Now that we’ve gone over the main card, here are my picks and predictions for the preliminaries. Don’t snooze on these fights – there’s some good stuff in there.

Heavyweight: Andrei Arlovski (-350) vs. Jake O’Brien (+250)
O’Brien isn’t being given much of a chance against the former Heavyweight champion, and for good reason. First-round knockout.

Welterweight: Luke Cummo (-160) vs. Luigi Fioravanti (+130)
This could be the weakest bout on the card. Cummo went to the finals of The Ultimate Fighter 2 and has enough striking power to win this one.

Welterweight: Diego Sanchez (-450) vs. David Bielkheden (+300)
Sanchez has just two losses on his record, but those were in his last two fights, to Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch. Sanchez should be able to get back in the win column, but has no betting value here.

Welterweight: Josh Koscheck (-450) vs. Dustin Hazelett (+300)
Hazelett is THE value pick on the card. It isn’t so much Koscheck’s loss to Georges St. Pierre at UFC 74, but Hazelett’s 3-1 record in the octagon and his submission skills.

Lightweight: Jorge Gurgel (-200) vs. John Halverson (+160)
Gurgel has failed to cash in on his TUF experience. I’ll take Halverson and the healthy payout.

Born September 28, 1976, Fedor Emelianenko is a Russian heavyweight mix martial artist. He had been the reigning champion in PRIDE since March 16, 2003 and was the last PRIDE heavyweight champion.

Some already consider Emelianenko a legend. Many consider him to be the best that there is. He has been largely inactive since the purchase of PRIDE by UFC, with the exception of a fight for BodogFight. The obvious place for him to be is the UFC but negotiations and signings are flying all over the place.

Emelianenko’s enthusiasm for fighting began with Judo and Sambo. It was said that in the beginning he was known to be relatively weak physically and did not have an innate grappling talent; instead, his biggest strength was his perseverance and strong will.

Recently on February 13th of this year, Emelianenko attended the first DREAM (a new Japanese Mixed Martial Arts promotion) press conference. It was confirmed that the organization had a tightly knit alliance with M-1 Global and he would be fighting on the new organizations fight cards.

With a MMA record of 28 wins and only one loss Fedor Emelianenko is defiantly a terrifying force that truly demands respect.

MMA connoisseurs have circled Mar. 1 on the calendar in red pen. That’s when two of the more highly regarded fighters in the sport will meet in Columbus, Ohio for the main event of  UFC 82.  Adding to the intrigue, this is billed as a “unification” bout between UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva (–150) and PRIDE Welterweight champion Dan Henderson.

Silva is ranked as the top middleweight in the world and the best pound-for-pound fighter in world, according to Sherdog. Henderson is No. 5 in the latter category and an accomplished name in his own right. Both fighters have outstanding grappling skills; Henderson is a two-time Olympian in Greco-Roman wrestling, while Silva adds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to his considerable Muay Thai arsenal.

But can Henderson handle the drop in weight from 205 to 185 pounds? At +120, “Hollywood” provides a pretty small return on investment coming off his loss in September to Quinton Jackson.

The UFC hasn’t officially announced this matchup yet, but the folks at MMA Junkie appear to have broken the news about what promises to be a huge main event at UFC 85: Chuck Liddell versus Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. This card is pencilled in for June 14 at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Odds on this matchup will almost certainly be released within milliseconds of its official announcement. Both fighters are trying to shake off damaging losses; Liddell has already taken the first step by beating Wanderlei Silva at UFC 70, but Rua is still stinging from September’s UFC debut loss to Forrest Griffin.

Meanwhile, odds for both UFC 82 and 83 are up on the board. Anderson Silva is a –150 favorite to beat Dan Henderson (+120) on Mar. 1, while Georges St. Pierre is a huge –500 chalk to beat Matt Serra (+350) and reclaim the full Welterweight title on Apr. 19.

Mixed martial artists are some of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. Take Chuck Liddell: grappler, actor, businessman, and now author. His autobiography Iceman: My Fighting Life was released on Jan. 29 and is available at bookstores nationwide. Liddell recently appeared on Conan O’Brien’s talk show to promote the book. Yes, he paints his toenails.

What, a fighter can’t be a writer, too? The octagon is no place for the weak of mind. Liddell got his accounting degree at Cal Poly SLO in 1995; according to Sports Illustrated, Liddell is among the roughly 80 percent of UFC fighters with college degrees.

Cerebral though he may be, Liddell actually got some help with this project. Chad Millman is the ghostwriter; handicappers might remember Millman for his 2002 book The Odds: One Season, Three Gamblers, and the Death of Their Las Vegas. Millman also co-authored Invincible, the Vince Papale story that became a Hollywood blockbuster starring Mark Wahlberg.

Canadian UFC “Interim” Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre is Set to Fight Matt Serra in Montreal

Canadian MMA fans have been waiting a long time for this and with a fight date now official, it looks like Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes will meet for the UFC welterweight championship title on April 19, 2008 at Montreal’s Bell Centre. UFC president Dana White has a strong feeling that this could be the biggest fight in the history of the UFC.

St. Pierre and Serra have met before in a title fight. At the time, St.Pierre was a heavy favourite, but lost by knockout when Serra sent him packing with a right hand punch to the jaw. Back then folks were saying it was a lucky hit, but Serra begs to differ.

“When people say I hit him with a lucky punch, I say, `Who did you think I was intending to hit?’” he said. “If you beat the man, you’re the man. And I didn’t just beat him. I beat him down. Looks like I’m going to have to do it again to get some respect.”

Times have changed for both fighters, however. Serra skipped out on his last fight (scheduled for Dec. 29) against Matt Hughes on account of two herniated discs in his spine. St.Pierre was later pulled in to replace Serra and won the match by submission. With a sports psychologist on his training staff, St. Pierre is confident he can take Serra to the mat and win.

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It will be very interesting to see whether the UFC’s decision to book a PPV for the day before the Super Bowl pays off. Mainstream coverage has been virtually nil because of the big game, but the demographics of these two sports align quite nicely, and Brock Lesnar (-150) happens to be in the feature bout against Frank Mir (+120). We’ve seen people like Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic struggle to make the transition from PRIDE to UFC; what Lesnar is trying to accomplish is much more daunting. This is Mir’s fight to lose.

Although Lesnar and Mir are the poster boys for UFC 81, the actual main event pits former UFC Heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia (+135) against former PRIDE champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (-165) for the Interim title. Nogueira has the skills to beat Sylvia without having to venture dangerously close to the big man, but at these odds the universally hated Sylvia is tough to fade.