Fans invited to this week's UFC on FOX 18 workouts, weigh-ins in New Jersey

Fans who will be in the New York/New Jersey area for the UFC’s return to Newark will have some opportunities to get up close and personal with fighters on Saturday’s card.

Fans are invited to Thursday’s open workouts, as well as the official fighter weigh-ins on Friday.

UFC on FOX 18 takes place Saturday at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The main card airs on FOX following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.

Thursday’s open workouts take place at the UFC Gym location at 316 Sinatra Drive in Hoboken, N.J. The workouts begin at 12:30 p.m. ET. Fighters from the card will work out for the fans and media.

Scheduled to attend are recent light heavyweight title challenger Anthony Johnson (20-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) and Ryan Bader (20-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC), who meet in the main event; co-main event heavyweights Ben Rothwell (35-9 MMA, 5-3 UFC) and Josh Barnett (34-7 MMA, 6-2 UFC); highly touted lightweight prospect Sage Northcutt (7-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC); and Randy Brown (6-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who recently caught the eye of UFC President Dana White on his “Lookin’ for a Fight” series during a Ring of Combat show in New Jersey.

Doors open to the public at noon ET. Bader will work out at 12:30 p.m. ET, followed by Barnett, Northcutt, Rothwell, Brown and Johnson in approximately 30-minute intervals.

On Friday, the weigh-ins take place at Prudential Center in Newark. Doors open to the public at 3 p.m. ET and the first fighter will be on the scale at 4 p.m.

MMAjunkie will have full coverage of the fan and media events throughout the week.

The complete UFC on FOX 18 lineup includes:

MAIN CARD (FOX, 8 p.m. ET)

• Anthony Johnson vs. Ryan Bader
• Josh Barnett vs. Ben Rothwell
• Iuri Alcantara vs. Jimmie Rivera
• Bryan Barberena vs. Sage Northcutt

PRELIMINARY CARD (FOX Sports 1, 5 p.m. ET)

• Jake Ellenberger vs. Tarec Saffiedine
• Olivier Aubin-Mercier vs. Diego Ferreira
• Kevin Casey vs. Rafael Natal
• Dustin Ortiz vs. Wilson Reis
• George Sullivan vs. Alexander Yakovlev
• Alex Caceres vs. Masio Fullen

PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 3:30 p.m. ET)

• Damon Jackson vs. Levan Makashvili
• Tony Martin vs. Felipe Olivieri
• Randy Brown vs. Matt Dwyer

For more on UFC on FOX 18, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.