UFC Fight Night 127 is set for Saturday at O2 Arena in London following Friday’s official weigh-in.
The main event was a mere formality, as neither Fabricio Werdum nor Alexander Volkov pushes the top end of the heavyweight division’s 265-pound weight limit.
Werdum stepped on the scale at 249 pounds on Friday, while Volkov was right behind him at 246 pounds.
Werdum (23-7-1) is just two fights removed from his last loss, having landed on the wrong end of a majority decision to Alistair Overeem at UFC 213 last summer. He has since rebounded with a submission win over Walt Harris and a unanimous-decision victory over Marcin Tybura. He is anxious to get back into the thick of title talk, as he’d love nothing more than to regain the UFC heavyweight championship that he once held.
Volkov (29-6) has just three UFC bouts to his credit, but he has won all three, taking decisions over Timothy Johnson and Roy Nelson before scoring a TKO stoppage of Stefan Struve. Those three victories followed Volkov having won and defended the M-1 Global heavyweight championship, putting his current winning streak at five consecutive bouts.
In addition to the heavyweight main event, two 205-pounders trying to find a route to a shot at current UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier battle in the UFC London co-main event. London’s own Jimi Manuwa has often been close to a shot at the belt, but needs to string together a couple impressive wins to get back there. He faces no easy task in Polish fighter Jan Blachowicz, who is riding back-to-back wins over Devin Clark and Jared Cannonier into Saturday’s event.
Manuwa and Blachowicz each weighed 205 pounds when they stepped onto the scale.
A bout between Welsh fighter Jack Marshman and Englishman Brad Scott was canceled just a few hours before weigh-ins when Marshman was deemed medically unfit to continue with his weight cut.
UFC Fight Night 127 Fight Card
Main Card
- Fabricio Werdum (249) vs. Alexander Volkov (246)
- Jimi Manuwa (205) vs. Jan Blachowicz (205)
- Tom Duquesnoy (135) vs. Terrion Ware (136)
- Leon Edwards (170) vs. Peter Sobotta (171)
Preliminary Card
- John Phillips (185) vs. Charles Byrd (184)
- Danny Roberts (170) vs. Oliver Enkamp (171)
- Danny Henry (146) vs. Hakeem Dawodu (145)
- Paul Craig (204) vs. Magomed Ankalaev (205)
- Stevie Ray (156) vs. Kajan Johnson (155)
- Mark Godbeer (238) vs. Dmitriy Sosnovskiy (238)
- Nasrat Haqparast (155) vs. Nad Narimani (155)
Tune in Saturday on MMAWeekly.com for UFC London: Werdum vs. Volkov Live Results and Fight Stats, The first bout is scheduled to begin at 1:45 p.m. ET / 10:45 a.m. PT.
