Sunday’s UFC Live event in Pittsburgh lost its biggest name, but it didn’t lose any intensity.
PITTSBURGH -- Nate (The Great) Marquardt's anticipated UFC welterweight debut ended before it even started. And unfortunately for him, so has his UFC career.
Marquardt, who was set to headline Sunday's UFC debut in Pittsburgh, failed his pre-fight medical before Saturday's weigh-ins, which were held at Heinz Field in front of a few hundred fans. Then UFC president Dana White announced afterward that the former middleweight top contender has been released by the organization.
Still the show will go on -- the televised UFC Live event takes place Sunday at the Consol Energy Center just across town. Pennsylvania native Charlie Brenneman, who was originally supposed to take on T.J. Grant of Cole Harbour, N.S., before the Canadian was forced to pull out earlier this week with an illness, will now slide in and replace Marquardt in what will now be the co-main event. The heavyweight matchup between Pat Barry and Cheick Kongo has been promoted to the main attraction slot.
Watch the fights live and in high definition on Sportsnet Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.
While that's good fortune for Brenneman, who went from fighting on the undercard to not competing at all in front of his local fans and to ultimately now appearing in the co-main event, it's a very bad turn of events for the UFC. If there were one fighter the UFC would not want to have dropped from the card, it would be Marquardt, who had decided to try his hand at the lower weight.
Despite the news, the weigh-ins didn't lack for entertainment. The Pittsburgh fans were more than happy to see the Hollidaysburg, Pa., fighter Brenneman back on the card, and donning a Steelers helmet after weighing in further endeared him to them. Earlier, another fighter Michael Johnson had stepped on the scale wearing a patented "Terrible Towel" on his head.
But the most noteworthy piece of apparel was the Star Wars underwear displayed by Joe (Daddy) Stevenson, who weighed in at 146 pounds for his return the featherweight division after a long career at lightweight, and he looked good at the lower weight. Another longtime 155-pounder, Tyson Griffin (145.8), is also returning to featherweight to compete there for the first time in the UFC -- the division didn't exist when the two veterans joined the UFC. They take on WEC standouts Manny Gamburyan and Javier Vazquez, respectively, to finish off the prelims (all of which will air for free on Facebook).
But the card, which may be lacking in star power at the top but features a lot of great and intriguing fights, could be filled with some excitement Sunday -- and bad blood. Three of the matchups featured some very intense staredowns on Saturday.
Kicking off the main card is a heavyweight tilt between the always entertaining Matt Mitrione, who weighed in at 261.1 pounds and a behemoth-looking Christian Morecraft (261.4) and the two got right in each other's faces. Mitrione, who was seen mouthing some ominous words to Morecraft, seemed unwilling to let the matter go after the two were separated by White.
Kongo and Barry got forehead-to-forehead for their pose to set the final tone for the show. Prior to that, the staredown between Story and Brenneman had also gotten pretty heated (although one wonders why since their matchup was only put together just prior to the weigh-ins).
Story is coming off a three-round unanimous decision win over a dangerous Thiago Alves at UFC 130 on May 28 in Las Vegas. The 26-year-old up-and-comer is looking for his seventh straight win after suffering a loss in his UFC debut. Story, who has never been finished, now has to change gears from a top contender to a guy with quite a bit less experience.
Full weigh-in results:
Cheick Kongo (234.4) vs. Patrick Barry (243)
Rick Story (170.4) vs. Charlie Brenneman (170.6)
Matt Brown (170) vs. John Howard (170.2)
Matt Mitrione (261.1) vs. Christian Morecraft (261.4)
Undercard
Tyson Griffin (145.8) vs. Manvel Gamburyan (145.8)
Joe Stevenson (146) vs. Javier Vazquez (145.8)
Joe Lauzon (156) vs. Curt Warburton (155.6)
Rich Attonito (170) vs. Daniel Roberts (170.6)
Nik Lentz (155.6) vs. Charles Oliveira (153.8)
Matt Grice (145.2) vs. Ricardo Lamas (145.4)
Edward Faaloloto (155.4) vs. Michael Johnson (155.2)
