Mike Tyson a guest at heated UFC 160 weigh-ins

Cain Velasquez (left) and Antonio Silva square off at the UFC 160 weigh-ins as UFC president Dana White (centre) and Mike Tyson (right) look on.

The UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot 2 weigh-ins were a heated affair as there was shoving, intense staredowns, a few handshake refusals and a pair of fighters who missed weight. Oh and boxing great Mike Tyson was on stage to take in all the action.

The former undisputed, lineal heavyweight boxing champion was witness to current UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez stepping on the scale at a well-conditioned 240 pounds, while his opponent Antonio (Bigfoot) Silva was 263 pounds — just two pounds shy of the heavyweight limit.

“I’m very excited to fight tomorrow,” Silva said. “I’m ready for this fight. I trained a lot and I want to win the belt.”

Silva will have a chance at redemption, as he was TKO’d by Velasquez one year ago at UFC 146.

Since that loss, Silva picked up two massive knockout wins over Travis Browne and Alistair Overeem to earn a title shot against Velasquez, who recently won back his title after beating Junior dos Santos at UFC 155 last December.

Despite the fact he dominated Silva in their first meeting, the champion is not overconfident heading into the rematch.

“Bigfoot’s dangerous. I’m not taking him lightly,” said Velasquez, who added that remaining champion “means everything” to him.

Co-headliners dos Santos and Mark Hunt had nearly identical results to their main event counterparts when they weighed in, as the favourite dos Santos weighed in at 239 pounds while Hunt tipped the scales at 264 pounds.

The winner of this bout could realistically earn a title shot face the winner of the main event, but the UFC has not guaranteed this to either fighter.

Although the main and co-main event fighters were cordial, prior to that there were a few uncordial and unprofessional moments during the weigh-ins.

Highly touted, undefeated Russian Khabib Nurmagomedov came in at 158.5 pounds, two-and-a-half pounds over the allowable lightweight limit for non-title bouts. Then, as he squared off with his opponent, Abel Trujillo, the two got too close for comfort and Nurmagomedov shoved Trujillo with fervor.

The featured bout on the televised Sportsnet prelims could be a heated affair as welterweights Mike Pyle and Rick Story shared an intense staredown after the always-intense Story refused to shake Pyle’s hand.

Also, welterweight Nah-Shon Burrell was overweight for the second consecutive fight and the third time in his career, missing weight by one pound.

Cole Harbour, N.S.’s T.J. Grant and his opponent Gray Mayanrd both came in on weight for their lightweight eliminator bout. This winner will earn a title shot against curretn 155-pound kingpin Benson Henderson.

Watch Saturday’s UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot 2 preliminary fights Saturday starting at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. Also, catch three early bonus online prelims on sportsnet.ca at 6:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT.

Here are the complete results from the UFC 160 weigh-ins:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

— Cain Velasquez (240) vs. Antonio Silva (263)

— Junior dos Santos (239) vs. Mark Hunt (264)

— James Te-Huna (206) vs. Glover Teixeira (205)

— T.J. Grant (155) vs. Gray Maynard (156)

— Donald Cerrone (155) vs. KJ Noons (156)

PRELIMINARY CARD (Sportsnet, 8 p.m. ET)

— Mike Pyle (170) vs. Rick Story (169)

— Dennis Bermudez (146) vs. Max Holloway (145)

— Colton Smith (170) vs. Robert Whittaker (171)

— Khabib Nurmagomedov (158.5)* vs. Abel Trujillo (155)

PRELIMINARY CARD (sportsnet.ca, 6:30 p.m. ET)

— Nah-Shon Burrell (172)** vs. Stephen Thompson (170)

— Brian Bowles (135) vs. George Roop (135)

— Estevan Payan (145) vs. Jeremy Stephens (146)

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