With EliteXC making waves in the MMA world, their Showtime offering Saturday is appropriately titled "Uprising."

While Chuck D had a point with "Don't Believe The Hype," Nas stated EliteXC's case quite eloquently with "It Ain't Hard To Tell."

Indeed, the stalwarts of vintage hip-hop predicted the future of MMA and did so quite accurately mind you. I won't spoil the rest, but Count Mackula himself guarantees a quality night of fights courtesy of the UFC's latest competition.

So get ready to send me some more hate mail and, more importantly, read on and learn all about proper ironing techniques, yellow journalism and Senatorial bathroom follies. All that and some MMA thrown in here, too, for all you folks who are into that sort of thing.

Robbie Lawler (Pictures) vs. Murilo Rua (Pictures)

Once penciled in as the future flag bearers for two of the most acclaimed MMA gyms in the world (Chute Boxe and Miletich Martial Arts) Murilo "Ninja" Rua and "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler (Pictures) buckled like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Their middleweight title bout in the main event Saturday could be just what both men need to remind fans that they shouldn't go the way of the lost works of Aristotle: forgotten.

A headlining role was all but handed to Lawler early in his UFC career thanks to his dynamic, albeit undisciplined, striking style. He was turning heads when he was just 22 years old. In fact, his power and aggression had many wondering if a showdown with teammate and UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes (Pictures) was inevitable.

Such plans were quickly suspended after Lawler lost three of his last four UFC bouts, including his middleweight debut against MMA's Grizzly Adams, Evan Tanner (Pictures).

Since that first dalliance at 185, Lawler has rebuilt his reputation as one of MMA's resident mad bombers. His most recent raids include knockout wins over Falaniko Vitale (Pictures), Joey Villasenor (Pictures) and Frank Trigg (Pictures).

Knockouts have long been the calling card of Chute Boxe, but much like Marilyn Munster, Rua never quite fit in with his adoptive family. Combining underrated grappling ability with a nonstop motor, Rua was the Telamonian Ajax of the Chute Boxe army, serving as a bulwark during Wanderlei Silva (Pictures)'s lengthy PRIDE title reign.

Unfortunately for Rua that path never translated into personal success. At just 27 years old, his once-promising career was left at a crossroads.

A long-expected move down to the PRIDE 183-pound division did him no good. Rua, 14-7-1, lasted only two fights -- both losses -- including a Mr. Belvedere-level starching at the hands of Denis Kang (Pictures).

Some time away from the now-defunct PRIDE has proven to be the right tonic for Rua's ailing career. He has racked up three straight wins and now stands on the precipice of joining Doug Flutie and Nasir Jones on the short list of mythic career resurrections.

To join that exclusive club, Rua will have to keep Lawler from swinging away like a modern-day Dave Kingman. He'll need to take Lawler down, where he can neutralize the 25-year-old slugger's arsenal of explosive strikes. That may seem like the logical strategy, but Rua has been indulging his inner striker a bit too much lately. Indeed, his once-endless gas tank appears to be a thing of the past, based on his huff-and-puff routine against Joey Villasenor (Pictures).

For Lawler, 14-4, the key will be to force his relentless pace on Rua and goad him into a stand-up battle that would favor "Ruthless" in virtually every way imaginable. The fear, however, for Lawler is that he will get overzealous for the knockout and give Rua the opportunity to take this fight to the ground.

Given Rua's less than spectacular recent performances and Lawler's ability to draw opponents into wars of attrition, look for an overconfident Rua to test the wrong striker and end up paying for it in the form of a spectacular first round knockout loss.