UFC 325 is down a fight after one contender who has yet to even officially sign with the company tried to trick the scale.

Aaron Tau weighs in behind the curtain for UFC 325, with red circle showing where he leaned his elbow against the curtain

Flyweight Aaron Tau was due to face Namsrai Batbayar in the finals of Road to UFC, which doubled as a prelim for tomorrow’s event in Sydney. And he almost got away with an old veteran’s move made famous by the legendary Daniel Cormier.

Unfortunately, such a risky move didn’t pay off as he leaned on the curtain that is used to allow fighters to weigh in naked, and took too much pressure off his elbows. As a result, he ended up coming in considerably underweight, and was forced to weigh-in again where he showed up way over the limit.

UFC 325 fight cancelled as fighter fails to trick commission with weigh-in scheme

As a result of Saturday night’s fight being in Sydney, UFC 325 weigh-ins were held on Friday morning local time, which meant essentially overnight for American viewers. Headliners Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes made weight early, and with 25 minutes to go there was just one man left.

Little-known 11-1 flyweight Aaron Tau, whose sole loss came in his effort on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2024, arrived to the scales as the final fighter to make weight. Nobody else missed, and it looked as though he had made it as he used the curtain to arrive under weight.

Unfortunately, it became clear that he had done something dodgy, as despite taking the longest time of anyone on the card to weigh-in, he ended up being 2.5lb under the 125lb limit. The commission made him go again, at which point it was revealed he was actually 129lb.

The fight, which technically would have counted towards Road to UFC and was not an official debut for the promotion, was quickly cancelled.

Daniel Cormier infamously did con his way into title fight with weigh-in cheat

Back in 2017, Daniel Cormier was heading into his second defence of the light-heavyweight world title against Anthony Johnson. The former Olympic wrestler had opted to move down from heavyweight in order to allow his teammate Cain Velasquez to have a clear run at that belt.

However, Cormier always struggled to make the 205lb limit. And on April 7, the day of UFC 210 weigh-ins, he hadn’t quite got there, as he tipped the scale at 206.2lb before returning for a second chance.

Somehow, he managed to hit the 205lb limit within moments of having missed, and the fight was made official. He later admitted that he placed his hands lightly on the towel that was being held up to protect his modesty, which was an old scam he had learned in his wrestling days.