Three points leading up to and looking past the UFC’s return to the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Saturday night.  If you didn’t get a chance to check out my piece on risk in mixed martial arts, click here .

1. This is the most complete main card the UFC has put together in over a year.

Every fight on pay-per-view has something to hold fan interest before the fight starts.  There’s a featherweight title fight with a former lightweight champion (Aldo v. Edgar), a big UFC personality trying to redeem himself after calling out the light heavyweight champ and getting humbled (Evans v. Rogério Nogueira), a former Strikeforce, DREAM and K-1 kickboxing world champion returning to the UFC after a failed drug test  (Overeem v. Silva), perhaps the most successful UFC fighter without a title facing an equally dangerous ground fighter (Fitch v. Maia) and a flyweight fight between two former title contenders (Benavidez v. McCall).  And the final fight on the undercard has the most physically imposing fighter in the lightweight division competing against a man whose last two fights have earned “Fight of the Night” (Tibau v. Dunham).  The UFC did not have a card as balanced as this one all last year.  If the Dan Henderson-Lyoto Machida fight found its way to this event (as was originally intended), it may have been the most consistently intriguing main card since UFC 100 .

2. Allistair Overeem must win this fight convincingly to dispel rumors that his renaissance came from PEDs.

Overeem abused Brock Lesnar in his first UFC fight to earn a heavyweight title shot, but a failed drug test pushed him another fight away from facing the champ.  Many longtime mixed martial arts fans cite banned substance use for the recent success of Overeem.  For a stretch spanning 2006 and 2007, Overeem lost four of five fights.  He hasn’t lost since then, and put on a weight class worth of muscle.  If Overeem wants to be taken seriously as the most dangerous mixed martial artist in the world, he has to win big and win clean.

3. The inaugural rankings system won’t immediately impact matchmaking, but it will create controversy.

UFC President Dana White equated ranking fighters to college football, probably not the savviest analogy to make given the BCS’s unsavory history.  It is more analogous to PGA Tour rankings, anyway; both are individual competitions and the ranking system has little bearing on what happens in either league.  But I foresee two problems with the addition of fighter ranks.  First, no matter what White says about the impact of the rankings on matchmaking, it will be hard to explain if the #1 lightweight ends up fighting the #4 lightweight for a title.  Or the #1 fighter is not involved at all.  The rankings may serve to diminish initial interest.  If casual fans see an “official” UFC rankings system that tells them a fighter is only the fifth best in the division, it may persuade them to stay away from the fight.

The other thing to watch with this system is how it evolves.  Right now White says about 90 media members will be a part of the initial vote.  The UFC could find a more mathematically objective system to supplement the media vote.  A computer-based ranking would add legitimacy to the process, especially for the pound-for-pound standings.  I know some people aren’t fond of the computer ranking in the BCS, but if measured in an agreeable way it’s a useful tool.  Regardless, these rankings serve as a new way to create news for the organization.