Being the what the rest of the world would call a dumb American, I assumed that Montreal was much farther away from the United States than what Google maps just showed me. The predominently French Canadian city, on the eastern side of Canada, is less than 50 miles away from the upstate New York and Vermont borders. So while the Montreal crowd will obviously be predominantly Canadian, I wouldn’t be surprised to find a few outspoken Serra supporters mixed in the crowd and ready to support their fighter…and fight against the hometown crowd. It’s New York versus Montreal at UFC 83.

Canada is known for beer, cold weather, and hockey - and the fights that come with the sport. And for the first time, the UFC will be bringing the fighting to Canada in another sport which is quickly gaining mainstream attention by the Canadian press these days. It’s a move that many hardcore fans have been talking about ever since Georges St. Pierre made Matt Hughes verbally tap out during UFC 79. It’s also a move that will make the UFC a lot of money through the nearly-instant gate sellout along with the potential Pay-Per-View numbers which may rival some of the UFC’s other big PPV events if both Canadians and U.S. fans decide to watch the event live on television. And after Matt Serra decided to call out St. Pierre as “Frenchy” last May, you just might see the most eclectic UFC crowd on television ever.

But there’s more than hometown crowds, beer, and PPV numbers when it comes down to fighting. Let’s take a look at the televised matchups, including two of the five middleweight bouts, for UFC 83. (Note to UFC: Just hold a middleweight tournament and left the winner fight Anderson Silva.)

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I’ve been hearing a lot of complaints about the 185 pound division recently, and when I wrote a handful of pieces criticizing the UFC heavyweight division, I got a lot of interesting responses from people telling me that they thought the middleweight division was in similarly bad shape. Now, while I don’t entirely agree with this, I think that there’s something to be said for the status of a division that has seen as dominant a champion as the 185 pounders have in Anderson Silva.The first thing that I think we all have to acknowledge is that there isn’t a contender in the division right now that anyone thinks can beat Anderson Silva. People have suggested Yushin Okami and I’ve suggested either Martin Kampmann (who I believe is next in line for a title shot) and Drew McFedries. But the more Anderson proves himself by dominating guys that we think are going to give him a tough fight, we really have to look for a contender that is going to give the Brazilian wrecking ball a serious fight. There may be some hope in that Dan Henderson lasted as long as anyone, but we also have to recognize that Dan Henderson did not last as long as many fans (myself included) thought he should, and he stands as proof that we, yet again, underestimated the UFC middleweight champion.

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