Emelianenko doesn’t play the heavy at weigh-in

Fedor Emelianenko, considered the world’s top heavyweight mixed martial artist, weighed in on an elevated stage Friday, a rock ‘n’ roll drum set perched in the background.

Donald Trump, still clad in golf attire from a late-morning round, watched from the side as Michael Buffer called out Emelianenko’s weight at 230 pounds. Hundreds of fans cheered and held up cellphone cameras inside Honda Center in Anaheim, making it clear whom they came to see.

Emelianenko, the former PRIDE Fighting Championships heavyweight champion, was clearly the most popular fighter of the 20 who weighed in for Affliction’s inaugural event, Banned. The card is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. today and conclude with Emelianenko’s five-round main event against Tim Sylvia, a former heavyweight champion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Emelianenko (27-1) has fought just one other time in the United States, two years ago in Las Vegas.

The 6-foot-8 Sylvia (24-4) weighed in first, at 263 pounds.

It will be Emelianenko’s second straight fight against a much larger opponent. He fought 7-2, 352-pound Hong-Man Choi in his last bout, winning by a first-round arm bar. He said that he doesn’t prepare any differently for bigger opponents.

“There aren’t that many sparring partners that are his size,” he said of Sylvia.

-- Dan Arritt