UFC Charlotte lost a fight during Friday morning’s official weigh-in.
Cageside Press was on hand in Charlotte, North Carolina for the official weigh-in ahead of Saturday’s ABC card, with the proceeding an orderly affair early on. Just past 9:40AM ET, however, promotion officials announced that “due to weight management issues” with Pete Rodriguez, his lightweight fight with Natan Levy had been cancelled.
Neither fighter actually made it to the scale.
The fight had originally been scheduled as part of the promotion’s April 29, 2023 Fight Night event, only for Rodriguez to withdraw due to an undisclosed illness. Now, just two weeks later, the fight has been scratched for the second time.
“Deadgame” has fought consistently as a welterweight during his pro career, and was making his lightweight debut in the fight against Levy. As an amateur, he competed at middleweight.
Opponent Natan Levy addressed the bout’s cancellation on social media, saying Rodriguez (or “Fat Pete”) “couldn’t get anywhere near” the lightweight limit. “He blew my opportunity to perform, earn a bonus & make history tomorrow. He probably killed his own career. Extremely unprofessional.”
Guys I’m really sorry,
Fight is off, Fat Pete couldn’t get anywhere near the weight.He blew my opportunity to perform, earn a bonus & make history tomorrow, He probably killed his own career.
Extremely unprofessional.Anyone that bought a ticket,
I’m really sorry, I will go… pic.twitter.com/IQCoubcljC— Natan Levy ✡︎ (@Natan_Levy) May 12, 2023
UFC Charlotte (UFC on ABC 4) takes place Saturday, May 13, 2023 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, NC. With the cancellation of Natan Levy vs. Pete Rodriguez, the event features the following 11 match-ups:
- Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Jailton Almeida
- Anthony Smith vs. Johnny Walker
- Daniel Rodriguez vs. Ian Garry
- Carlos Ulberg vs. Ihor Potieria
- Alex Morono vs. Tim Means
- Matt Brown vs. Court McGee
- Karl Williams vs. Chase Sherman
- Cody Stamann vs. Douglas Silva de Andrade
- Kim Ji-yeon vs. Mandy Böhm
- Bryan Battle vs. Gabriel Green
- Jessica-Rose Clark vs. Tainara Lisboa
Update, 10:25AM ET: Natan Levy has shed more light on the situation, revealing that he agreed to catchweights at two separate weights (158lbs and 160lbs) before the fight was called off with Rodriguez a couple of pounds over the catchweight at 162.
Just to be clear, we were scheduled to fight at 155(+1),
They asked for a catchweight so I agreed to fight him at 158, then they asked for 160 and I said Yes. I was about to go weigh in when I heard he was crying and losing his shit and quit at 162.
If you can cry you still got…— Natan Levy ✡︎ (@Natan_Levy) May 12, 2023
