Robert Whittaker and Darren Till are set for their key Fight Island showdown this Saturday in Abu Dhabi.
The middleweight contenders had no trouble with the scale at the Friday morning weigh-in for the UFC on ESPN 14, and both reached 186 pounds. This will be Whittaker’s first fight since losing his UFC title to Israel Adesanya, while Till makes his second appearance at the UFC middleweight after defeating Kelvin Gastelum by split decision last November.
In the main event, both Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira weighed 206 pounds for their light heavyweight trilogy. This is expected to be the last fight in Nogueira’s 19-year MMA career.
It is also noteworthy that light heavyweight contender Alexander Gustafsson weighed in at 240 pounds for his UFC heavyweight debut.
Of the 30 fighters who weighed in for Saturday’s card, only one lost weight, veteran Francisco Trinaldo. Massaranduba reached 160 pounds for his light combat with Jai Herbert. The fight will take place at a surprise weight with Trinaldo losing 30 percent of his portfolio.
A source from Trinaldo’s team told Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting that Trinaldo began to feel pain during his cut and that UFC doctors came to see him. He decided to continue the attempt, but his body stopped sweating.
See the UFC weigh-in results on ESPN 14 below:
Main card (8pm ET, ESPN / ESPN +)
Robert Whittaker (186) vs. Darren Till (186)
Mauricio Rua (206) against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (206)
Fabricio Werdum (242) against Alexander Gustafsson (240)
Carla Esparza (116) vs. Marina Rodríguez (115.5)
Paul Craig (206) against Gadzhimurad Antigulov (206)
Alex Oliveira (171) against Peter Sobotta (171)
Khamzat Chimaev (171) vs. Rhys McKee (170.5)
Preliminary card (5 pm ET, ESPN / ESPN +)
Francisco Trinaldo (160) * vs. Jai Herbert (156)
Nicolas Dalby (171) vs. Jesse Ronson (171)
Tom Aspinall (248) vs. Jake Collier (264)
Movsar Evloev (146) vs. Mike Grundy (146)
Tanner Boser (235) vs. Raphael Pessoa (264)
Bethe Correia (136) vs. Pannie Kianzad (136)
Ramazan Emeev (171) against Niklas Stolze (170.5)
Nathaniel Wood (136) vs. John Castaneda (136)
* lost weight. Trinaldo loses 30 percent of his portfolio to Herbert and the fight will continue at a weight of 160 pounds
