Jordan Leavitt shared his thoughts on Charles Oliveira being forced to vacate his title at UFC 274.
Earlier in May, “do Bronx” was stripped of his lightweight title after coming in half a pound over the championship limit. Some other fighters on the card had also stepped in over the limit, and alleged that the scale was tampered with in between the practice and official weigh-ins.
Along with other notable controversial weigh-ins including that of Daniel Cormier, and Khabib Nurmagomedov, Leavitt made a strong point in favor of Oliveira.
Jordan Leavitt talks about Charles Oliveira being stripped of his title
In an interview with The Schmo & Helen Yee, Jordan Leavitt talked about Charles Oliveira being forced to vacate his title at UFC 274. He brought up previous suspicious weigh-ins to add weight to his argument for “do Bronx”.
“I understand. But “DC” cheated. Then, even for Khabib’s last weigh-in, it was a milli second, like not even a full second, 155 (lbs), and they kind of just kicked everybody off the scale. So, I don’t know it seems a bit unfair considering they haven’t set like, it’s been kind of muddy with how they’ve been doing it historically.
“I just think if he was an English speaking champ that was more popular here I don’t think it would have even been an issue. I think they would’ve brought the towel a little closer, they could’ve figured it out.”
Roxanne Modafferi & Leavitt on open scoring
Leavitt was joined by teammate Roxanne Modafferi for the podcast interview, and both were in agreement in favor of open scoring. Leavitt strongly suggested its implementation.
“Yeah, heck yeah, 100 percent… This isn’t the era of lay and pray where we could lay on someone and exert no pressure and they’re like, ‘you can’t stall at somebody who’s trying to kill you. If you’re stopping them from killing you, you’re not stalling by definition. If someone’s swinging big bombs at me and I’m evading them, you can’t stall in MMA anymore.”
When asked about whether athletes might stall knowing they’re ahead on the scorecards, Modafferi responded to the contrary.
“I don’t think so. The fighter already have their idea of who’s winning, right? This is just confirming it but they’re still going to fight hard.”
Leavitt shares his thoughts on Alex Volkanovski eyeing double champ status
UFC featherweight king Alex Volkanovski was dominant in his latest showing to put a decisive end to his trilogy with Max Holloway at UFC 276. He’s been eyeing a move up to 155 lbs and joining the mega exclusive ‘champ-champ’ club.
While “The Monkey King” did have some doubts about Volkanovski’s potential move up, he did back him to achieve it over others who’ve expressed a similar sentiment.
“I believe Volk is pound for pound number one but even at his weight class for his frame, he’s very short even if he has a reach advantage. When you’re (5 ft 5 in) and you’re punching up you don’t have a reach advantage anymore and I feel like he’s never really faced any strong grapplers except for Mendes and Mendes got him down and held his back for the majority of the round.”
“I’ve trained with him, amazing athlete. If anyone could do it, I think it could be him. All these other champions who kind of flirt the idea of being double champ, I don’t think it’s realistic for anybody but for Volk.”
Jordan Leavitt will take on Paddy Pimblett at UFC London on July 23.
