Every UFC bout is booked at a weight, and both fighters have to prove on a scale the day before that they made it. UFC.com says the promotion currently has 12 weight classes, eight for men and four for women. The limits are the same ones set out in the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, the rulebook published by the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports (ABC), which was last amended in August 2025. The rulebook has more classes than the UFC uses.
Every UFC division and its limit
| Division | Limit | Non-title bouts |
|---|---|---|
| Strawweight (women) | 115 lb (52.2 kg) | up to 116 lb |
| Flyweight (men and women) | 125 lb (56.7 kg) | up to 126 lb |
| Bantamweight (men and women) | 135 lb (61.2 kg) | up to 136 lb |
| Featherweight (men) | 145 lb (65.8 kg) | up to 146 lb |
| Lightweight (men) | 155 lb (70.3 kg) | up to 156 lb |
| Welterweight (men) | 170 lb (77.1 kg) | up to 171 lb |
| Middleweight (men) | 185 lb (83.9 kg) | up to 186 lb |
| Light heavyweight (men) | 205 lb (93.0 kg) | up to 206 lb |
| Heavyweight (men) | 265 lb (120.2 kg) | up to 266 lb |
Each number is a ceiling. Nothing stops a fighter from weighing less, and some do: at UFC 325 in January 2026, Alexander Volkanovski weighed 144.5 pounds for his featherweight title fight with Diego Lopes. Most fighters still aim to land right on the limit. UFC.com puts it this way: coming in at the mark keeps the weight cut as small as possible while still making the number.
The men's divisions
The UFC has eight men's classes, from flyweight at 125 pounds to heavyweight at 265. The steps between them are not even. From flyweight to lightweight each class is 10 pounds heavier than the one below. Then the jumps widen: 15 pounds to welterweight, 15 more to middleweight, 20 to light heavyweight and 60 to heavyweight. The UFC has no cruiserweight, so its heavyweight division takes everyone above light heavyweight, up to 265. At UFC 331 in Los Angeles on September 19, 2026, the two heavyweight bouts show how wide that is: Gable Steveson weighed 240 and Sean Sharaf 241, while Tai Tuivasa came in at 264.5 and Robelis Despaigne at 263.
There is no men's strawweight. The UFC uses the 115-pound class for women only, so it is the one division without a men's version.
The women's divisions
Women fight at strawweight (115), flyweight (125) and bantamweight (135) on a regular basis, and each of those has a champion and a ranked top 15 on UFC.com. The fourth class in UFC.com's count of 12 is women's featherweight at 145 pounds. The division still has a page on UFC.com, but on September 22, 2026 the official rankings had no women's featherweight table, and the newest item on the division page was a year old. Norma Dumont, who used to fight at 145 in the UFC, is now ranked in the women's bantamweight top five on both of UFC.com's ranking lists.
The one-pound allowance and title fights
For a non-title bout, UFC.com says fighters get one pound of allowance above the limit. A lightweight can weigh 156 and still be on weight. At UFC 331, Arman Tsarukyan weighed 156 for his lightweight fight with Mauricio Ruffy, who came in at 155, and Marlon Vera weighed 136 for a bantamweight bout. Both were inside the allowance.
Title fights get no allowance. Both fighters must be at or under the exact limit, which is why Joshua Van and Alexandre Pantoja each weighed exactly 125 for their flyweight title fight at the same event. Missing that number has cost champions and challengers before. In 2020, Deiveson Figueiredo weighed 127.5 for a flyweight title fight with Joseph Benavidez, 2.5 pounds over. The bout went ahead, but only Benavidez could win the belt. Figueiredo won the fight and the title stayed vacant. At UFC 274, champion Charles Oliveira weighed 155.5 for his lightweight title defense against Justin Gaethje, half a pound over, and UFC.com records that he lost the title because of it.
What happens when a fighter misses weight
UFC official weigh-ins take place the day before the fights, between 9 and 11 a.m. local time. Depending on the athletic commission in charge and how far off the fighter is, someone who misses on the first try may get up to one more hour to make the limit. If they still miss, UFC.com lists three outcomes: the fighter forfeits a percentage of their purse to the opponent, the two sides agree to a catchweight bout, or the fight is cancelled.
The ABC rules set some limits on catchweights. When a catchweight is agreed in the contract, there is no spread allowance as long as both fighters are under the agreed number, and a commission can refuse the bout if it thinks the difference in size is a safety risk. When a miss leaves the two fighters in different weight classes, the heavier one may be no more than five pounds heavier than the lighter one.
Classes in the rulebook that the UFC does not use
The ABC table has 15 weight classes. Besides the nine limits the UFC uses, it lists atomweight (up to 105 pounds), super lightweight (165), super welterweight (175), super middleweight (195), cruiserweight (225) and super heavyweight (over 265). Under that table heavyweight runs from over 225 up to 265, so a UFC heavyweight at 240 is a heavyweight by either measure, while a 215-pound UFC heavyweight would be a cruiserweight in a promotion that used the full list.
The classes in between matter because they fill the UFC's widest gaps. A 165 or 175-pound class would split the 15-pound steps around welterweight, and cruiserweight would split the 60-pound jump from light heavyweight to heavyweight. The UFC has kept its eight men's divisions anyway, so fighters in those gaps pick the class above or cut down to the one below.
Weight class also sets who can be ranked where. The rankings are kept per division, and a fighter can appear in more than one at a time, which we cover in how UFC rankings work. The day-by-day run-up to the scale is in our UFC fight week guide, and every upcoming card is on our UFC schedule.
