Kiwi mixed martial artist Aaron Tau will not get the chance to fight for a UFC contract on Sunday after weighing in above the flyweight limit.
The 32-year-old was scheduled to compete in the Road To UFC flyweight final against Mongolian Namsrai Batbayar in Sydney. The bout was to open the UFC 325 event and the winner would have earned a contract with the promotion.
Tau, the last fighter on the card to weigh in, tipped the scales 3lbs (1.3kg) above the division’s 156lbs (57.1kg) limit and the bout was subsequently cancelled.
There was some controversy around the weigh-in. Tau initially weighed in behind the curtain - a privacy device brought out to allow a fighter to be naked as they stand on the scale - however an initial reading came in surprisingly light at 122.5lbs (55.5kg).
The Kiwi fighter was then asked to step on the scales again without the privacy screen, and showed a much higher reading.
On the UFC Morning Weigh-in show, former and current UFC athletes Robert Whittaker, Chris Weidman and Michael Chiesa, and host Dan Hellie tried to make sense of the initial reading, suggesting Tau might have rested his arms on the curtain to manipulate the scales in his advantage.
It’s a major blow for Tau in what was his second chance at securing a UFC contract after coming up short against American Elijah Smith in Dana White’s Contender Series in 2024.
Tau, who fought the majority of his career up a division at bantamweight (61.2kg) and has fought professionally as high as featherweight (65.7kg), dropped down to flyweight following the loss to Smith.
It was the first time in his career that Tau had missed weight, including three previous fights at flyweight.
Chiesa noted it might be a hard one to come back from, particularly if Tau had tried to cheat the scales behind the curtain, given UFC boss White was critical of his loss in the Contender Series.
“That’s really unfortunate because he had two great showings ... and he made weight in a relatively close span of time, so I’m really curious as to why he didn’t make weight for this fight,” Chiesa said on the broadcast.
“Essentially, the biggest fight of his life, his last shot to get to the UFC and let’s remember, he wasn’t Dana White’s favourite fighter. He had this great fight with Elijah Smith but Dana didn’t like the antics so he really needed to make the weight and go out and put on a big show to punch his ticket to the UFC.
“I’m really curious what happened.”
While Tau will not get to compete, his teammates from Auckland’s City Kickboxing gym will be in action after successfully making weight.
Bantamweight Lawrence Lui will compete for a UFC contract in his own Road To UFC final - which is expected to open the event following Tau’s fight being cancelled.
Middleweight Cameron Rowston, fighting in his hometown, will look to follow up an impressive knockout win on debut when he takes on American veteran Cody Brundage.
In the co-main event, No 6-ranked lightweight Dan Hooker will look to defend his place in the rankings against No 8 Benoit Saint Denis.
Main card
Main event: Alexander Volkanovski (c) v Diego Lopes (2) for the UFC featherweight championship
Lightweight: Dan Hooker (6) v Benoit Saint Denis (8)
Lightweight: Rafael Fiziev (9) v Mauricio Ruffy (14)
Heavyweight: Tai Tuivasa (12) v Tallison Teixeira (15)
Lightweight: Quillan Salkilld v Jamie Mullarkey
Preliminary card
Light heavyweight: Junior Tafa v Billy Elekana
Middleweight: Cam Rowston v Cody Brundage
Middleweight: Jacob Malkoun v Torrez Finney
Welterweight: Jonathan Micallef v Oban Elliott
Early prelims
Featherweight: Kaan Ofli v Yizha
Road To UFC final match-ups will also appear on the early prelims, including NZ’s Lawrence Lui.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.