UFC on FX 7 Preview: 10 Things You Need to Know

Michael Bisping

10 Facts About UFC on FX 7

1. UFC on FX 7 airs on the FX network on Saturday at 6PT/9ET (prelims at 3PT/6ET on FuelTV). The card features a main event of Vitor Belfort taking on Michael Bisping. Should Bisping get the win, Dana White has said there's a good chance he would get the next shot at middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

2. Edson Barboza looks to rebound after losing for the first time in his career, a first round TKO loss to Jamie Varner. Barboza sits at 10-1 in his pro MMA career and will face Lucas Martins.

3. Another guy looking to come back from his first career loss is Wagner Prado. Prado fell victim to Phil Davis via submission back in October. Prado's career MMA record is 8-1-1 and he'll fight Ildemar Alcantara this weekend.

4. Diego Nunes will step into the Octagon to face Nik Lentz after leaving the renowned Nova Uniao camp in Brazil. Nunes, now a member of X-Gym, left the camp to avoid conflict should a future fight with Jose Aldo (also a Nova Uniao member) come into play.

5. Ronny Markes (yet another Nova Uniao team member) will take to the cage for the first time since February of 2012. Markes is returning from a bad hand injury that kept him out of training for several months. He'll face the undefeated Andrew Craig.

6. Thiago Tavares has also been on the shelf for a while since collecting a nice unanimous decision win over Sam Stout at UFC 142. Tavares suffered an injury preparing for his UFC on Fox 3 bout with Tony Ferguson. He was then scheduled to face Dennis Hallman at UFC 151, but the event was canceled. The Hallman bout was rescheduled to UFC on FX 5, but Hallman could not make weight and the bout was canceled. He finally gets back into the Octagon this weekend against Khabib Nurmagomedov.

7. Gabriel Gonzaga will take to the UFC cage for a second time since his brief stint away from the organization when he battles Ben Rothwell. Gonzaga has a career record of 13-6 with 8 of those wins coming inside the UFC Octagon.

8. Gonzaga's opponent, Ben Rothwell has alternated wins and losses in his last six fights. He's coming off a big KO win over Brendan Schaub at UFC 145 and has finished 29 of his 32 career wins.

9. Headliner Michael Bisping has won five of his last six contests, including a unanimous decision victory over Brian Stann at UFC 152. He has four losses during his run in the UFC, but only Dan Henderson was able to finish the Brit inside of the three round limit.

10. If Vitor Belfort isn't able to put away Bisping, a fighter who has been stopped just once in 27 career fights, the numbers are not in his favor. The Brazilian is 4-5 in the nine contests that have gone to decision during his career. Also, the last three fighters Belfort has defeated have gone 6-7 in the past 2.5 years, including Yoshihiro Akiyama and Rich Franklin, who are 0-4 and 1-2 since July of 2010, respectively. Bisping? Well, he's 4-1 since then.