And that’s definitely what it will be, when UFC Middleweight champion Anderson "The Spider" Silva steps into Cincinnati for the long awaited rematch with Rich "Ace" Franklin this Saturday. The former champ has strung together wins over Jason MacDonald & Yushin Okami to given the chance of redemption against the man who threw him from the top of the mountain. The bad news is that the champ has looked relentless in his last two bouts with Travis Lutter and the toughest challenge which Silva was presented with in Nate Marquadt in which he finished the middleweight ranked fighter in the 1st round.

The other shake up is the news that Randy Couture has stepped down from his thrown chucking the division into turmoil and what can only be classed as a elimination bout for the vacant title between Tim "The Maine-iac" Sylvia & Brandon "The Truth" Vera both of which have been sidelined due to injury and contract negotiations. These guys were going to collide as it was looking more likely that the 2 would square off for the title, but you know how things go in the world of MMA it’s not that straight forward as most fans think it is.

Here is a run through of the UK televised card.

Alan Belcher vs Kalib Starnes

Starnes coming off his poor performance victory against Chris Leben at UFC 71: Liddell vs Jackson II takes on a man with a submission victory under his belt in a match up that doesn’t have much bearing on the division as the other contenders Okami & MacDonald are nearer to getting a title shot, but in a match up that won’t be televised? Bizarre. Belcher will look to have the stand up advantage and is also a well versed Jiu Jitsu guy, but the Canadian Starnes will poise tricky as he renouned for his ground skills.

Prediction: Starnes by Submission Round 2

Nate Quarry for the Winner.

Eric "Ravishing Red" Schafer vs Stephan "American Psycho" Bonnar

TUF veteran looks to climb another step on the light heavy weight division ladder and cement his name as a future title contender. Schafer will look to use his submission skills which almost gave Michael "The Count" Bisping his first loss with a nice arm triangle attempt back at UFC 70: Nations Collide but I don’t think he possesses good stand up ability and we all know Bonnar loves war.

Prediction: Bonnar by KO round 1

Houston Alexander for the American Psycho!

Brandon "The Truth" Vera vs Tim "The Maine-iac" Sylvia

The 1 thing I’ll say if someone goes up against Sylvia is the size factor what you going to do with the 6ft 8in giant, Couture was chasing & chopping him down for 5 rounds bearing in mind Sylvia had an injury going into the match. Vera quoted in an interview this will be a ‘SMART WAR’ and I hope for his sake that it is because 1 thing is for certain is that Sylvia wants his title back and wants to knockout the Virginia Native and hand him his 1st loss in the Octagon. 

Prediction: Vera by split decision

Match up with Andrei Arlovski

Main Event

Middleweight Title Match

Anderson "The Spider" Silva vs Rich "Ace" Franklin

A lot of people are giving the edge to the challenger in this one, not because of the home crowd advantage, but the type of character Franklin is and hopefully learning from the mistakes he made in the 1st encounter with The Spider. I think it could be the same story again with Silva looking increasingly dangerous with each fight he has, he looks to have adopted new tools to his fight game which spells trouble for anyone in the MMA world.

Franklin, although one of his strengths is the clinch is no match for the champ and will look to possibly take the champ to the floor and use his ground game on top.

Prediction: Silva by TKO Round 4

A match with loser of the UFC-78 Redemption Main event Evans/Bisping

Overview of UFC 77: Hostile Territory

Apart from the two stand out bouts there’s not much going, although there are appearances from Josh Burkman, Stephan Bonnar, Yushin Okami & Jason MacDonald, but the last two guys have disappointed in previous outings and have been dropped to the undercard. One match to look out for is Alvin Robinson vs Jorge Gurgel in the lightweight division.