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