Christopher Ewert can no longer call himself a UFC fighter after his no-show at the UFC 317 weigh-in.
Ewert (7-0-0) was slated to make his UFC debut against Jackson McVey (6-0-0) on Saturday in a middleweight bout that was meant to open UFC 317 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. However, Ewert was nowhere to be found on Friday during the ceremonial weigh-in held a day before the event.
The UFC announced during the weigh-in show that Ewert had missed weight by 10 pounds over the 185-pound limit for middleweights. Ewert was immediately cut from the promotion.
🚨| BREAKING: Christopher Ewert vs. Jackson McVey is OFF #UFC317 on June 28th. ❌
— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) June 27, 2025
Ewert was ten pounds overweight, and has been cut from the promotion, per the weigh-in show. pic.twitter.com/FKZPgZlb3O
The story is more complicated than it sounds. The UFC signed Ewert and plugged him into the UFC 317 card on less than a week’s notice after McVey’s original opponent, Sedriques Dumas, was scratched due to legal issues.
Ewert reportedly got the call to fill in for Dumas in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, giving him just three full days to prepare. Ewert was said to have weighed 217 pounds at that point and underwent a combination of a crash diet, sauna sessions, and continuous workouts in an attempt to make weight. The idea that he supposedly lost 22 points in such a spart span is equal parts concerning and impressive.
Re: Christopher Ewert whose #UFC317 fight was canceled earlier today:
— Nolan King (@mma_kings) June 28, 2025
His coach Javier Torres tells me Ewert got the UFC call at 1:30 on Tuesday. He weighed 217 then and got down to 195 between fight week obligations.
Eventually, his body stopped cooperating and the remaining… pic.twitter.com/n4NHsyzsQF
Getting fired for failing to make weight with just days to prepare is a tough fate, especially for a fighter eager to make his UFC debut. The UFC may have felt like his camp should not have accepted in the first place, given how far Ewert was from the target weight.
Ewert was previously scheduled to participate in Dana White’s Contender Series in August. It remains to be seen if the promotion will still give Ewert a shot to fight on the show, which serves as a stepping stone to make the UFC.
