MEXICO CITY – MMA Junkie was on scene and reporting live from Friday’s early and official UFC on ESPN+ 17 fighter weigh-ins, where all but one fighter hit their marks for Saturday’s card.
Yair Rodriguez (11-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) and Jeremy Stephens (28-16 MMA, 15-15 UFC) meet in the featherweight main event. Each fighter was 145 pounds on the nose for the headliner.
In the co-feature former champion Carla Esparza (14-6 MMA, 5-4 UFC) takes on Alexa Grasso (11-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC) at women’s strawweight. Grasso was the first to weigh in during the two-hour window and was 116. Esparza came in at 115.
Only promotional newcomer Vanessa Melo (10-5 MMA, 0-0 UFC) missed weight for her fight against Irene Aldana (10-5 MMA, 3-3 UFC) at women’s bantamweight. Melo was the second to last fighter to weigh in and was 140 pounds. She had well more than an hour left in the weigh-ins period, but likely had dropped all the weight she could. Aldana came in at 135. Aldana agreed to the fight at the new weight, and Melo will be fined 30 percent of her purse.
The early weigh-ins took place at the UFC host hotel in Mexico City. Unlike most UFC events, there are no ceremonial weigh-ins today for the fans ahead of Saturday’s card, which takes place at Mexico City Arena in Mexico City. The card streams on ESPN+.
The full UFC on ESPN+ 17 weigh-in results included:
MAIN CARD (ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET)
- Yair Rodriguez (145) vs. Jeremy Stephens (145)
- Carla Esparza (115) vs. Alexa Grasso (116)
- Askar Askarov (125) vs. Brandon Moreno (124)
- Irene Aldana (135) vs. Vanessa Melo (140)*
- Martin Bravo (144) vs. Steven Peterson (146)
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 5 p.m. ET)
- Carlos Huachin (136) vs. Jose Quinonez (134)
- Kyle Nelson (146) vs. Marco Polo Reyes (145)
- Ariane Carnelossi (112) vs. Angela Hill (115)
- Tyson Nam (126) vs. Sergio Pettis (124)
- Paul Craig (206) vs. Vinicius Moreira (206)
- Bethe Correia (136) vs. Sijara Eubanks (135)
- Marcos Mariano (154) vs. Claudio Puelles (155)
*Melo missed weight and will be fined 30 percent of her fight purse.
