The UFC returns to Brazil for the first time since 1998 on Saturday with Anderson Silva vs. Yushin Okami headlining the UFC 134 card at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro. Silva, a Brazilian who many regard as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, looks to defend his middleweight championship belt for an unprecedented ninth straight time against the Japanese contender Okami.

Silva (30-4-0) is on a 14-fight winning streak. That run began after a disqualification loss to Okami in January 2006, when Silva delivered an illegal upkick to the jaw of his opponent. Okami had the opportunity to fight on but decided that he couldn’t. Silva is still angry over that because he believes that Okami could have continued.

“I was a little surprised with his reaction to that [upkick],” Silva said. “Do I think he could have continued? I do think he could have continued. But he had the rules in his favor. I did an illegal kick and he chose that it was better not to continue.”

Most recently, the “Spider” knocked out countryman Vitor Belfort in February at UFC 126 with a front kick that landed flush on Belfort’s jaw and sent him reeling to the canvas.

Since losing a 2009 bout to Chael Sonnen, Okami (26-5-0) has trained with his Sonnen to improve his wrestling technique (Silva’s toughest UFC fight came against Sonnen). And it has appeared to work as “Thunder” has won three straight fights in 2010, knocking out Lucio Linhares before outpointing Mark Munoz and Nate Marquardt to earn his shot at Silva’s title. Many consider Okami to be the best MMA fighter to ever come out of Japan.

The action thus far at Bodog has been heavily on Silva, to the tune of more than 84 percent, including nearly all of the parlay action. We opened the champion at -500 but he is now at -625, with Okami at +425.

Should Silva prevail as expected, we might see one of the most anticipated bouts in UFC history with a rumored Silva vs. welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre bout in the works. The winner of that potential fight would be the undisputed pound-for-pound king. UFC president Dana White said that fight very well could take place this year; St-Pierre won his ninth straight fight by beating Jake Shields via unanimous decision at UFC 129 at the end of April.

But back to Saturday’s card. The other main matchup is also a rematch between Forrest Griffin (18-6-0) and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (19-5-0). Griffin is currently on a two-fight win streak, with his last victory a unanimous decision over former middleweight champion Rich Franklin at UFC 126. Rua looks to rebound in his home country after a TKO loss to Jon Jones at UFC 128.

When Griffin stepped into the cage with Rua the first time, Griffin was a huge underdog in Rua’s UFC debut in September 2007. But in one of the biggest upsets in MMA history, Griffin, the winner of “Ultimate Fighter 1” snapped on a rear-naked choke, forcing Rua, a former PRIDE champion, to submit in the third round. Rua would undergo knee surgery following the loss and remained sidelined for 16 months.

The action on this bout originally was heavy on Rua, so he moved from the -200 favorite to -250 with a little more than 62 percent of the action on “Shogun.” However, late action has been more balanced, with Griffin now at +195 after opening at +160.

The winner of this fight likely will be right behind No. 1 light-heavyweight contender Rashad Evans for a title shot, with that belt currently held by Jones, who fights Rampage Jackson at UFC 135 next month.

Start Betting on Bodog Today!

A very busy stretch of top mixed martial arts bouts kicks off on Saturday night when the UFC 127 returns to Sydney, Australia, for the second time for a main card headlined by a 170-pound showdown between former two-division champion B.J. Penn and welterweight contender Jon Fitch. While the card is Sunday afternoon Down Under, it’s a Saturday night pay-per-view main card because of the time difference in North America.

While neither Penn nor Fitch is looking past Saturday’s bout, a rematch for the winner could be in the offering against welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, who some believe is the pound-for-pound king of the sport.

Get your account setup now and get in on the action of UFC 127 betting

Post By: Richard Gardner of Bodog

We will see if Josh Koscheck’s predictions about his own fights are better than his hockey forecasts.

When the UFC visited Montreal’s Bell Centre back in early May for UFC 113, Koscheck took Paul Daley down to the ground and controlled him for most of three straight rounds, winning a straight 30-27 unanimous decision. The victory was by far the biggest of Koscheck’s career and it earned him a welterweight title bout against Georges St. Pierre.

After that Daley fight, Koscheck taunted the Montreal fans by promising to defeat St. Pierre, who is from the city, and vowing that the Pittsburgh Penguins would defeat the Montreal Canadiens in the then-ongoing NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. Koscheck obviously embraces his role as UFC’s second-biggest villain behind Brock Lesnar. Two of the most popular things in Montreal are the Canadiens and St. Pierre, so those taunts obviously didn’t go over well with the crowd and will be remembered.

The Penguins, as we all know, were upset by the Canadiens in the Eastern Conference semifinals last year and now Koscheck gets his shot to at least make good on his St. Pierre prediction at UFC 124 on Saturday night back in Montreal.

These two fighters know each other well. Back on Aug. 25, 2007, at UFC 74 St. Pierre beat Koscheck, a four-time NCAA wrestling All-American, by unanimous decision by mainly outwrestling and maintaining the top position throughout most of the fight. In addition, Koscheck and St. Pierre also coached opposing teams in “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 12, which just ended.

In their first fight, St. Pierre, who is considered by many the best pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC, closed as a -240 favorite against Koscheck. But the challenger believes he is a much different fighter these days.

“One of the things that I’ve been good at in my whole career is fighting a way to get what I want,” said Koscheck. “He’s gonna see that. I’m coming to hurt you and I’m gonna put on a show and I’m gonna put out a victory. … After several years of training in MMA, training in boxing, training in jujitsu, I’m a different fighter than when he fought me.”

The line for Saturday’s fight opened with St. Pierre (20-2-0) as a -450 favorite, but heavy action on both St. Pierre and parlays involving GSP moved the line to -525. At this point we saw significant buyback on Koscheck (currently +300) and decided to move the line to St. Pierre -500 where it currently sits and is generating solid two-sided action. In fact, in total handle it’s nearly a 50-50 split on the fighters.

Being favored is nothing new for St. Pierre, who has won his past seven fights overall. That streak began with the Koscheck victory following a TKO loss to Matt Serra earlier in 2007 at UFC 69. In all seven of those wins GSP entered as the betting favorite – six were title defenses. The current -500 number is the second-biggest number that St. Pierre has been in his winning streak. The only time he was a bigger favorite was at UFC 111 in March when he was -625 against British striker Dan Hardy and beat Hardy by unanimous decision.

This is the first time that Koscheck (15-4-0) has been an underdog since his first fight with St. Pierre. In that stretch he has gone 6-2, losing only to Thiago Alves and Paulo Thiago (he needs to stop fighting guys named Thiago). The popular strategy for many players on this bout has been either to bet Koscheck straight up and take advantage of the big odds or bet St. Pierre in a parlay with some of the other champions at higher odds to increase the payout. For example, a parlay consisting of St. Pierre at -500, Anderson Silva (UFC 126 vs. Vitor Belfort) at -325 and Cain Velasquez (TBD, vs. Junior dos Santos) at -225 pays +127.

Set up your Bodog account today