This Saturday in Vancouver, British Columbia the Ultimate Fighting Championship will hold their next pay per view UFC 115. The main event includes Rich Franklin vs Chuck Liddell. Honestly right now this is probably one of the weakest pay per view card for the UFC. Now if this was a free television card on Spike television then the card would not be bad at all. The main event fighters are both coming off losses and it is hard to say what would happen for the winner. The light heavyweight division is so deep that the winner would have a couple more challenges to face before even being considered a contender for the title.

The rest of the UFC 115 card looks disappointing in my eyes. Pat Barry a developing fighter against a worn and beat down Mirko Cro Cop as a co-main event is “ugghhhh”. Then you have Paulo Thiago versus Martin Kampmann which is a good fight between two ranked welterweights. After that I can really care less about the fights. It just does not appeal to me.

Prediction Time:
Franklin vs Liddell – Franklin via Unanimous Desicion

Barry vs Cro Cop – Barry via TKO 2nd round

Thiago vs Kampmann – Thiago via Submission 2nd round

If someone could be bothered to author one of those fancy USA Today-type graphs, you could chart a pretty clear ascendancy of effectiveness in the UFC career of Mauricio Rua.

In his debut against Forrest Griffin — the barely perceptible starting blip — he faded after a few minutes and wound up eating only the second submission loss of his career.

He didn’t look a whole lot better against Mark Coleman, but at least he managed to pull out a win with only seconds to go. (The bar goes a little higher.)

Against Chuck Liddell, he delivered an efficient and clean knockout. (Getting up there.)

Against Lyoto Machida, he lost to the undefeated light heavyweight champion, but many believe he deserved the decision. (Bar scraping the ceiling.)

This is progress.

You would think that fighters like Rua, who spend the majority of their careers competing under Japan’s Pride rules, would have an easier time adjusting to American regulation. They have additional rest periods, which offer a chance to take more risks closer to the bell; they usually get more than a few weeks’ notice to prepare. And handing elbows back to a Muay Thai specialist (Pride forbids their use) is a pretty generous offer.

Click here to read the full article – By Jake Rossen/Sherdog.com of ESPN.com