The big one is nearly upon us. UFC 87: Seek and Destroy is coming up on Aug. 9, and the main event is going to be a barnburner: Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch for St. Pierre’s Welterweight title.

At press time, St. Pierre was the solid favorite to defend his championship at –295. Fitch was pegged at +235, even though the two fighters have only two MMA losses apiece. The difference is in the quality of those losses. St. Pierre fell to Matt Hughes and Matt Serra, but got his revenge by beating both men for the title. Fitch dropped a pair of matches back in 2002 at the start of his MMA career.

There’s also a difference in the quality of their victories. Fitch is 8-0 in UFC action, tying Royce Gracie’s record for most consecutive UFC wins, but his top opponents were Thiago Alves and Diego Sanchez. St. Pierre has beaten pretty much every welterweight of note.

What a time to be an MMA fan. The sport is coming to prime time on CBS, Bud Light is now a sponsor, and Saturday’s UFC 82 event is generating quite the buzz. Even the preliminary bouts for UFC 82 are stacked. But let’s stick to predicting the main card for now:

Middleweight: Anderson Silva (-145) vs. Dan Henderson (+115)
I fully expect Silva to beat Henderson; this is not Hendu’s preferred weight division.

Heavyweight: Heath Herring (+145) vs. Cheick Kongo (-175)
Kongo still has the shine from beating Cro Cop, and should be able to beat the unimpressive Herring. But at these odds, Herring’s sambo skills have betting value.

Middleweight: Evan Tanner (+170) vs. Yushin Okami (-220)
If Herring’s sambo is a potential trap for Kongo supporters, then Tanner’s wrestling is an even better value in what could turn into a yawner versus the slow and steady Okami.

Middleweight: Chris Leben (-165) vs. Alessio Sakara (+135)
“Legionarius” Sakara is making the same transition as Henderson from the light heavyweights. He’s won just two of his last five fights. Leben is also 2-3, but has been through the Ultimate Fighter proving ground.

Welterweight: Jon Fitch (-550) vs. Chris Wilson (+350)
Fitch has been bet down from –625. He’s the likely winner, but Wilson still has value at these odds as an untested fighter at this level.

Since the UFC won’t be resurrecting the PRIDE label anytime soon, it only makes sense to get some value out of the name while they can. The fine folks at Zuffa bring you  UFC 82: Pride of a Champion, on Saturday, Mar. 1 from the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

If you’ve never gone down to the bar or hit the shiny red button on your remote to see a UFC pay-per-view, this particular show may interest you. The middleweight fight between Anderson “The Spider” Silva and Dan “Hollywood” Henderson has a very good chance of being an instant classic – and not because of the “title unification” hype.

This is Henderson’s second chance to lose a PRIDE belt; he was also that promotion’s last 205-pound champion, following last September’s loss to Quinton Jackson at UFC 75: Champion vs. Champion. Many top PRIDE fighters have struggled to make the transition to the octagon, and Henderson has already proved no different.