UFC 98 weigh-in

UFC 98 weigh-in notes and more
By Bryan Alvarez

Before the weigh-ins they had a Frank Mir Q&A with members of the UFC Fight Club. Mir looked to be in great shape. This was pretty much a 100% pro-Mir crowd. Mis is great in his role and the Countdown show for that fight should be fantastic, provided Brock actually allows them access. I do wish Brock would have been there because tons of people kept asking about Fedor. Seriously. One Fedor question after another. And for those wondering, Mir knows all of Fedor's weaknesses and how to exploit them.

Also, for conspiracy theorists who think one of the reasons Mir postponed the fight is because Rena Mero is due sometimes around July 10th, Mir's wife just happens to be giving birth to their fourth child in early June.

After the Mir Q&A they aired the entire Countdown special for the show. It was great, and if you haven't seen it you can check it out prior to the PPV tomorrow. Machida, who is the 2-1 favorite last I checked, is put over as the guy who is using karate as his base, and whose father trained him since childhood and knows his son will be the next world champion. The stuff with Serra and Hughes was also awesome, with Serra being just about the best heel you've ever seen and Hughes as the cocky aging badass farmboy who is out for revenge. So yeah, this is doing more than 380,000 buys.

Weigh-ins begin at any moment. If my Internet dies I'll return with full results a bit later on. Dave and I are probably doing an audio show later tonight hyping up the show, then tomorrow we'll be back very, very late Pacific time with a post-show report. And a report on Joe Rogan's stand-up routine, which we'll be attending later tonight as well.

1. Dave Kaplan (156) vs. George Roop (154).

2. Yoshiyuki Yoshida (171) vs. Brandon Wolff (170).

3. Andre Gusmao (206) vs. Krzystof Soszynski (206). Krzystof got a big pop.

4. Phillipe Nover (156) vs. Kyle Bradley (156). Nover wore sunglasses and was ripped to shreds.

5. Pat Barry (237) vs. Tim Hague (263). Hague is a big dude.

6. Brock Larson (171) vs. Mike Pyle. Pyle is a last minute replacement so he's weighing in later this evening and the results will be up at UFC.com.

7. Xavier Foupa-Pokam (186) vs. Drew McFedries (185). McFedries is a 185-pound mastodon.

8. Frankie Edgar (155) vs. Sean Sherk (156). Sherk got a big babyface pop, so fans have forgotten the steroid failure, or think it was bullshit. He certainly looked natural here.

9. Chael Sonnen (186) vs. Dan Miller (185).

10. Matt Hughes (170) vs. Matt Serra (171). Big ovation when this one was announced. Serra got a mix of cheers and boos but mostly boos. Fans did laugh every time he called Hughes a dick (or cock or cocksucker or prick or asshole) during the Countdown show. Hughes also got a mix of cheers and boos but mostly cheers. The funny thing was that the boos for both men were coming from the exact same part of the building. Hughes physically looked great. Neither guy shook hands after the staredown.

11. Rashad Evans (205) vs. Lyoto Machida (204). Machida got a reaction but not a superstar reaction. Rashad got the closest thing to a superstar reaction of anyone. I should note that the reactions this evening weren't in the same stratosphere as during the BJ Penn vs. Georges St. Pierre weigh-in. Rashad looked a little flat, like he could have lost another five or ten pounds if he needed to.

Rogan interviewed the main eventers afterwards. Lyoto, in broken English, said he'd trained really hard for this fight and was calm. He said he wasn't worried about Rashad's technique, he was worried about his own. "Please, uh, cheer for me tomorrow!" he concluded. Rashad didn't have much to say but he was booed louder here than during the actual weigh-in. That's interesting.