Wanderlei Silva has returned to a familiar place -- and weight -- for his upcoming light-heavyweight bout against Brian Stann at a UFC on Fuel event in Saitama, Japan.
Silva, 36, is set to compete in Japan for the first time since December 2006. The country served host to some of the best performances of Silva's career, including when he won the 205-pound Pride title in 2001.
After a five-fight stint of middleweight and catchweight bouts, Silva (34-12-1) returns to the light-heavyweight division this weekend. He came in at 204 pounds during Friday's official weigh-in. Stann (12-5) weighed in at 206.
"I'm so proud to fight back here," Silva said, earlier in the week. "That stadium, Saitama, has given me some of the best moments in my career."
All fighters set to compete on Saturday's card successfully made weight except Diego Sanchez. Sanchez (23-5) weighed 158 pounds on first attempt. He was given an hour to cut to the 156-pound limit. Sanchez's previous four fights have been as a welterweight.
In the co-main event, heavyweight Stefan Struve (25-5) will look to solidify himself as a top contender in the division against Mark Hunt (8-7). The fight was previously scheduled at UFC 146, but scrapped because of injury.
Struve weighed 260 pounds; Hunt came in at the 266-pound limit.
Middleweights Hector Lombard (32-3-1) and Yushin Okami (28-7) were also amongst the fighters who made weight.
