Folks, I have landed in Vegas for UFC 71 weekend.  It's good to be back.  The last time I was here was a little over two years ago for my bachelor party.  One of the major highlights of that visit was attending UFC 52, which also took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.  The main event on that card was none other than Chuck Liddell against the then-light heavyweight champ Randy Couture.  Liddell won that fight and has held the belt ever since.

A couple of years later, Liddell is again in the main event fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena -- this time as the champion.  He defends his belt against, of course, Quinton Jackson.

Shortly after landing in Vegas, I headed over to the arena for the UFC 71 weigh-ins, which took place around 4 p.m. PST.  The weigh-ins were divided into the main card weigh-ins and the non-main card weigh-ins.  The main card weigh-ins were televised by ESPN News.

For the weigh-ins, UFC had about 1/4-1/3 of the arena seats available for fans to watch.  Most of the seats were taken.  Interestingly, during the lull right before the ESPN News coverage, Joe Rogan did a little stand-up routine and the crowd ate it up.  In addition, as the ESPN News coverage began, the fans were cued by UFC handlers as to when to cheer.

Other than that, the weigh-ins went pretty smoothly.  One fighter would step on the scale, the next fighter would step on the scale, the two would briefly pose, stare each other down, and then onto the next bout's fighters ...  The only real build-up was for the Liddell-Jackson fight, with a video clip shown on the arena screens right before both fighters came on to the stage.  The weigh-ins for Liddell and Jackson understandably elicited the largest cheers from the crowd.  Some fans shouted "Rampage! Rampage!" while others booed Jackson.

And thankfully, all the fighters made weight.  Here are the official weigh-in results (pounds):

Chuck Liddell (205) vs Quinton Jackson (205)

Josh Burkman (171) vs Karo Parisyan (170)
Houston Alexander (202) vs Keith Jardine (205)
Kalib Starnes (186) vs Chris Leben (185)

Terry Martin (186) vs Ivan Salaverry (184)
Thiago Silva (202) vs James Irvin (204)
Sean Salmon (205) vs Alan Belcher (205)
Jeremy Stephens (156) vs Din Thomas (155)
Carmelo Marrero (205) vs Wilson Gouveia (204)

Here a couple photos I took during the Liddell-Jackson weigh-in. The media section was pretty packed so I didn't get as close to the stage as I would have liked, but hopefully you get a feel for what the event was all about.

Quinton Jackson approaches the stage.

Chuck Liddell on the scale.

Quinton Jackson and Chuck Liddell stare each other down after weighing in.