The UFC 147 fight card goes down Saturday night in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and while the original main event of Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen for the UFC Middleweight Championship is long gone - moved to Las Vegas as this fight card was shifted from Rio de Janeiro to the smaller Estadio Jornalista Felipe Drumond - there's still plenty of action on tap for Saturday night's pay-per-view.
Here's what to expect from the five-fight main card.
Wanderlei Silva vs. Rich Franklin: When he originally signed to fight at UFC 147, Silva had hopes to avenge a loss to Vitor Belfort in his UFC debut. Instead, the "Axe Murderer" gets a rematch of his UFC 99 battle with Franklin, which was the Fight of the Night in Germany. While it's not the matchup that Wanderlei wanted, it might be the more winnable one for him.
Silva's greatest liability at this point is his chin, which is no longer as formidable as it once was. Franklin's certainly no slouch in the striking department, but he's not the same kind of feared striker that Belfort is. Being in there with Franklin instead of "The Phenom" might give Silva a bit more margin from error, albeit not much, since Franklin was the man who ended the career of UFC Hall-of-Famer Chuck Liddell when the two met two years ago at UFC 115.
In the end, it'll probably be Silva's chin that is his undoing. He'll fight well, but sooner or later, Franklin is going to hit the "off" button on Silva's chin and his career. Figure a fourth-round knockout for "Ace."
Cezar Ferreira vs. Sergio Moraes: The middleweight final of the first all-Brazilian season of The Ultimate Fighter got a new participant when Daniel Sarafian came up with an injury in training and was forced to withdraw. That gave Moraes a second chance after getting knocked out by Sarafian in the semifinals. Ferreira trains in the U.S. at Xtreme Couture, but Moraes has fighting experience in the U.S. after beating Josh Martin at a Bellator event three years ago. Moraes has won all but one of his fights by submission, but might have a tough time getting to the ground against "Mutante," who has three of his four wins by knockout or TKO. He'll do the same to Moraes, in the second round. Moraes slapped Ferreira's hand away at the weigh-in, but "Mutante's" hand will find the mark on Saturday.
Rony Mariano Bezerra vs. Godofredo de Oliveira: The featherweight final of TUF Brazil is a battle of submission specialists, as "Rony Jason" and Oliveira have a total of 13 submission victories between them, and only one decision (a loss for Bezerra). Don't figure on this one going to the judges, either. Oliveira has the perfect record, but Bezerra is a product of Team Nogueira, which is a reason to keep an eye on him. It's tough to evaluate their competition without knowing too much about it, so we'll go out on a limb and take "Jason" to put the first blemish on Oliveira's record via third-round submission.
Fabricio Werdum vs. Mike Russow: This is the fight to watch this weekend, since it could move Werdum one step closer to a shot at Junior dos Santos. Russow has an impressive win streak, but he's nowhere near the caliber of fighter it takes to beat Werdum, a group that includes dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and former UFC champ Andrei Arlovski. Russow is, quite simply, not on that level. Werdum by second-round submission.
Yuri Alcantara vs. Hacran Dias: Dias makes his UFC debut with an impressive 20-1-1 record. Alcantara, however, is no slouch with his 13-ight win streak that includes a pair of UFC victories. Those wins were by decisions, but chances are this fight won't make it that far. This is a Fight of the Night contender, but we like Alcantara to expose some UFC jitters for the debuting Dias. Alcantara by third-round TKO.
