.5)
— Mansur Abdul-Malik (185.5) vs. Antonio Trocoli (186)
— Muhammad Naimov (146) vs. Mairon Santos (147.5)*
