Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane looked lean and chiselled ahead of their headline clash at UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi.
Englishman Aspinall tipped the scales at 255lbs at Friday morning’s official weigh-in, with Frenchman Gane weighing in at 247.5lbs.
With the heavyweight limit at 265lbs, both were comfortably inside the threshold.
Now the countdown begins to Saturday night.
Aspinall (15 wins and three losses) is looking to get his undisputed title reign off with a bang against Gane (13-2), who is attempting to win heavyweight gold at the third attempt.
“I’m not expecting an early finish, but I’m not expecting it to go the distance either. I just need one clean shot – that changes everything,” Aspinall said at Thursday’s press conference.
Gane, meanwhile, maintained that “everything’s possible.”
Brazilians Virna Jandiroba and Mackenzie Dern, the co-main event for the vacant women’s strawweight belt, both weighed in at the 115lbs limit.
Jandiroba is the top-ranked contender in the division on the back of a five-fight win streak to take her overall MMA record to 22-3, while Dern, who beat Jandiroba in their first meeting in December 2020, has won her last two fights to take her record to 15-5.
The belt was vacated by Zhang Weili following her move up to flyweight where next month she will face champion Valentina Shevchenko.
Bantamweights Umar Nurmagomedov and Mario Bautista weighed in at 136lbs and 135.5lbs, respectively.
Nurmagomedov was challenged by Dana White at Thursday’s press conference to “go out and put on a show” if he wants to put himself into contention for another title shot.
The Russian (18-1), was unsuccessful in his attempt to dethrone UFC bantamweight champion at their meeting in January.
Alexander Volkov weighed in at a whopping 261.5lbs and his opponent Jailton Almeida 237lbs. The winner is next in line for a title shot against the winner of the Aspinall-Gane fight.
Volkov, who counts defeats to Aspinall and Gane on his 38-11 MMA record, takes on Brazilian Almeida whose only defeat in his past 18 fights was at the hands of Curtis Blaydes.
Undefeated Russian light heavyweight Azamat Murzakanov will look to extend his 15-fight win streak when he faces Aleksandar Rakic of Serbia.
Murzakanov, who has nine first-round finishes, tipped the scales at 205lbs while Rakic came in at half a pound lighter.
