The Ultimate Fighting Championship is heading back to London, England’s O2 Arena this weekend for UFC 85: Bedlam. This event could easily carry the moniker ‘Cursed’ due to the numerous injuries that have plagued the main event alone.

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Originally, Chuck ‘The Iceman’ Liddell was supposed to make his English debut with a highly anticipated matchup against Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua before the Brazilian went down with a knee injury. Then Liddell was going to fight Rashad ‘Sugar’ Evans until he suffered a leg injury in training. From there, Evans was slated to take on James ‘The Sandman’ Irvin until you guessed it, Irvin pulled out with a broken foot.

So the UFC matchmakers had to scramble to put together the main event pitting Matt Hughes (42-6) against Thiago ‘Pitbull’ Alves (14-3) in a welterweight contest. Hughes is currently a $2.00 ‘chalk’ (bet $200 to win $100) according to Sportsbook.com to defeat Alves, a $1.60 underdog (bet $100 to win $160).

Styles make fights, and this should be a good one pitting a decorated wrestler against a fighter who prefers the standup game. Hughes will spend his time searching for the takedown and some ground and pound or submission attempts to record a victory, while Alves hopes to showcase his Muay Thai skills and knockout power.

The Brazilian has nine knockout victories on his resume, including six of his seven UFC wins. Alves recorded a second-round TKO triumph over Karo ‘The Heat’ Parisyan at UFC Fight Night 13 back in April. Age might also become an issue in this fight, with Alves being one of the UFC’s welterweight young guns at 24 years old trying to topple a future Hall of Fame fighter.

Hughes has 14 knockouts during his decorated career along with 19 submissions and nine decisions. The 34-year-old has stated that he has just a few fights left before retiring, and is just 1-2 his last three fights. Both of those losses occurred to Georges ‘Rush’ St. Pierre, while his lone victory during that period was a unanimous decision over Chris Lytle at UFC 68: Uprising.

UFC:85 Bedlam also features an intriguing heavyweight matchup between Fabricio ‘Vai Cavalo’ Werdum (10-3-1) and Brandon ‘The Truth’ Vera (8-1). Werdum, the $1.30 underdog in this fight, has catapulted up the VegasInsider.com UFC Power Rankings for a couple reasons.

The 6-foot-4 Brazilian is off a second-round TKO over Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 80: Rapid Fire due to punches, putting him in the upper echelon of the UFC heavyweight division. The other reason that Werdum is now a major heavyweight player is the sad state of the division with the recent defections of Randy ‘The Natural’ Couture, Tim ‘The Maine-iac’ Sylvia, Andrei ‘The Pitbull’ Arlovski and Mirko ‘Cro Cop.’ Werdum has won three times by knockout along with five submissions and two decisions, while all three of his setbacks have occurred by decision.

Vera, presently a 1.60 favorite in this contest, hopes to rebound from his first mixed martial arts setback after falling to Sylvia by unanimous decision at UFC 77: Hostile Territory. The California native broke his hand in that defeat, but can get back into the title mix with a victory in this spot. Vera has stated in the past that he is more comfortable on the ground, although he has six knockout victories along with one submission win and one by decision.

In middleweight action, Nate Marquardt (26-7-2) squares off against Thales Leites (12-1) as a $1.45 favorite. Marquardt fought for the title last summer, but suffered a first-round TKO loss to champion Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva due to strikes.

The 28-year-old rebounded by beating Jeremy Horn by guillotine choke in the second round at UFC 81: Breaking Point. Marquardt, a veteran of Pancrase, has won 15 times by submission along with four knockouts and seven decisions.

Leites, the $1.15 underdog, has won his last three fights with the UFC after beating Ryan Jensen by armbar in the first round at UFC 74: Respect. The Brazilian has eight wins via submission, two knockout victories and two by decision. After starting his UFC career with a loss to Martin Kampmann, Leites rebounded with victories over Pete Sell, Floyd Sword and Jensen.

Brad Young can be reached at byoung@vegasinsider.com.