Serra, St. Pierre On Weight for UFC Showdown

MONTREAL, April 18 -- An estimated 3,000 plus fans packed the Bell Centre to witness the first part in what will be a historic weekend for mixed martial arts in the province of Quebec.

The main event for UFC 83 was made official as both Matt Serra (Pictures) and Georges St.Pierre made weight for Saturday night's welterweight title bout. St. Pierre, the former 170-pound champion fighting in his hometown, was greeted by a deafening ovation while the champ, Serra, was all smiles as the Bronx cheer engulfed the arena.

Former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin (Pictures) received a hero's greeting as he stepped on the scale. That was not the case for Travis Lutter (Pictures) as the crowd -- still possibly holding a grudge against the "The Ultimate Fighter 4" winner for missing weight against Anderson Silva back in February 2007 -- received a smattering of boos.

Michael Bisping (Pictures) and Charles McCarthy (Pictures) stood nose-to-nose, trading verbal jabs and butting heads with neither man backing down before UFC President Dana White calmly moved in to separate the two middleweights.

Official UFC 83 weights:
Georges St. Pierre (Pictures) (169.5) vs. Matt Serra (Pictures) (169.5)
Travis Lutter (Pictures) (185) vs. Rich Franklin (Pictures) (185.5)
Charles McCarthy (Pictures) (186) vs. Michael Bisping (Pictures) (185.5)
Mark Bocek (Pictures) (154.5) vs. Mac Danzig (Pictures) (154.5)
Nathan Quarry (Pictures) (185.5) vs. Kalib Starnes (Pictures) (186)
Joe Doerksen (Pictures) (184.5) vs. Jason McDonald (185)
Jason Day (Pictures) (183.5) vs. Alan Belcher (Pictures) (185)
Demian Maia (Pictures) (184.5) vs. Ed Herman (Pictures) (185.5)
Rich Clementi (Pictures) (155) vs. Sam Stout (Pictures) (155.5)
Brad Morris (225.5) vs. Cain Velasquez (Pictures) (235.5)
Kuniyoshi Hironaka (Pictures) (170) vs. Jonathan Goulet (Pictures) (169.5)