Ismael Bonfim stepped on the scale Friday in Las Vegas and the number came back 163.5 pounds. That’s 7.5 pounds over the 156-pound non-title lightweight limit for his UFC Vegas 122 fight with Francisco Prado, who weighed in right at 155. Nolan King had the number first on X, then added a few minutes later that it was sounding like the bout would go ahead anyway.
It will. MMA Fighting reported that Prado vs. Bonfim proceeds at a catchweight on Saturday’s prelims (Paramount+, 5 p.m. ET), with Bonfim forfeiting 25 percent of his purse as the penalty.
Bonfim’s camp has since spoken up about the miss, according to a Heavy.com report, and NDTV Sports framed the whole mess as coming right after Bonfim opened up publicly about the struggles in his career. The details of that explanation weren’t in the reporting I had in front of me, so I’m not going to invent a sob story or a villain for anybody. What I can tell you is what the scale has said over the last three years, and it isn’t flattering.
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Third Time, Bigger Number
This is the third time Bonfim has missed weight during his UFC run. In November 2023 he came in 3.5 pounds heavy for Vinc Pichel, and that fight got rescheduled. In November 2025 he missed by five pounds for Chris Padilla. After the Padilla miss, Bonfim told MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz that he had finally gotten serious about his diet. Eleven months later, the miss is bigger than ever. Line them up and the trend goes 3.5, then five, then 7.5, which is the exact wrong direction for a guy trying to convince matchmakers he belongs at 155.
He wasn’t alone in the penalty box Friday. Ketlen Souza weighed 117 for her strawweight fight with Loopy Godinez, one pound over, and gives up 20 percent of her purse. Brendson Ribeiro came in at 208.5 for Felipe Franco, 2.5 pounds over the light heavyweight limit, and also loses 20 percent. All three fights stay on as catchweights.
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The headliners behaved. Brendan Allen hit 186 and Christian Leroy Duncan hit 185 for their middleweight main event, so the top of the card is clean. UFC Brasil is billing Prado vs. Bonfim as Brazil vs. Argentina, which is a fun hook for a fight where one guy showed up nearly a full weight class’s worth of water heavy.
My take: Prado is the one I feel for. He did his job, he gets a quarter of Bonfim’s check for the trouble, and then he has to share a cage with a man who’ll walk in carrying who knows how much extra after rehydrating. A 7.5-pound miss is more than a bad cut. That’s a signal the body is done doing 155, and if Bonfim’s team has an explanation, the smartest version of it ends with a move to welterweight. Three misses at lightweight is enough evidence for any matchmaker. He fights Prado on Saturday, October 10, and whatever happens in there, the UFC shouldn’t book him at 155 again.
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