Whither the 275-pound cabbage?

Withering, actually.

When Wesley "Cabbage" Correira takes to the ring tonight to face Chris "Monster" Marez as part of a double-main event at X-1 World Events' Xtreme Fighting 2, it will mark the last time the wildly popular local fighter competes as a super-heavyweight.

In the other main event, Falaniko Vitale faces Mavrick "Soul Collector" Harvey.

"I'm going to work my way down and hopefully get to the light heavyweight division," Correira said. "Every single time you see me fight now it's going to be a change because I'm dropping weight."

Correira, who once packed 298 pounds on his 6-foot-3 frame, enters tonight's bout at a relatively svelte 275 pounds. He hopes to hit 265, the low-end cutoff for the super heavyweight division, before his bout next month in California.

Marez, who is also trying to drop weight so he can fight in the heavyweight and super-heavyweight divisions, is 6-foot-1 and 285 pounds.

"I'm just tired of fighting really big, 6-foot-6, 300-pound guys," Correira said. "I want to fight guys my size, my weight. All the guys in the light heavyweight division are my height. I think I can walk around at 235.

"I feel if I go down, I can shake that division up," he said.

To drop the weight, Correira said he runs 45 minutes to an hour each morning near his home in Hilo.

Correira said he doesn't know much about Marez, except that "he's a big guy."

But Correira has fought bigger opponents and won, and with record and reputation on his side, he wasn't lacking in confidence at Thursday's press conference at Dave & Buster's.

"This is going to be my last (super heavyweight) fight, so I've got to go out with a bang," he said.

Prediction?

"Knock out. Maybe in the first round, maybe in the second," he said.

Marez, a corrections officer who has spaced three wins and a loss in professional bouts over the past five years, has more tempered expectations.

Marez said he's been following Correira's exploits for years, and has no illusions about what he's in for in the ring.

"He was one of my favorite fighters to watch and I totally respect that guy," said Marez, 31. "He's got good hand speed. He throws down. To me he's the quintessential banger. He'll just stand and bang.

"Win or lose, it's a good fight for me," said Marez, who started training full time three months ago when his daughter Mireyna was born. "He's a tough dude, but I want to win and I'm going to give it my all. I want to get the 'W,' show good, put on a good show and give the crowd what they want to see."

Marez isn't sure what sort of reception he'll get from tonight's crowd, but it's highly unlikely that he'll get rattled. The humble, articulate fighter once worked as a supervisor for a probation department in California and works inside a correctional facility in San Antonio.

"My mentality is that I show (the prisoners) respect and I treat everybody the same," he said of his job. "Before they find out I'm a fighter, I already have a good rapport with them. I never tell them what I do, but someone else always does and they get really interested.

"It's an extra little thing," he says, shrugging. "They don't mess with me like they mess with other guys."

While Marez has been conditioning to improve his performance in the second and third rounds, don't expect him to dance around the ring much.

"I can move, but I prefer to stand and hit," he said. "And I prefer that my opponent stand and hit with me. It makes the crowd love them and me that much more when you have a war like that."

Correira isn't likely to oblige. He said he plans to move around and attack with a combination of boxing and muay thai — practice for when he faces smaller, faster fighters in the light heavyweight division.

But what will they call the smaller, sleeker Correira?

Cabbage Light? Half-head? Brussels Sprout?

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.