Darren Till’s UFC welterweight contest against US fighter Stephen Thompson will go ahead despite Till failing to make the required weight.
Till was given an extra hour to make the 171lb limit for the headline bout at Liverpool’s Echo Arena.
But despite Till tipping the scales on Saturday morning at 174.5lb, Thompson later agreed to the fight going ahead.
Till must not exceed 188lb at 13:00 BST on Sunday and he must forfeit 30% of his purse to Thompson.
Thompson is the number one-ranked welterweight contender and his fight with Till is Liverpool’s first UFC event.
The American earlier weighted in at 171lbs before Till was given extra time to make the required weight because of a “family emergency”, according to UFC vice president Dave Lewis.
Till had already failed to arrive within the two-hour weigh-in window.
The 25-year-old moved to Brazil to train when he was 19 and Sunday’s fight was set to be his first professional fight on home soil.
He is unbeaten and ranked eighth by the UFC, having won 16 and drawn one of his 17 contests, while 35-year-old Thompson has won 14, drawn one and lost two of his fights on decisions.
Fellow Liverpool fighter and debutant Molly McCann, 28, also missed the 127lb limit for her flyweight fight against 23-year-old Canadian Gillian Robertson by 1lb, having also being given an additional hour.
That fight will also go ahead, subject to a weight restriction being met upon arrival at the arena on Sunday, according to McCann’s manager Graham Boylan.
BBC Three MMA reporter Simon Head said: “Twenty of the 22 fighters on the fight card made the weight successfully for their respective matchups on Sunday.
“But Liverpool’s two participants, welterweight main event star Till and women’s flyweight debutant McCann, both failed to make the weight as the weigh-ins came to a dramatic close.”
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