UFC veteran Jake O’Brien did not weigh in for his scheduled light heavyweight tournament bout against Gegard Mousasi. The fighter was present at the weigh in event, but did not step on the scale, because he was reportedly still making weight.

After the weigh in, Sherdog’s Tony Loiseleur interviewed former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez about the possibility to step in for O’Brien. Rodriguez said to Loiseleur, “There’s also been talks of fighting Gegard Mousasi, and making 205 or 208.” He continued, “the only thing that would suck is that if I were to fight Gegard, I’d have to cut the weight now and I might not make it.”

Dream has a history of giving fighters ample time to make weight. Hayato Sakurai was giving almost the entire night in order to make weight for the second round of Dream’s welterweight tournament last year.

O’Brien began his career as a heavyweight, going 7-0 and earning a shot in the UFC. He won his first three fights under the Zuffa banner, but then dropped back-to-back fights to Andrei Arlovski and Cain Velasquez. He then dropped the light heavyweight division and went 1-1 in the promotion before he received his release. Since leaving the UFC, O’Brien has put together back-to-back wins against Dave Hess and Toni Valtonen.

All other fighters made weight for Dream 15. The card will take place early Saturday morning, 3:00 am EST, and it will air live in North America of HDNet.

One thought on “Jake O’Brien misses weight at Dream 15, Rodriguez a possible replacement”

Leave a Reply