UFC 105 weigh-in notes, business notes on the show

No major fireworks at the weigh-ins before about 3,000 fans at the Manchester Evening News Arena.

Crowd cheered the British fighters, with the guys you'd expect, Michael Bisping and Dan Hardy, getting the biggest reactions of the large U.K. contingent. Hardy and Mike Swick and Bisping and Denis Kang had staredowns, but you could see the confrontations were more good natured than dangerous.

Randy Couture got a standing ovation coming out. He looked pretty much the same as he had for the past two fights. He looks like a super-well conditioned but older man in his 40s. It was not the rock star reaction you see in Las Vegas, but more extreme respect reaction.

Spike officials are hopeful of the Couture vs. Vera fight to hit 5 million viewers and overall the hope is for this to be the third highest rated live special in history, behind Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock in 2006 and Dan Henderson vs. Quinton Jackson's title unificiation match (Pride vs. UFC) in 2007. The show starts at 8 p.m. Eastern, which is a five-hour tape delay, and will end when it ends, as they expect to go a few minutes past 11 p.m. The show will air live on SportsNet in Canada and on ESPN in the U.K.

The arena was sold out a few days ago, but they opened up a few hundred tickets after production was set up, yesterday. It's set up for about 16,300 but they were hoping to possibly squeeze in 16,600 people.

No weight issues or late problems with this show.

Sort of angle alert. Georges St. Pierre will be at ringside for the Swick vs. Hardy fight. However, he said that he doesn't want to go into the cage after the match or do anything to take away from the winner's moment. I don't know what will happen if Swick wins, and he is the favorite, particularly if it goes to the ground since Hardy does not have good takedown defense and Swick can wrestle. But if Hardy wins, I expect him to have a promo ready for GSP.

At the weigh-ins, the British fighters, Andre Winner, Paul Kelly, Nick Osipczak, Terry Etim (who may be the best British fighter on this show), Ross Pearon, James Wilks, Bisping and Hardy got big reactions. Interestingly, with John Hathaway vs. Paul Taylor, two British fighters, neither got that big of a reaction.

Roli Delgado in the opener is something of a protege of pro wrestling Hall of Famer Billy Robinson.

We will have live coverage of the fights on the site, starting at about 1 p.m. Eastern time and 10 a.m. Pacific time.

Prelim fights

Roli Delgado (156) vs. Andre Winner (155)

Jared Hamman (204) vs. Alexander Gustafsson (203)

Dennis Siver (155) vs. Paul Kelly (156)

Matt Riddle (171) vs. Nick Osipczak (170)

Shannon Gugerty (155) vs. Terry Etim (155)

John Hathaway (170) vs. Paul Taylor (170)

Live fights:

Aaron Riley (155) vs. Ross Pearson (156)

Matt Brown (170) vs. James Wilks (169)

Denis Kang (185) vs. Michael Bisping (186)

Dan Hardy (171) vs. Mike Swick (170)

Brandon Vera (204) vs. Randy Couture (204)