UFC Vegas 101 is a go for Saturday, January 11, in Las Vegas at the Apex. While every 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 missed weight rather egregiously. Potieria was two pounds over the middleweight limit, and Johnson missed 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 is moving forward as a catchweight.
Johnson was fined 20 percent of his purse, and those funds will go to his opponent, Felipe Bunes. Their fight will be a catchweight bout as well.
Thankfully, the main event rematch between Mackenzie Dern and Amanda Ribas is intact as both women made the strawweight limit successfully.
Here is a look at the entire card, including 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)
- (*Missed weight)
To put things plainly, both Potieria and Johnson are in dangerous spots as it pertains to their UFC careers. Weight misses and underwhelming performances in the Octagon are usually part of the trail leading up to a fighter’s release.
Johnson, who is the rare 6-footer attempting to compete at flyweight, missed weight for the first time in his UFC career. That said, Johnson is attempting to drop to 125 pounds after previously competing at bantamweight.
Johnson earned a spot on the UFC’s roster as a bantamweight in August 2022 on the Dana White Contender Series. Including that roster-making victory 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 hard-charging contender Asu Almabayev. Johnson lost that fight by unanimous decision, setting up the scrap on Saturday with Bunes.
Win or lose on Saturday, Johnson is going to have to decide whether he should continue to put himself through the strain of making 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 earned his spot on the roster with a win on the Contender Series over Łukasz Sudolski in September 2021. That win came as a light heavyweight.
After being knocked out in his main roster debut by Nicolae Negumereanu, Potieria picked up a win over a washed-up Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in January 2023. Since then, Potieria has lost four of five fights, been finished in all but one of those defeats, and has now missed weight twice as he’s tried to transition to middleweight.
If there were ever a fighter in a must-win situation on Saturday, it’s Potieria. If Potieria loses to Tulio on Saturday, don’t be surprised if he is released next week.
Be on the lookout for more UFC coverage on Saturday night as we welcome back the No. 1 MMA promotion in the world after a three-week hiatus.
