Three Months Into The 'Catchweight' Superfight, UFC BJJ Still Can't Name The Weight

It's been three months. Nobody at UFC BJJ can name the weight.

In February, the promotion announced Arman Tsarukyan vs Mikey Musumeci as a superfight. The weight was listed as "catchweight." The specific number was not given. Musumeci is the UFC BJJ bantamweight champion at 135 pounds. Tsarukyan is the UFC's #2-ranked lightweight contender, a fighter who cuts to 155 pounds on fight night and walks around at something north of 170. The gap between these two men is 30 to 50 pounds. This is not a subtle difference. This is the difference between a bantamweight and a welterweight.

For three months, that weight has been the entire controversy. Not whether the fight should happen. Not whether Musumeci would accept. Not whether Tsarukyan would agree. The controversy, the one thing every grappler and every MMA fan has asked since February, is: what is the catchweight?

Three months later, nobody at UFC BJJ has answered.

What The Promotion Has Said

Asked directly about the catchweight, Dana White shrugged the question over to Claudia Gadelha and said that if she wanted it done, she'd get it done. Gadelha, UFC's Senior Director of BJJ, told the press: "I talked to Arman last week, he wants to do it."

Note what is missing from both of those answers. Neither one contains a number.

Dana White, a man who knows the weight of every fighter in every title fight at every UFC event, passed the question to Gadelha. Gadelha confirmed that Tsarukyan wants to do it but declined to specify what "it" weighed. What got done, specifically? The announcement. What hasn't been done, three months later, is the one thing anyone asked about.

There are only 45 possible numbers between 125 and 170. The promotion has somehow chosen none of them.

What The Promotion Has Not Said

Three months on, the fight is still listed on the UFC BJJ calendar as "targeting August." Not a date. Not a card. Not a venue. "Targeting." Which is promoter language for "we mentioned it once and now we're hoping you forgot."

The weight, three months later, is still listed as "catchweight." Which is promoter language for "we don't want to tell you."

The cited reason for the delay: Hunter Campbell's schedule.

Hunter Campbell is the UFC's Chief Business Officer. He handles deal structure. His schedule is not, and has never been, a weight scale. You can name a catchweight without Hunter Campbell's calendar. Fighters do it on Twitter. Fans do it on podcasts. A competent matchmaker can do it in about four minutes, assuming they can count.

Meanwhile, The Title Defense

While the superfight sits in perpetual "targeting," Musumeci is booked to defend his 135-pound title against Kevin Dantzler on May 21 at UFC BJJ 8, live and free on YouTube from the APEX in Las Vegas. Dantzler's most recent high-profile grappling loss was a 13-0 Pan No-Gi shutout, to a purple-belt teammate. Not a stranger. Not a rival. His own training partner, one belt below him, hung thirteen points on him without taking a single one back.

The grappling community has coined a description for this booking: "hydrogen bomb versus coughing baby." That isn't being unkind. That is being accurate about a matchup where the world's best bantamweight grappler is being fed an opponent whose last grappling camp produced a 13-0 loss to a purple belt he trains with every day.

Stop here. UFC BJJ is currently marketing two bookings for the same fighter:

1. A title defense against a man who just got shut out 13-0 by a purple belt teammate. 2. A superfight against a man 35 pounds heavier whose weight is, three months in, still undefined.

One booking is too easy. The other is, on paper, impossible. The promotion has somehow found the exactly wrong calibration in both directions, simultaneously, for the same champion.

What The Promotion Has Specified

There is one thing UFC BJJ has nailed down with precision. Both bookings, the Dantzler title defense and the Tsarukyan superfight, lead their marketing with Musumeci's T-shirt line.

The T-shirts have a price. The price is specified. The price is on the website. The price is on the Instagram post. The price is on the pre-match graphics.

The fight has no weight. The card has no confirmed venue. The champion has no credible challenger at his own weight class, and no credible rules structure for a fight 35 pounds above it.

But the T-shirts are $34.99.

Three Months Of This

The promotion has had three months to call Musumeci's team, call Tsarukyan's team, split the difference, announce 155, announce 145, announce "this is a grappling match, we're doing 140 and moving on." Three months to define the one thing everyone has been asking about.

They have instead spent three months releasing updates announcing that the fight is still on the calendar. They have released updates announcing that the fight is still targeting August. They have released updates announcing that they are still working on it. What they have not released, three months in, is the number.

Fighters train for a number. A camp is built around a number. Nutrition plans that cost thousands of dollars and run for months do not operate on "catchweight, TBD." You cannot cut for "we'll get back to you." If UFC BJJ is planning to actually run this fight in August, and neither fighter has a confirmed weight, then neither fighter is in a real camp. Which means the promotion is either lying about August or lying about the fight.

Either way, three months in, the one question anyone has asked about this booking is the one question the promotion has chosen not to answer.

Pick a number. Any number. The fans have been waiting since February.

This post was generated by AI. Sources are linked below. Follow @bjj-problems on YouTube for the weekly video digest.

Sources

• Confirmed: Arman Tsarukyan vs. Mikey Musumeci In The Works For UFC BJJ
• UFC BJJ confirm Arman Tsarukyan has agreed to face bantamweight champion following callout
• UFC BJJ Is Postponing Musumeci Vs Tsarukyan BJJ Match
• UFC BJJ 8: Mikey Musumeci To Defend UFC BJJ Title Against Kevin Dantzler
• UFC BJJ 8: Musumeci vs Dantzler Fight Card
• Dana White Praises Tsarukyan, But Warns 'Don't Be a Maniac'