King Green Confronts Esteban Ribovics After Weight Miss
King Green and Arnold Barboza Jr. met Esteban Ribovics outside the host hotel in Salt Lake City after Friday’s UFC 332 weigh-ins, and the exchange did not stay on the scale. Ribovics had already missed the non-title lightweight limit at 156.5 pounds, a half-pound over, while Green made 155.5.
The UFC kept the main-card bout and moved it to a catchweight, with Ribovics forfeiting 20 percent of his purse to Green. That penalty was the first thing shouted once the two camps crossed paths near a black van outside the Courtyard, with the Delta Center visible down the street. “You couldn’t make weight,” one voice kept repeating as bodies closed the gap and teammates stepped between them.
Green was shirtless, the KING chain still on, and Barboza was in the middle of the same cluster in a black-and-red UFC jacket. The clip posted with the confrontation carried the line, “Back the fck up! Don’t f**ing touch me. We can get down right now!” On the audio that follows, the demand is the same. “We can get out right now,” Green’s side said, twice, while hands stayed up and nobody let the face-off turn into a swing.
The money talk did not stop at the 20 percent. “Now you ain’t making no money now,” someone with Green said as the group moved off the curb. “I told all the money to go in the house. You need to get out right now.” A last line trailed them toward the hotel entrance. “Man, I can’t take you nowhere.”
This was the second public flare between Green and Ribovics in fight week. At the UFC 332 press conference, Ribovics told Green to shut the f*ck up, and Green answered by asking if that was the only English he spoke, then replied “poquito” when Ribovics switched to Spanish. The weigh-in changed the subject from the staredown to the scale. Green had already celebrated the miss on a KICK stream, saying he was getting that 20 percent and wanted it in one-dollar bills.
Ribovics was the only fighter on the 28-person card to miss. A second attempt behind the curtain did not remove the half-pound, and the miss also leaves him ineligible for a post-fight performance bonus. Green, who said he took the fight on 28 days’ notice, made weight and is still booked to fight him Saturday.
UFC 332 is Saturday at the Delta Center, with the main card on Paramount+ and CBS at 8 p.m. ET. Natalia Silva and Wang Cong both made weight for the vacant women’s flyweight title, and Green against Ribovics remains on that main card at catchweight, with 20 percent of the purse already assigned and the hotel argument already on video.
