THE CANADIAN PRESS
The bad blood between Wanderlei (The Axe Murderer) Silva and Quinton (Rampage) Jackson boiled over again at Friday’s UFC 92 weigh-in when Silva shoved Jackson as the two posed face to face at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Nothing further happened as people got between the two fighters. Silva left the stage and Jackson made a throat-slitting gesture and launched into one of his trademark howls.
The two have history. Silva shoved the American in the ring after Jackson called him out following a 2003 win in Pride in Japan. The two went on to fight twice with Silva winning via brutal knees each time.
Jackson just made the minimum weight for a non-title fight Friday, hitting the scale at 206 pounds. Silva came in a little lighter at 203.
In the main event, a 205-pound belt defence, champion Forrest Griffin weighed in on the number at 205, while the shorter Evans was 203.
The co-main event sees interim heavyweight title-holder Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (246) take on former heavyweight champion Frank Mir (251).
All fighters on the card made weight.
QUICK QUOTES: The winner of the Silva-Jackson fight will likely get the next shot at the light-heavyweight title-holder, be it Griffin or Evans. Jackson, who was the last to relinquish the belt to Griffin, was asked last week whether he felt he should have been first to get a rematch against Griffin before Evans’ challenge. Jackson dismissed the notion.
“I’m happy with the fight that I’ve got,” Jackson said. “It’s my job to fight. I get paid. I’m not going to sit around and make crap about, oh, I should be fighting Forrest for the belt and stuff like that. Let Forrest and Rashad take care of their business. I’m going to take care of mine.”
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Griffin got a good idea of what to look out for when he takes on the deceivingly heavy-handed Evans. After he watched his opponent’s sudden one-punch knockout of former champion Chuck Liddell at UFC 88, Griffin said the word out of his mouth was what one might expect.
“Damn, it was just damn,” Griffin said. “There might have been some more expletives too but mostly it was damn.”
NOTES: Saturday’s “The Ultimate 2008” card features three UFC newcomers. Mustapha Al Turk, who is fighting on the main card, comes in with a career 6-3 record. The other two, Pat Barry and Mike Wessel, who appear on the undercard, are a combined 9-0.
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According to MMAjunkie.com, all drug tests from The Ultimate Fighter Season 8 finale came back negative. The Nevada State Athletic Commission tested the winners and main-event competitors from the Las Vegas event, which featured members of Team Nogueira and Team Mir, for steroids and drugs of abuse, and all were clean.
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The final attendance for the TUF 8 finale was more than originally expected. There were well over 1,000 at the show, which was held at The Pearl at The Palms, a relatively small venue — 1,496 tickets were paid for while an additional 357 were comped. The total attendance of 1,853 drew a live gate of $405,000.
