The UFC 97 event is set to take place on April 18, 2008 in Montreal, Canada. The main event headlines a middleweight title bout between Anderson "The Spider" Silva vs. Thales Leites. The UFC has recently announced the co-main event, which will be a light heavyweight battle between Mauricio "Shogun" Rua as he takes on former UFC 205-pound champion Chuck "Iceman" Liddell.
Shogun is coming off a recent third round TKO win over former UFC heavyweight champion Mark "The Hammer" Coleman. The former PrideFC fighter had returned to the octagon after a one and a half year absence. His last fight was against former light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin where he lost via a rear-naked choke in the third round. He stated in the UFC 93 post-fight press conference that his conditioning was something he'll be training for the most as he prepares to take on Liddell.
Liddell is coming into this UFC 97 event after losing to Rashad "Sugar" Evans via a huge knockout in the second round at UFC 88. Prior to that, he defeated Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva via a unanimous decision. Liddell plans to climb back up to attain his light heavyweight battle, but he'll have to defeat the very tough Rua. Expect fireworks for this co-main event fight in Canada.
