You make some very good points but I would like to add a couple of things that come to mind right away.
You mention travel before the fight and I agree this is a valid point but total distance or time zone changes may not always be the biggest factor or relevant. It is usually possible with some research to find out how long before a fight the fighter is in the location so when fighters competing in the USA who are from say Japan or vice versa arrive a couple weeks ahead of time to adjust pre fight I think the travel becomes pretty much irrelevant. Also issues such as alltitude changes should never be overlooked and I think this was very obvious at the last UFN event which took place in Colorado, both Florian and Lauzon train at sea level but Florian arrived in Colorado weeks prior to the event to allow his red blood cell count to adjust, Lauzon did not and it showed.
You also mention appearance at weigh in and I agree this is important because often it is the first time you really get to see the two fighters closeup side by side to make an accurate comparison because often stats for height listed by organizations are horribly off. Appearance at the weighin also can allow you to potentially spot a fighter that had to make a serious weight cut which can greatly affect performance ie Travis Wuiff @ 205 and Jason Black @ 155
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