Things got testy very quickly Friday between the headliners of Saturday’s UFC on Sportsnet: Belfort vs. Rockhold in Brazil.
A day after a press conference staredown with Belfort that Rockhold, the Strikeforce middleweight champion making his UFC debut, said “lit a fire under him,” the two showed that there was indeed plenty of animosity at the weigh-ins.
After both hitting the scale at 186 pounds, Belfort moved in close on the stage and lifted his fist near Rockhold’s chin. Rockhold barely gave him a chance, advancing right on him before Belfort immediately shoved him away with full extension of his arms as they were separated.
As Rockhold descended the stairs, the Brazilian Belfort, who naturally received a large ovation when he first entered the arena, was yelling toward the crowd and gave a throat-slit motion.
Tensions between the two were likely high due to Rockhold’s criticism of Belfort, a former UFC champion, for his use of testosterone replacement therapy, despite the fact that it is permitted by the athletic commissions. Rockhold said last week he wanted to “punish him” for it, since the commissions weren’t.
The rest of the weigh-ins went relatively smoothly as all were on target – though many, including Rockhold, needed to strip down completely and weigh in behind a towel.
Here are the full weigh-in results:
Main card (Sportsnet ONE, 9 p.m. ET)
Vitor Belfort (186) vs. Luke Rockhold (186)
Ronaldo Souza (186) vs. Chris Camozzi (186)
Rafael dos Anjos (156) vs. Evan Dunham (156)
Rafael Natal (186) vs. Joao Zeferino (185)
Televised undercard (Sportsnet ONE, 6 p.m. ET)
Hacran Dias (146) vs. Nik Lentz (146)
Mike Rio (156) vs. Francisco Trinaldo (154)
Gleison Tibau (156) vs. John Cholish (156)
Paulo Thiago (170) vs. Michel Prazeres (171)
Yuri Alcantara (136) vs. Iliarde Santos (134)
Roger Hollett (204) vs. Fabio Maldonado (205)
Online prelims (sportsnet.ca, 4:30 p.m. ET)
Azamat Gashimov (126) vs. John Lineker (126)
Chris Cariaso (126) vs. Jussier (Formiga) da Silva (126)
Jeremy Larsen (155) vs. Lucas Martins (153)
