Bodog Beat

Saturday, Feb. 2, former Minnesota Vikings player Brock Lesnar will make his UFC debut. (AP Images)

UFC has held a pay-per-view event every Super Bowl weekend for the past three years. In 2005, UFC 51: Super Saturday was headlined by a match between the ever-popular Tito Ortiz and his Brazilian rival Vitor Belfort. The next year, it was Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture facing off for the third time in one of the biggest UFC fights ever. And in 2007, middleweight champion Anderson Silva kicked off the weekend by taking out UFC contract winner Travis Lutter.

This year, the UFC is doing it again with UFC 81: Breaking Point. In addition to an interim heavyweight title match between Tim Sylvia and Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira, the card features former heavyweight champion Frank Mir facing the first former NFL player to set foot in the octagon.

Most fans know Brock Lesnar from his pro wrestling days in the WWE, but before the giant from Minneapolis, Minn., made the jump to MMA, he spent some time playing for the Minnesota Vikings, where he quickly developed a bad reputation for starting fights and crushing quarterbacks during practice. Lesnar played in a few preseason games, but he was eventually cut from the roster for skipping practice.

Even though Lesnar is only 1-0 in MMA, according to the MMA odds in the Bodog Sportsbook, he is the -135 favorite to win, while Mir, a former heavyweight champion, is the +105 underdog. It's been a long time since anyone has seen that kind of hype in their UFC debut. Of course, the fact that Lesnar is an NCAA Division I freestyle wrestling champion and 265 pounds of solid muscle might have something to do with that.

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All lines subject to change.