John Alessio.

BY JAMES BRYDON
sportsnet.ca

The weigh-ins for Saturday’s W-1 MMA: Bad Blood, the fourth show for the Montreal-based promotion, took place Friday morning and while the atmosphere at the restaurant where it was held, Bleu Blanc Rouge in Rosemere, Que., was great there were a couple of hiccups as far as the fighters were concerned.

In the only scheduled title fight for the show, Tom Waters failed to make weight for his featherweight championship tilt against John Fraser. Waters, who was on hand Thursday afternoon for a shadowboxing photoshoot at the Pierre Charbonneau Centre where the fights will take place, initially hit the scale at noon at 148.8 pounds while Fraser was just under the limit (144.4).

He was given a hour to try to complete the cut down to the 145-pound maximum, but at the end of it he was still a pound over, so the fight was changed to a three-round non-title bout.

The main event features a matchup of former UFC fighters in Jason (The Athlete) MacDonald of Red Deer, Alta., and 38-year-old American Vernon (Tiger) White.

Because MacDonald, who was cut by the UFC last year, took the bout on a couple weeks’ notice, replacing an injured Denis Kang, they agreed to make it at a 190-pound catchweight rather than the usual 186 for a middleweight bout. Still, White came in heavy at 191.8. He too was given an extra hour, fortunately he was able to shed the extra weight.

“The worst thing is, I could have easily made 186,” MacDonald told sportsnet.ca after he weighed in at 189.6 following what he termed a relatively painless cut.

Veteran Shonie (Mr. International) Carter, 37, also said his cut was one of his easiest. Carter, who was enjoying a light salad after weighing in at 173.8, takes on Canadian Nabil Khatib (174.2) in a fight that will be contested at a catchweight of 175 pounds.

All the other fighters made weight for their standard-division bouts, including former MFC welterweight champion Pat (Bam Bam) Healy -- the only man to beat current TFC title-holder Ryan Ford (and he did it twice). Healy was making his lightweight debut against Sidney Silva and weighed in at 155.7 (Silva was 154.9).

“I’ve always been one of the smaller guys at 170 but here I should be (one of the bigger ones),” said Healy, who added he’s often weighs 170 before cutting weight.

The only welterweight clash on the docket is likely one of the most anticipated fights of the night. Duncan, B.C.’s John (The Natural) Alessio (170.3) faces Chris Clements of Chatham, Ont., who came in right on the number.

Not only is it an all-Canadian meeting, the two have a Shawn Tompkins connection.

Clements is an original Team Tompkins product, having trained out of his gym in London, Ont., while Tompkins is now Alessio’s striking coach in Las Vegas, where the latter has lived and trained full-time for a few years now. He believes it could give him an edge.

“(Clements) trains under the Tompkins style of kickboxing, which I’m very familiar with,” Alessio said. “I don’t expect any big surprises.”

The other potential advantage for Alessio is he’s fresh off a fight in another promotion just 15 days ago against a guy, Matt Delanoit, with a similar style as Clements -- both are kickboxers and mostly strikers. And Alessio dispatched of him in relatively easy fashion.

Alessio with the play-by-play: “We had a quick couple of exchanges on the feet. Then it hit the ground and I got on top, I took the mount, got a couple of elbows down. He gave up his back and I sunk in the rear naked choke. Pretty much instantaneous and it was done in about two minutes.”

He said he doesn’t mind the quick turnaround between fights since he had no injuries or bruises and didn’t have to change the game plan too much.

Like MacDonald, Alessio hopes another win (which would be his fourth straight) could help get him back to the UFC. He hasn't fought there since a loss to Thiago Alves in October 2006, though he competed six times in the WEC since -- his last was a disqualification loss to Brock Larson in March 2008. Alessio's overall record in the UFC was 0-3 but he went 5-2 in the WEC.