The UFC hits Rio for the first time since 1998 this Saturday, and they are bringing a stacked card headlined by pound-for-pound star and current UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva.
He takes on Yushin Okami in a rematch of a fight they had five years ago. Okami won the fight by disqualification after Silva used an illegal kick that knocked him out.
The co-main event will also be a rematch featuring former UFC light heavyweight champions Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Forrest Griffin.
Griffin defeated Rua at UFC 76 when he submitted the Brazilian fighter in the third round.
Other main card bouts include Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Brendan Schaub, Edson Barboza vs. Ross Pearson and Stanislav Nedkov vs. Luiz Cane.
Preliminary fights can be seen on Facebook and Spike TV.
The following are my predictions for knockout, submission and fight of the night.
Fight of the Night: Brendan Schaub vs. Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira
The lone heavyweight bout on the card brings a legend and an up-and-comer together to determine which one is worthy of being a top 10 heavyweight.
Former UFC interim heavyweight champion Nogueira hasn't fought in over 15 months since losing to Cain Velasquez at UFC 110.
Schaub is coming off four wins in a row, including victories over Mirko "Cro Cop" Flipovic and Gabriel Gonzaga.
Both like to finish their opponents and that often makes for a great fight if it goes the distance, which I think it will. Nogueira is susceptible to being knocked down and recovering fast enough to lock on a submission at any point in the fight.
Schaub could find himself on the receiving end of some exciting scrambles on the ground if he gets a little too over zealous for the finish.
Even if this fight doesn't go the distance, I think it goes long enough to win the fight of the night bonus.
Submission of the Night: Raphael Assuncao
Former WEC and UFC featherweight fighter Raphael Assuncao makes the move down to bantamweight to take on Johnny Eduardo in a preliminary bout.
Eduardo is a 15-year veteran of the sport and brings a 25-8 record to the Octagon. He has 13 submission victories to his credit, but he also has seven submission losses as well.
Assuncao is 16-4 with a 0-1 record inside the UFC. He was blasted away inside the first round of his UFC debut in March. It was his third loss out of his last four fights and warranted a move down to the 135 pound division.
As a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt, Assuncao has claimed nine victories by submission, most of which came earlier in his career. He holds a win over Joe Lauzon by submission.
Assuncao knows he needs an impressive victory in this fight. If he comes out strong and gets his opponent to the mat, he should be able to wear him down for a submission victory in the second or third round.
Knockout of the Night: Anderson Silva
Most people know the story of the first fight. Okami won by disqualification after Silva used an illegal up-kick to knock him out. It happened quickly in the bout so it's hard to draw any conclusion as to how this fight will go down.
Okami is one of the more successful middleweights in the division and has been for a long time. He likes to counter-punch and use his wrestling to control the fight and win a decision.
Okami is probably one of the harder fighters to finish, but Vitor Belfort is also a very hard fighter to finish, and Silva put him away with one front-kick to the face.
It's that kind of unexpected ending that makes it hard to pick against Silva in a fight where all the breakdown in the world essentially cannot predict what is going to actually take place.
With Silva being in front of his hometown crowd, there shouldn't be any playing around this time. Sometimes, it's a worst case scenario for fans when Silva meets a counter-puncher, but "The Spider" knows what he has to do to get his opponent out of there.
It probably won't come early, but expect to see Silva get the knockout sometime within the five-round distance to successfully defend his title and continue to build his legacy.
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