The Spider will be in action again.

For the first time in history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, MMA athletes will slug it out in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, on April 10 as UFC 112: Invincible features middleweight title holder Anderson ”The Spider” Silva facing off against Demian Maia.

Middleweight champion Anderson Silva is 25-4 with 19 wins by TKO. He is a striker and has a dangerous jiu jitsu game. He is arguably the best fighter on the planet and has the resume to prove it. Silva is a perfect 10-0 in the UFC, including a successful title defense over Thales Leites last April before again moving up to 205 pounds to beat Forrest Griffin in August.

His opponent, Demian Maia, replaced an injured Vitor Belfort to get a shot at Silva. Maia (12-1) returned to action back in UFC 109, rebounding from his first career loss, a 21-second knockout to Nate Marquardt in August, with a unanimous decision over Dan Miller, which improved his UFC record to 6-1, including a previous victory over top 185-pound contender Chael Sonnen.

A left eyelid cut prompted the Nevada State Athletic Commission to medically suspended Maia until August, but he was not suspended from training and will apparently be healed and cleared to fight Silva this Saturday.

”It’s always tough when a top fighter like Vitor Belfort has to pull out of a big title fight, but we have found a high quality replacement,” said UFC President Dana White in a press release.

Top contender Chael Sonnen was not available due to injuries sustained in his fight with Nate Marquardt, so Demian Maia stepped in to fight for the title. Maia is an Abu Dhabi grappling champion and a five-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion. He is 12-1 in MMA and is…

Easy. He hates Vitor Belfort.

Looks like we won’t get to play as Dan Henderson again in the coming UFC Undisputed 2010 eh? Yes, Hendo just inked a multi-fight deal with Strikeforce, leaving Dana White and the UFC for greener pastures.

But at 39 years old, how greener can these pastures still be for Dan Henderson? Really? As far as Henderson is concerned, it looks like he could care less, as long as he can stick it up to Dana White for giving Vitor Belfort a title shot.

Yes, apparently, that was the reason why Henderson left the UFC. After beating Michael Bisping to a bloody pulp in UFC 100, Henderson proved he is still one of the best fighters in the welterweight division. And yet, the UFC gave Vitor Belfort a title fight with welterweight champion Anderson Silva. That proved to be too much for Henderson’s ego to bear.

”Honestly, even if they had given the Silva fight to Nate Marquardt I would have been OK with that, because he’s pretty much in the same boat as I am,” Henderson said in an interview. ”But to give it to Vitor Belfort, a guy who hadn’t fought at that weight? And a guy I’d beaten?”

”I felt like there could have been a lot more respect for what I’d done,” he said. ”I just felt like they didn’t really care one way or the other whether I was there. I felt like they could have taken care of me a little better, but I have no hard feelings.”

As for his new bosses? Henderson is thrilled that somebody is still willing to take him in and give him the opportunity to salvage what’s left of his career.

”I’m very happy to be a part of Strikeforce and their partnership with…”

And he doesn’t mind being the underdog this Saturday.

We have quite a busy night this Saturday, on one end, we have UFC 103 where Rich Franklin will take on the returning Vitor Belfort with both trying to salvage what’s left of their careers, on the other end we have the highly anticipated Floyd Mayweather Jr. – Juan Manuel Marquez fight where we’ll see the return of the best pound for pound fighter in the world taking on one of the best fighters to come out of Mexico.

Yep, it should be one helluva show alright and as far as the best pound for pound fighter in the world is concerned, Floyd Mayweather Jr. knows that, at 39-0, it’s still his throne until somebody takes it away from him.

However, as daunting as facing a man with an undefeated record is, Juan Manuel Marquez ain’t fazed one bit. Marquez knows that he’s facing arguably the best fighter in boxing today, and him moving up two weight classes just to be in the same ring with Mayweather, he knows too that he’s coming in as the heavy underdog.

Still, he’s looking to shock the world.

”I think that life is full of surprises,” Marquez said through an interpreter. ”This is what motivates me. This is what makes me train hard. When I wake up in the morning, it makes me want to train harder, run faster and longer. These are the kind of fights that motivate me. I’m going to prove everybody wrong.”

”By far, I feel he’s the best. He’s undefeated. He retired, and he’s still considered to be the best pound for pound in my eyes and in a lot of people’s eyes.”

”It’s a very hard fight, but mentally I’m preparing…”

Saturday night will be a very busy night and as far as Dana White is concerned, he wants to be the premiere attraction.

In case you don’t know it yet, UFC 103 will be this Saturday when Rich ”Ace” Franklin fights Vitor Belfort as both MMA fighters try to salvage what’s left of their UFC career.

However, there’s this one little sporting event happening on the exact same time that Rich Franklin and Vitor Belfort will hop inside the Octagon. It turns out that Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez are also scheduled to be in a ring this Saturday, and as expected, UFC president Dana White doesn’t like it one bit.

”Boxing is doing it to you again,” Dana White said on a newly released video from the UFC. ”They’re giving you the fight that you don’t want. Nobody asked for this fight with Mayweather and, what’s his name? What’s his name? Nobody even knows.”

Um… It’s Juan Manuel Marquez, and the entire nation of Mexico knows.

Of course, we can’t blame Dana White for feeling the way he feels about the whole thing. Rich Franklin is one of his major draws in the UFC and for a showboater like Floyd Mayweather trying to overshadow the UFC boss in what was suppose to be a huge Saturday payday is frustrating.

At least the guy’s still trying to woo you into watching this Rich Frankin – Vitor Belfort fight this Saturday, trying to rationalize why you should tune in to UFC 103 instead of the scheduled Mayweather – Marquez bout..

”On that same night, on that UFC card, you guys can all tune in and you can watch not one fight, you guys can watch five great fights that night for ten dollars less than what Floyd wants you to pay to see him run around in circles, and lay on the ropes, and move around and not fight.”

I have this feeling that the fight will be settled not in…