All 24 fighters competing on Friday night at the UFC on FX 4 fight card in Atlantic City got on the scale to weigh in Thursday at the Revel Casino, and while the weigh-ins went by with minimal incident, Rick Story made news after a particularly heated staredown with his opponent on Friday night, Brock "The Machine" Jardine.
After successfully making weight at 169.5 pounds, Story got right up in the face of Jardine, and the two fighters' foreheads touched as they looked to intimidate one another ahead of Friday night's welterweight battle (See video below).
Story figures to have his hands full with Jardine, who's no relation to former UFC light heavyweight star Keith "The Dean of Mean" Jardine, but is a product of the Pit Elevated training camp in Orem, Utah that's also home to The Ultimate Fighter 11 winner Court McGee, TUF 13 runner-up Ramsey Nijem, and TUF 14 standout Steven Siler. (The latter two fighters are also on the preliminary card on Friday night, facing C.J. Keith and Joey Gambino, respectively). A former NCAA Division I wrestler at Lock Haven University and Utah Valley University, Jardine is 9-1 in his MMA career, with his lone loss coming to TUF 13 winner Tony Ferguson.
Meanwhile, Story - a former collegiate wrestler in his own right at Southern Oregon -University - was the talk of the welterweight division a year ago, with a six-fight win streak that included the lone blemish on the record of current top contender Johny Hendricks. After back-to-back decision losses against Charlie Brenneman and Martin Kampmann, though, Story has lost his momentum, and is in bad need of a win against Jardine to not only rebuild his momentum, but possibly to keep his place in the UFC.
Judging by his intensity at Thursday's weigh-in, he's extremely determined to get it.
Full weigh-in results are below.
Main Card (FX, 9 p.m. ET)
Gray Maynard (155) vs. Clay Guida (155)
Sam Stout (155.5) vs. Spencer Fisher (156)
Brian Ebersole (170) vs. TJ Waldburger (170.5)
Ross Pearson (146) vs. Cub Swanson (145.5)
Preliminary Card (Fuel TV, 6 p.m. ET)
Hatsu Hioki (145.5) vs. Ricardo Llamas (145)
Ramsey Nijem (156) vs. C.J. Keith (157 - forfeits 20% of his purse to Nijem)
Rick Story (169.5) vs. Brock Jardine (170.5)
Steven Siler (145.5) vs. Joey Gambino (145)
Nick Catone (185.5) vs. Chris Camozzi (185.5)
Matt Brown (170.5) vs. Luis Ramos (170)
Preliminary Card (Facebook.com/UFC, 5 p.m. ET)
Dan Miller (170.5) vs. Ricard Funch (170.5)
Ken Stone (135.5) vs. Dustin Pague (135)