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Rashad Evans, left, and Tito Ortiz, right, pose for a stare down photo at a press conference before their UFC 133 main event meeting in Philadelphia.
Friday, Aug. 5, 2011 | 3:40 p.m.
Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evans weigh in for UFC 133 bout
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KSNV coverage of weigh-in for Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evans, who fight Saturday in Philadelphia at UFC 133, Aug. 5, 2011.
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Las Vegas Sun sports reporters Case Keefer, Ryan Greene and Ray Brewer spend most of their radio show, which is weekly on Mondays on 91.5 KUNV, discussing this weekend's UFC 133 card in Philadelphia. They also touch on UNLV recruiting at the end.
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PHILADELPHIA — The end of the UFC 133 weigh-ins at the Wells Fargo Center on Friday felt a lot like the promotion’s old days.
UFC President Dana White stuck his hand in between Rashad Evans and Tito Ortiz as they posed inches away from each other for their customary stare-down photo. Both fighters’ level of intensity has risen as their light heavyweight main event clash nears.
“He’s going to look in my eyes and know he’s going to lose this fight,” Evans said. “He’s making a mistake even getting in there with me.”
Evans and Ortiz have kept their pre-fight theatrics and trash talk to a minimum this time around. That wasn’t the case the first time they met four years ago at UFC 73, a fight that ended in a unanimous draw.
Evans and Ortiz exchanged words through the media months before that fight and got into a shoving match while they were both attending UFC 69.
“He was trying to punk me,” Ortiz recalled this week. “I got a little angry and I shoved him. It felt like I was shoving a girl.”
Ortiz does have a slight size advantage over Evans. His walking weight when not fighting is significantly more than Evans' and Friday he came in at 206 pounds, the light heavyweight limit.
Evans weighed in just over 204 pounds.
“Tito’s always got that look,” Evans said this week. “He’s very hollow. He’s got a big frame but if you take his clothes off, you’ll see his hollowness. He has no meat, no legs.”
Ortiz continued his recent surge of regaining popularity by coming out in a personalized Phillies jersey. The crowd went wild for Ortiz, with no boos within earshot.
Evans received a purely negative welcome to the stage, but said he was unaffected by it.
“I know every one of them would want my autograph if I went up in the stands,” Evans said.
The encounter between Evans and Ortiz capped off an otherwise tame weigh-in. The only other happening of note came when bantamweight Ivan Menjivar missed weight for his preliminary fight against Nick Pace.
Mejivar tipped the scales at 138 pounds, which is two more than allowed. He’s forced to forfeit a portion of his purse, but Pace still accepted the fight.
The second angriest stare-down occurred between main card fighters Mike Pyle and Rory MacDonald, who got almost as close to each other as Evans and Ortiz.
“Rashad is a great fighter,” Ortiz said, “but I’m going to show how much better I am tomorrow night.”
Check below for full results from the weigh-in.
Light Heavyweight Bout: Rashad Evans (204.4) vs. Tito Ortiz (205.8)
Middleweight Bout: Vitor Belfort (185.4) vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama (184.6)
Welterweight Bout: Dennis Hallman (170.8) vs. Brian Ebersole (170.6)
Middleweight Bout: Jorge Rivera (184.6) vs. Constantinos Philippou (185.2)
Welterweight Bout: Rory MacDonald (170.8) vs. Mike Pyle (170.6)
Light Heavyweight Bout: Alexander Gustafsson (204.4) vs. Matt Hamill (206)
Featherweight Bout: Chad Mendes (145.8) vs. Rani Yahya (145.2)
Bantamweight Bout: Ivan Menjivar (138) vs. Nick Pace (135.8)
Welterweight Bout: Mike Pierce (171) vs. Johny Hendricks (170.8)
Featherweight Bout: Mike Brown (146) vs. Nam Phan (145)
Middleweight Bout: Rafael Natal (185.4) vs. Paul Bradley (185.2)
Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or case.keefer@lasvegassun.com. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
I wonder who scared the other guy by looking at him?