After months of anticipation and feuding, (Suga) Rashad Evans and Quinton (Rampage) Jackson are officially set to throw down after making weight Friday for their UFC 114 light-heavyweight main event fight Saturday in Las Vegas.
Evans weighed in at 206, while Jackson showed off some colourful Superman-emblazoned drawers while weighing in on the number at 205.
Their faces came very close during an intense staredown but the tension never rose to the same level that might have been expected after a heated conference call last week.
Evans said the trash talk that went on between them isn’t making him feel any extra pressure.
"There’s definitely some anticipation, but it ain’t no thing, it’s just a fight, you know what I’m saying?" Evans said.
The fiery Jackson, on the other hand, made it clear that he’s fighting with a little extra incentive — and he didn’t mince his words.
"He’s dead!" Jackson said. "It’s time for me to crack some skulls. I’ve never trained so hard for a fight in my life.
"I’m going to shut him up for real."
It was clear who the crowd favourite was as Jackson as the fans loved Jackson’s fighting words, while Evans was mostly booed, prompting him to shrug before announcer Joe Rogan asked them to give him some love.
All other fighters made weight, though a couple needed to bare all their clothing to do so. Lightweight Aaron Riley, fighting on the undercard against Joe Brammer, was a half pound over on the first attempt, so they broke out the UFC towel; he dropped his trunks and made 156.
Later, Amir Sadollah, who takes on Dong Hyun Kim in a welterweight bout (one of two preliminary fights that will air on Rogers Sportsnet), was one pound over.
"Unless he has dirty underwear, this could be a problem," said Rogan.
After he too removed his last item of clothing, Rogan announced he had made 171.
"Someone needs to wash his underwear, this is ridiculous," he added.
Todd Duffee and his opponent Mike Russow both hit the scale at 253 pounds for their heavyweight tilt.
Meanwhile, Diego Sanchez weighed in at 171 for his first fight back at welterweight after competing at lightweight for his past five fights. His counterpart John Hathaway was also 171 pounds.
In the co-main event clash, middleweight Dan Miller was cheered when he walked to the stage and weighed in at 185. He was followed by his opponent Michael (The Count) Bisping, who got a healthy mixture of cheers and boos before making 186.
