They’re pulling out all the stops for this Saturday’s Affliction: Banned show at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Megadeth will be there. So will Michael Buffer. The undercard is being shown on cable for free. And the main event features two of the top heavyweights in the sport: Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia.

Emelianenko was the –350 favorite at press time; he’s 28-1-1 in MMA action, with the only loss coming at a RINGS event in 2000 due to a very controversial referee stoppage. Sylvia (+275) is 24-4, with all four losses against top competition while fighting for the UFC Heavyweight title.

That competition level might be the difference in Saturday’s fight. Emelianenko hasn’t really been tested since beating Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic at PRIDE Final Conflict 2005. And this isn’t the first time Sylvia goes into combat as the underdog. He’s got all the betting value in this matchup, but if you ignore the odds, Fedor is the easy pick.

We’ve missed you, Rampage.

Quinton Jackson will grace the octagon for the first time since September when he faces Forrest Griffin in the main event of UFC 86. Saturday’s big card at Mandalay Bay isn’t as hotly anticipated as you might expect, mainly because of the long layoff that allowed Jackson and Griffin to participate as a coaches in The Ultimate Fighter 7 series.

It also doesn’t help that Griffin is a +215 underdog. Although he upset Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 76, Griffin is expected to have his head handed to him by the indomitable Rampage. It isn’t that Griffin can’t stand up with the best of them – this is all about Jackson. His victories over Chuck Liddell and Dan Henderson showed the value of Jackson’s training with Juanito Ibarra. Any concerns about Jackson’s work ethic are ancient history now.

Griffin may still be the value pick, but Jackson isn’t likely to lose the Light Heavyweight strap this Saturday.

Fight fans are looking forward to this Saturday’s finals for UFC’s “The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest“. Amir Sadollah and C.B. Dollaway will square off in the championship match at The Pearl in Las Vegas; Dollaway is the favorite at –160, although he’s lucky even to be in Saturday’s fight. Sadollah upset Dollaway in the semis, but Jesse Taylor lost his spot in the finals after getting drunk and disorderly outside the Palace Station.

UFC will serve up Evan Tanner vs. Kendall Grove in the main event. Tanner is a heavy –200 chalk even though he hasn’t won a fight since 2006. The former Middleweight champion came out of semi-retirement to sign a four-bout deal with UFC; his return in March was a losing proposition at the hands (and knees) of Yushin Okami. Grove is also trying to get back into the win column after consecutive losses to Patrick Cote and Jorge Rivera.

Set to go down Saturday, May 24th (10 p.m. ET on PPV) live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, UFC 84 “Ill Will” promises to deliver huge hits with fans of mixed martial arts. The main event pits UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn against Sean Sherk. So what’s the deal with these guys? Sherk tested positive for steroids awhile back and it cost him his title. Penn has the title and is hell bent on defending it. So yeah, there’s a lot at stake here.

“I see both of these guys as having the potential to win this fight, for sure,” said lightweight contender Kenny Florian. “I don’t think it’s one of those fights where there’s a clearcut winner.

Main Event:
UFC Lightweight Champion B.J. Penn (12-4-1) vs. Sean Sherk (32-2-1)

Main card (televised):
205 lbs.: Wanderlei Silva (31-8-1) vs. Keith Jardine (13-3-1)
205 lbs.: Goran Reljic (7-0) vs. Wilson Gouveia (10-4)
205 lbs.: Tito Ortiz (15-5-1) vs. Lyoto Machida (12-0)
205 lbs.: Thiago Silva (12-0) vs. Antonio Mendes (14-2)

Under card (may not be broadcast):
185 lbs.: Rousimar Palhares (7-1) vs. Ivan Salaverry (12-5)
205 lbs.: Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (4-2) vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura (11-7)
155 lbs.: Terry Etim (10-1) vs. Rich Clementi (31-12-1)
170 lbs.: Jon Koppenhaver (5-1) vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida (9-2)
170 lbs.: Dong Hyun Kim (9-1-1) vs. Jason Tan (5-2)
265 lbs.: Shane Carwin (8-0) vs. Christian Wellisch (8-3)

B.J. Penn (-250) is favored to win against Sean Sherk (+200), but this one isn’t going to unfold that easily. Sherk wants his belt back and Penn is going to make it extremely difficult for that to happen. My prediction? Penn by decision.

One year ago, Mixed Martial Arts was all the rage. UFC had just bought PRIDE, promising fresh matchups in the octagon between the best fighters from the two promotions. Chuck Liddell was on the cover of ESPN The Magazine in anticipation of his bout with PRIDE middleweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. And then Liddell lost. Badly.

How has MMA held up in the year since UFC 71? The sport remains healthy at the top levels, but has taken a step back. Liddell-Jackson earned 675,000 PPV buys; Liddell vs. Keith Jardine at UFC 76 drew 475,000 buyers, and last month’s UFC 83 featuring Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra pulled in 525,000 according to early estimates. Those are still impressive numbers.

Meanwhile, smaller organizations like the International Fight League are trying to stay afloat long enough to capture a piece of the growing MMA media footprint. Their new hexagonal cage is a concession to UFC’s success. Others will follow.

I believe it was Robbie Burns who said the best laid plans of mice and men get punched in the face. Next month’s UFC 85 show at the O2 Arena in London was supposed to feature Chuck Liddell and Mauricio Rua in the main event. Then Rua needed surgery on his knee. And then Liddell injured his hamstring.

Those two headliners have been replaced by Rashad Evans and James Irvin. Not a lot of star power there, so there’s a new main event. Here’s the card as of Thursday:

Main
Welterweight: Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves
Middleweight: Michael Bisping vs. Chris Leben
Welterweight: Mike Swick vs. Marcus Davis
Light Heavyweight: Rashad Evans vs. James Irvin
Heavyweight: Fabricio Werdum vs. Brandon Vera

Preliminaries
Middleweight: Martin Kampmann vs. Jorge Rivera
Middleweight: Nathan Marquardt vs. Thales Leites
Lightweight: Matt Wiman vs. Thiago Tavares
Light Heavyweight: Jason Lambert vs. Luis Cane
Welterweight: Roan Carneiro vs. Ryo Chonan
Heavyweight: Antoni Hardonk vs. Neil Wain
Welterweight: Jess Liaudin vs. Paul Taylor
Welterweight: Jonathan Goulet vs. Paul Tellies Kelly

Get all your MMA lines and UFC betting odds at the Bodog Sportsbook.

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.

Georges St. Pierre has walked right into the welterweight title picture; he’s a –200 chalk to become the interim champion on Dec. 29 when he faces Matt Hughes (+160) at UFC 79.

This was originally Matt Serra’s title to defend against Hughes, but that match went down the drain when Serra suffered a back injury. Now St. Pierre gets to fight the same man he beat for the title at UFC 65; that match saw GSP beat Hughes by TKO in the second round to even their career series at one apiece.

St. Pierre will be itching to get the title back after dropping it to Serra and losing just his second match ever at UFC 69, a loss that prompted him to reorganize his camp. He is ranked second in Sherdog’s welterweight rankings; Hughes is third. Given the way GSP took down No. 5 Josh Koscheck at UFC 74, he’s the easy pick to do it again to Hughes.

I’ll leave you now with a video clip (in French of course) of what Georges St. Pierre can do. Enjoy.

We touched yesterday on Randy Couture’s TKO of Gabriel Gonzaga (-135) at UFC 74. This could very well be a watershed moment in MMA betting, and it has to do with the recent UFC takeover of PRIDE.

Gonzaga was made the No. 1 contender to Couture’s heavyweight title after knocking out Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic at UFC 70. That monumental upset whipped bettors into a frenzy to fade the eternally underrated Couture in last week’s title defense.

Mistake. Couture did benefit from a clash of heads that left Gonzaga with a broken nose, but otherwise had little trouble dispatching the inexperienced challenger in the third round.

It appears the level of competition in the heavyweight ranks at PRIDE has been overvalued stateside. At the very least, the transition to the octagon is an obstacle for fighters coming over from Japan. Either way, as Couture proved yet again, experience counts in MMA.