UFC 206 has gone through a number of changes since the pay-per-view event was first announced. With the fighters officially weighing in on Friday morning, it appears the changes aren't done coming.
The original headline fight for UFC 206 was supposed to be a light heavyweight bout between Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson for the title. However, officials scrapped that match after Cormier withdrew due to injury.
The main event was then made to be a match between Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway for the interim featherweight title. The match was made an interim title bout after the UFC stripped champion Conor McGregor of his featherweight title and made interim champion Jose Aldo the official champion.
However, Pettis missed weight by three pounds on Friday, coming in at 148. Holloway weighed in at exactly 145 pounds, the threshold for the featherweight division.
Anthony Pettis is the first fighter to miss weight for a UFC championship bout since Travis Lutter at UFC 67 in February 2007.
— Mike Bohn (@MikeBohnMMA) December 9, 2016
The UFC has announced that Holloway will still have an opportunity to win the interim belt against Pettis, per ESPN.com's Brett Okamoto:
Per Dana White, it is still an interim title fight for Max Holloway.
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) December 9, 2016
While this development robs the pay-per-view event of some of its luster, there are still some interesting storylines and a slew of great matches that make the card worth watching. Let's dig into the latest odds, courtesy of OddsShark, and some of the pre-fight hype following weigh-ins.
UFC 206
Date: Saturday, December 10
Time: 10 p.m. ET
TV: UFC PPV
Preliminary Card: Fox Sports 1
Tickets: Ticketmaster.com
| Fight | Weight Class | Odds | Prediction |
| Max Holloway vs. Anthony Pettis | Catchweight | Holloway -235 | Holloway |
| Donald Cerrone vs. Matt Brown | Welterweight | Cerrone -265 | Cerrone |
| Cub Swanson vs. Doo Ho Choi | Featherweight | Choi -225 | Choi |
| Tim Kennedy vs. Kelvin Gastelum | Middleweight | Kennedy -140 | Kennedy |
| Jordan Mein Emil Meek | Welterweight | Mein -155 | Meek |
Latest Buzz
Holloway Still Gets a Shot
The biggest news coming out of weigh-ins is obviously that Pettis missed weight. The good news for Holloway, though, is that he still gets a crack at the interim featherweight title.
To Holloway, the fact that this is only an interim title fight doesn't really matter.
"I’m going to call it what it is," Holloway said, per Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports. "I’ll have a gold belt and I’ll be the world champion."
Presumably, Holloway would face Aldo in a future bout to unify the featherweight titles. To some degree, this means the main event still carries a degree of championship weight. If Pettis wins, though, he'll be getting nothing other than respect.
Wait, if Pettis does miss weight & then beats Max Holloway, there won't be an interim featherweight champion
How will the division go on!
— Seán Sheehan (@SeanSheehanBA) December 9, 2016
Did McGregor Deserve to be Stripped?
The UFC's official stance is that McGregor willingly relinquished the featherweight title.
"I didn't strip him of anything, do you know what I mean?" UFC President Dana White said during an interview on the UFC Unfiltered podcast (via the Daily Star). "I said everyday leading up to that fight he had to give up one of those belts. What do you think that I just went 'Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, I pick the 145-pound belt.' No, he gave up the 145-pound title."
Realistically, it seems like White it trying to talk around the fact that he did indeed strip McGregor of the title. While McGregor may have been given a choice of which belt to drop, he wasn't given the option of defending both.
For some, this is the way the situation should have been handled.
"They should have stripped Conor a long time ago," Cub Swanson told Mike Bohn and Ken Hathaway of MMAjunkie. "It’s absolutely ridiculous. I see what they were trying to do with him being a two-division champ, but they should have done that right away."
Others, including Pettis, believe that taking the title away from McGregor doesn't take away from the fact that he is a two-division champion.
"How can you [say anything about it]?" Pettis said, per Patrick McCarry of Sports Joe. "The world saw what he did. How can you erase the world's memory of what he did?"
There are undoubtedly plenty of MMA fans out there who agree with Pettis' assessment.
The God of Combat Sports clearly wants Conor McGregor to be the featherweight champion. Let's never speak of stripping him again. #ufc206 pic.twitter.com/X27DjHRp4q
— Jonathan Snowden (@JESnowden) December 9, 2016
Pettis Not the Only One to Miss Weight
While Pettis was the only fighter scheduled for the main card to miss weight, he wasn't the only fighter to come in over limit on Friday.
Rustam Khabilov stepped on the scale weighing 158 pounds, over the limit for his lightweight bout Jason Saggo. The fight will go on as a catchweight bout on the UFC Fight Pass preliminary card.
Women's strawweight Valerie Letourneau also came in overweight for her fight against Viviane Pereira, which has a 116-pound limit. This match also becomes a catchweight bout and will take place during the preliminary card on Fox Sports 1.
According to MMA Weekly (via Yahoo Sports), Khabilov and Letourneau will reportedly each be fined 20 percent of their respective fight purses, as is the case for Pettis.
