The last time the UFC held an event in the metropolitan Detroit area, it's was UFC 9: "Motor City Madness."  Champion Ken Shamrock and challenger Dan Severn fought to a split decision after a 30 minute war that saw Severn come out with the victory. Almost 15 years later, the octagon returns to the suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan with a card that should answer a lot of questions. How will Lyoto Machida respond to the first loss of his career? Is Rampage still taking fighting and training seriously? Can Matt Hughes, at 37 years old, really win his fourth consecutive fight and get himself in the talks of the welterweight title? How will BJ Penn look in his first fight at 170lbs. in almost 2 years? The answers to these questions, rounded out by some other quality match ups, should make for a great card in the Motown area.

Preliminary Fights on Spike TV

A middleweight match between Aaron Simpson and Mark Munoz will start the Spike prelims and will be followed up by Matt Brown vs. Brian Foster in a welterweight contest. These 4 fighters have 35 combined wins and only 4 of those wins have gone to decision. This is no accident. The UFC brass is expecting these guys to put on a show that will carry that Spike audience into the pay-per-view portion of the card and their records indicate that they won't disappoint their bosses.

Main Card

Lightweight bout: George Sotiropoulos vs. Joe Lauzon

Sotiropoulos is more than likely the next #1 contender if he's able to win this fight. The Aussie has ripped off seven consecutive wins (six in the UFC) and has been very impressive in doing so. His ground game is very technically sound with quick transitions, never allowing opponents to get comfortable. He's finished 7 of his 13 pro wins by submission and is deceptively powerful with his thin frame, especially since moving to lightweight 4 fights ago.

Lauzon isn't as close to a title shot as his opponent is but this guy is just consistently putting on great fights. Since coming to the UFC, six of his eight fights have ended in some kind of bonus for him- 3 submission of the night wins, a KO of the night win, and his only 2 losses both earned fight of the night honors. Lauzon holds notable wins over Jens Pulver and Jeremy Stephens.

Light-heavyweight bout:  Phil Davis vs. Tim Boetsch

At 7-0, Davis is undefeated as a pro and 3-0 since entering the UFC. An outstanding collegiate wrestler, he keeps his skills sharp and works his mma game at American Kickboxing Academy with the likes of number one welterweight contender Josh Koscheck and heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez. If Davis is able to get himself to 8-0 you can expect his next fight to be a considerable step up in competition.

Boetsch is currently in his second stint with the UFC after going 2-2 and being released in 2009. After going 3-0 outside of the promotion and winning the Combat League light-heavyweight championship he was signed again and came back to earn a unanimous decision win over Todd Brown at UFC 117....

Make sure to check back with us the day of the event for free, live, round-by-round coverage of UFC 123 right here at FiveKnuckles.com! Join expert analyst Mike Williams as he takes you through the entire fight card blow-by-blow and then keep it right here for all the post-fight news and notes you can handle!