Next Saturday night the UFC will be entering the Pacific Northwest for the first time as it holds UFC 102 in Portland. Fans in the Rose Garden, as well as viewers on pay-per-view will be treated to a battle of MMA veterans.

The main event will feature UFC Hall of Famer, Randy "The Natural" Couture against former PRIDE heavyweight champion, Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira. MMA enthusiasts appreciate this matchup because it should be a chess game of a fight between two highly skilled grapplers. Nogueira hangs his hat on the martial art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu whereas Couture's main discipline is Greco-Roman wrestling.

Each are coming off of a loss from a UFC heavyweight championship final four of sorts with Couture and Nogueira losing to Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir, respectively. A win will be necessary to maintain relevancy in the UFC heavyweight division.

The co-main event of the event will feature "The Dean of Mean" Keith Jardine vs. Thiago Silva. Silva was undefeated at 13-0 until he met the karate brick wall that is Lyoto Machida. A model of inconsistency, Jardine is 3-3 in his last six UFC fights with no consecutive wins or losses.

Although it's not a co-main event of UFC 102, there's a particular bout on the card that's noteworthy. The Nate Marquardt vs. Demian Maia matchup should be followed closely.

After Dan Henderson's total annihilation of Michael Bisping at UFC 100 earned him first crack at Anderson Silva's middleweight title, the Marquardt-Maia winner is said to be second in line for the title shot.

Maia's modus operandi is defeating an opponent without injuring him. He rarely strikes and relies almost exclusively on his masterful Jiu- Jitsu skills to submit his opponents. Expect a battle of contrasting styles as he faces the athletic, more well-rounded, Greg Jackson Submission Fighting product, Marquardt.

Back to main event fighter, Couture, it's important to note that after his fight with Nogueira on Saturday, he will only have one more fight remaining on his UFC contract. There have been some occurrences in the landscape of MMA that make his soon to be free agency quite interesting.

For years MMA purists have been wanting Captain America, Couture himself, to fight perennial world number one heavyweight, Fedor Emelianenko. Unfortunately for those fans, Fedor refused to sign a contract with the UFC opting to sign with competing organization, Strikeforce. If Couture were to leave the UFC fans could finally be treated to this matchup, albeit a little late since Couture is now 46 years of age.

A very interesting thing to note is that when Couture left the UFC in 2007, he signed a deal with sports video game leader, EA Sports, to participate in an MMA video game. The UFC has since barred its fighters from signing with EA Sports because the UFC has an exclusive deal with game maker, THQ for the "UFC 2009 Undisputed" game.

Not bound by a UFC contract, Fedor signed with EA Sports three weeks ago. He and Couture are to be the two showcased fighters on its yet to be released MMA video game. They may not have fought in real life, but they sure could fight against each other in a virtual game- space.

Assuming Couture does become a free agent when his UFC contract is up, the EA Sports MMA video game could very well become a platform to hype a Fedor Emelianenko vs. Randy Couture bout.

We live in an age where video games are now a medium. Musicians such as Aerosmith and Metallica have used the popular video game, Guitar Hero, to drum up music sales and promote new albums. With EA Sports' signings of the two MMA legends, there's the potential for a synergy with a fight promoting a video game, and a video game promoting a fight.

David Estrada Jr. is a Mixed Martial Arts columnist for the Port Arthur News. He can be e-mailed at DavidEstrada@DavidEstrada.com