This Saturday the UFC will be front and center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The big question surrounding this PPV is which fight on the card is the most intriguing? Are people going to be more likely to watch to see the fight between Tim Sylvia and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the interim heavyweight title? Or do people more want to see the debut fight in the UFC for Brock Lesnar when he takes on former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir? Personally, I'm more excited to see the debut of Lesnar. I think he's going to make a lot of noise in the heavyweight division of the UFC.

Lesnar is a former NCAA wrestling champion as well as a former WWF/WWE heavyweight champ. His road to the UFC has been an interesting one. He is a former amateur wrestler from the University of Minnesota where he compiled a record of 106-5 overall in his college career. He moved on to become a top talent in the WWE including headlining Wrestlemania XIX where he took on Kurt Angle for the heavyweight title. (He won the match but suffered a severe concussion, almost breaking his neck performing a shooting-star press, a very difficult move for a guy his size.) Lesnar left the WWE at the height of his career, after Wrestlemania XX, to pursue another passion; playing professional football. He tried out with the Minnesota Vikings but never made it on the field during a regular season game. There was a lot of commotion surrounding his stint in the NFL as his ego and style of play got in the way of having any sort of career in pro football. Lesnar chose to move on to mixed martial arts after things didn't work out in the NFL. He signed with the UFC back in October after winning his one and only MMA fight in a K-1 Heroes Dynamite USA event back in June. In that fight he beat Min Soo Kim by submission in 69 seconds. That impressive victory, along with the name recognition, caught the attention of UFC president, Dana White.

Lesnar's first fight in the UFC will not be an easy one. Mir is a former UFC heavyweight champion and at one time was a big name in the organization. But a motorcycle accident almost ended all that. Mir has battled back though and will take on a tough competitor in Lesnar on his way back to regaining the title. His last fight was back in August at UFC 74 when he submitted Antoni Hardonk early in the first round. Mir specializes in submissions, but its not going to be easy to submit Lesnar this weekend. With an amateur wrestling background, its going to be difficult to get proper positioning or keep Lesnar down. It seems that the UFC is banking on a Lesnar victory as they are already talking of putting him in the main event of an even in the near future. If Lesnar loses this fight that could totally derail that thought.

There is another big fight taking place Saturday night. While the Lesnar/Mir fight is going to have a lot of people buying this PPV, the main event is much more important in the grand scheme of things in the heavyweight division. With the unexpected retirement of Randy Couture late last year, the UFC heavyweight title became vacant. The fight this weekend between Sylvia and Nogueira will be for the interim heavyweight title. The winner will take on someone else down the line to determine the undisputed heavyweight champion. That is, of course, assuming Couture doesn't come out of retirement between now and then. But that's not looking very likely. Sylvia is a former heavyweight champion in the UFC. He actually lost his title to Couture almost a year ago and now he has the chance to win it back from him in a round-about way. Nogueira is also a former heavyweight champ from PRIDE, an organization that the UFC owners acquired last year. Sylvia is one of the biggest (at least height wise) fighters in the UFC. He bounced back from his loss to Couture by beating Brandon Vera back at UFC 77 in October.

While the Lesnar vs. Mir fight is the big draw for the PPV this weekend, its actually the headline fight that's being used to promote the event, the main event is actually the title fight between Sylvia and Nogueira. Both fights should be great, but the UFC is doing the right thing by using Lesnar's debut to draw more people in. The rest of the fights are listed below along with my predictions, as usual.

MAIN CARD (PPV FIGHTS)
Tim Sylvia (26-3) vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (30-4-1)
Pick: Sylvia

Frank Mir (10-3) vs. Brock Lesnar (1-0)
Pick: Lesnar (upset special!)

Jeremy Horn (88-16-5) vs. Nate Marquardt (28-7-1)
Pick: Marquardt

Ricardo Almeida (8-2) vs. Alan Belcher (11-3)
Pick: Belcher

THE UNDERCARD (May not air on PPV)
Rob Emerson (8-6-1) vs. Keita Nakamura (14-2-2)
Pick: Nakamura

David Heath (9-2) vs. Tim Boetsch (6-1)
Pick: Heath

Terry Martin (18-3) vs. Marvin Eastman (14-7-1)
Pick: Martin

Chris Lytle (34-15-4) vs. Kyle Bradley (13-4-1)
Pick: Lytle

Gleison Tibau (27-3) vs. Tyson Griffin (10-1)
Pick: Griffin

Overall Prediction Results: 39-27

When you're looking for a Super Bowl-caliber QB, you want to see someone with a strong and accurate arm, amazing athleticism, a charisma that makes teammates want to rally behind you, and superior decision making skills.  And in that last category, Romo is proving to be a huge disappointment.

No, I'm not referring to his fumbling of the field goal snap in their 2007 playoff game against the Seahawks, or the abomination of a fourth quarter that he presided over against the Giants several weeks ago.  I'm referring to this little story.  Apparently Romo is on the verge of proposing to his college sweetheart, Crystal Kasper. 

Yes, the man who practically created an international incident with his off-week vacation with Jessica Simpson may now be set to marry a woman he met at tiny Eastern Illinois University.  Now, while I'm sure that Charleston, Illinois is a lovely little town, and Ms. Kasper isn't a bad catch herself...

...ask yourself, would you trust the judgment of someone that would choose her over...

  ...or...    ?

I.  Don't.  Think.  So.  Someone go get Quincy Carter's phone number for Jerry Jones, this kid's not going to cut it.

There is an excellent article on MLB.com regarding the young players in the Reds organization. It basically rates the Reds as the team with the best young talent to make a difference in 2008.

I tried to post a link to it but I cannot use the cut and paste functions with Firefox. Somthing I need to straighten out.

Also, sorry for not including a picture of a hot chick.

Wait, try this. 

And here's your hot chick:

In case anyone was paying attention more to sports this weekend than popular culture, I would just like to point out that Kirsten Haglund, the new Miss America, is a local smokeshow.  For all you horndogs on the UC campus, she is a music major on your campus (not that she'll be stepping foot on that campus again for at least the next year....maybe ever).   But look at it this way, at least she will be more attainable than the Australian Open Women's Finalists.  Wow.

Good Luck.

Looking over some mock drafts (what else do Bengals fans have to do right now) and I noticed that the freakin' Pats have the #7 pick from the 49ers. Are you kidding me? This is bogus. Commissioner Gordon (I know that's not his name) stripped the Pats of their first round pick (which will be #32) for "Spygate". But why can't he make this a real punishment by stripping them of ALL of their first round picks? How much punishment is it to lose the 32nd player when you're still going to land the 7th best player. Someone put out the bat signal we need someone to save us from this mess. Maybe Tagliabue isn't liking retirement. Goddell is trying to rival Bud Selig as professional sport's worst commissioner.