The Ultimate Fighting Championship is making its second trip to Montreal, Canada for UFC 97: Redemption. Saturday’s main event from Bell Centre features a Brazilian battle between middleweight champion Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva (23-4) and Thales Leites (14-1).

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‘The Spider’ has been installed as a decided $5.50 ‘chalk’ (bet $550 to win $100) over Leites, the $375 underdog (bet $100 to win $375). Silva has been the UFC’s most impressive champion that he even gets criticized when he doesn’t completely dominate. The 34-year-old hasn’t lost a fight in over three years, but is coming off a subpar victory over Patrick ‘The Predator’ Cote. That matchup ended when Cote injured his knee early in the third round and was unable to continue.

Leites received his title shot by winning his last five fights after subbing Drew McFedries with a first-round rear naked choke at UFC 90: Silva vs. Cote. Leites is a ground specialist, recording nine of his victories by submission. The 27-year-old needs to get this fight to the ground to have any chance of recording the upset, but ‘The Spider’ himself is a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Silva has been so dominant, that Saturday’s headline event is in danger of being eclipsed by the light heavyweight matchup between Chuck ‘The Iceman’ Liddell (21-6) and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua (17-3). These two fighters were on top of the mixed martial arts world a couple of years ago, and now both enter this fight in dire need of a victory.

Liddell is currently listed as a $1.80 favorite against Rua, the $1.60 underdog.

“I’ve wanted this fight for a long time, since back in the UFC vs. Pride days,” noted Liddell. “I plan on mixing it up in there, but I plan on striking and I plan on knocking him out.”

‘The Iceman’ was on top of the MMA world from 2004 through 2006 as the UFC’s light heavyweight champion, recording seven consecutive knockout victories. However, Liddell is just 1-3 his last four fights, and is coming off a devastating second-round knockout loss to ‘Sugar’ Rashad Evans at UFC 88: Breakthrough. This may be the last chance that the 39-year-old has to getting back into the title hunt.

“This is exactly what I need, I want fights that are going to get me closer to getting a title shot and I think this is one of those fights,” said Liddell. “It’s a fight that people want to see, we’re going to be going at it until someone gets knocked out.”

Rua was equally dominating in Japan’s Pride, and won the 2005 middleweight grand prix. ‘Shogun’ has victories over such fighters as Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Antonio Rogerio ‘Minotoro’ Nogueira, Alistair Overeem, Ricardo Arona, Kevin Randleman and Mark Coleman.

‘Shogun’ should be in his fighting prime at 27 years old, but has been hampered by a couple of knee surgeries and a broken arm. The knee injuries have prevented him from working on his cardio, which was evident in his UFC debut loss to Forrest Griffin and a lackluster victory over Coleman. Rua suffered a broken arm in his first fight against Coleman at Pride 31 Dreamers three years ago when he fell awkwardly.

Both Liddell and Rua are at crossroads coming into this contest.

“All my fights were important in my life, but I see this fight as the most important,” stated Rua. “Liddell is a guy who deserves respect because he’s a top fighter, but I see myself victorious in this fight.”

Liddell and Rua were originally scheduled to fight at UFC 85 in England, but ‘Shogun’ had to cancel after he re-injured his knee during training before undergoing a second surgery.

“The worst moment was when I injured my knee for the second time,” said Rua. “I was confirmed against Liddell and was in great shape, but unfortunately I had a new injury.”

This fight has many similarities to the Liddell-Wanderlei ‘The Axe Murderer’ Silva fight that occurred at the end of 2007. Both fighters entered that matchup suffering through a two-fight losing streak, and many experts thought the fight was two or three years past its prime.

The two locked up in one of the best fights of the year in a thrilling back-and-forth slugfest that Liddell eventually won by unanimous decision. Rua is very close with Silva, and said he talked with his countryman about this bout.

“Silva told me that Liddell is a good athlete and hits hard, but he said that if I get there and I’m in good shape I will beat him,” stated Rua. “Besides being his friend, he gave me some good tips.”

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