Tito Ortiz, Rashad Evans make weight
PHILADELPHIA -- Former light heavyweight champions Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evans both made weight Friday for their bout at UFC 133.
The fight will take place Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center and is available on pay-per-view at 9 p.m. ET.
Ortiz got on the scale first and weighed in at 205.8 pounds.
"I feel great. I'm excited to take this fight," said Ortiz, who has a professional mixed martial arts record of 16-8-1. "Rashad is a great fighter, but I'm going to show him how much better I am tomorrow night."
With a victory, Ortiz will join Georges St. Pierre, Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell as the only fighters with 16 UFC wins.
Evans (15-1-1) checked in at a lean 204.4 pounds.
He will enter the Octagon on Saturday for the first time in 434 days. It is the longest layoff in his professional mixed-martial-arts career.
"I'm very excited [to be back in action]," said Evans, who was booed continuously by the crowd. "It's been 14 months, but I've been working to get better.
"I just want to show the fans what I've got."
Every other fighter on the UFC 133 main card made weight.
Middleweights Yoshihiro Akiyama (184.6) and Vitor Belfort (185.4) showed mutual respect for one another during and after the faceoff. Belfort, however, has said he plans to finish the fight early, most likely by knockout.
Welterweight Mike Pyle tipped the scale at 170.8 pounds, while his opponent Rory MacDonald weighed 170.6.
Middleweight Jorge Rivera weighed 184.6. His foe Constantinos Philippou was 185.2 pounds.
The welterweight showdown between Brian Ebersole (170.6) and Dennis Hallman (170.8) is also official.
Only Ivan Menjivar failed to make the required weight. The bantamweight came in 2 pounds over the 136-pound non-title fight limit, checking in at 138.
Menjivar had two hours to make weight. His opponent for the preliminary bout, Nick Pace, weighed in at 135.8.
Franklin McNeil covers mixed martial arts and boxing for ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Franklin_McNeil.
- MMA columnist for ESPN.com
- Analyst for "MMA Live"
- Covered MMA/Boxing for The Star-Ledger
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