MONTREAL -- UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and interim title-holder Carlos (Natural Born Killer) Condit both made weight Friday in advance of UFC 154.
St-Pierre (22-2) weighed in at the 170-pound limit while Condit (28-5) was at 169.
Condit, a 28-year-old from Albuquerque, N.M., was greeted with some boos and chants of GSP when he came on stage first at a local nightclub during the afternoon weigh-in. A smiling St-Pierre came on next, to cheers and more chants from his hometown crowd.
After guzzling back some water to rehydrate, the two fighters exchanged a cordial handshake and then posed facing each other on the side of the stage.
Saturday's fight at the Bell Centre is the first for St-Pierre in almost 19 months due to a knee injury.
"I missed this so much. You guys cannot believe it," said the 31-year-old St-Pierre. "So I'm so excited for (Saturday)."
Condit was equally upbeat in his short interview.
"This fight is basically the culmination of a long time training, a lot of hard work," said Condit, who turned pro 10 years ago. "I haven't only been thinking of fighting Georges for the last year, I've been thinking about fighting Georges my entire career. So I'm extremely excited."
At least one fan wasn't impressed. "You're a dead man," he yelled.
The card features eight other Canadian fighters plus French middleweight Francis Carmont, who now calls Montreal home.
Featherweight Mark (The Machine) Hominick of Thamesford, Ont., drew perhaps the second warmest welcome on the day. Opponent Pablo Garza did his bit to curry local favour by wearing a Canadiens T-shirt and then, showing Hominick some love, hugged his opponent.
Lightweight Sam Stout of London, Ont., was accompanied onstage by his friend Brandon Prust of the Montreal Canadiens. Stout wore a Prust Habs jersey, and Prust wore a Habs sweater with Stout's name on the back. The two are friends from their home town. Stout fights Montreal's John (The Bull) Makdessi in the only all-Canadian fight of the fight.
Makdessi looked intense as the two faced off and closed the gap on Stout but the two finished with a somewhat perfunctory handshake.
Flamboyant middleweight (Filthy) Tom Lawlor came out wearing a cape and white mask, taking a pratfall as he walked on stage. It was a homage to an ill-fated WCW wrestling skit back in the day revolving round The Shockmaster character.
Lawlor fights Carmont on Saturday night.
