UFC 136: Pettis vs. Stephens And the Top 5 Undercard Bouts Left In 2011

UFC 136 is that stacked that former WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis will be taking on Jeremy Stephens on the undercard portion of this weekend's event.

It wasn't too long ago that Pettis was one fight away from possibly being in the main event of UFC 136, but a loss to Clay Guida kept him back and put him on the sidelines for the time being.

Stephens comes off his victories over Danny Downes and Marcus Davis and will be looking to knock out Pettis in their bout, which will be broadcast on Spike TV along with Demian Maia vs. Jorge Santiago.

With all of the UFC preliminary bouts being available on Facebook and Spike, it's worth taking a look at which ones are the best and worth seeing.

These are the top five preliminary fights left in 2011.

No. 5: Dustin Poirier vs. Pablo Garza (UFC on Fox)

Pablo "The Scarecrow" Garza is 2-0 in the UFC and one win away from being considered a Top-10 featherweight when he takes on Dustin Poirier on Nov. 12.

Garza made his debut in 2010 with a flying knee knockout over Fredson Paixao.

He followed up on that victory with a flying triangle choke submission over Yves Jabouin at UFC 129. Both wins earned him fight bonuses.

Poirier made his mark in the division when he defeated Josh Grispi at UFC 125. That victory put him in the spotlight for his next fight, which he won against Jason Young at UFC 131. Both victories were by decision.

With the UFC only broadcasting one fight for the UFC on Fox debut show, they will have to fight for the fans on Facebook or FX.

No. 4: Demian Maia vs. Jorge Santiago (UFC 136)

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belts Demian Maia and Jorge Santiago will look to rebound from recent losses when they fight each other on the UFC 136 preliminary card on Spike TV.

Maia is coming off his competitive decision loss to Mark Munoz while Santiago was knocked out by Brian Stann in his last fight.

With Santiago in desperate need of a victory, he will probably be as motivated as ever to get the win. Maia has been improving in every fight so he will also be at his best come fight night.

This is a very unpredictable fight, but one that could be very exciting given both fighters' strengths and weaknesses.

No. 3: Dennis Siver vs. Donald Cerrone (UFC 137)

Donald Cerrone recently picked up the first knockout victory of his career when he stopped Charles Oliveira at UFC Live in August.

It was his third consecutive UFC victory and extended his record to 16-3.

His opponent will be Dennis Siver, a German kickboxer who is on a four fight win streak with wins over Matt Wiman, George Sotiropoulos, Andre Winner and Spencer Fisher.

Fans will expect to see a shootout when these two enter the cage, and there is no reason to think it will be anything but that.

The lightweight division is no place to put on boring fights, and both of these fighters have the tendency to put on some of the more exciting fights in the stacked division.

No. 2: Anthony Pettis vs. Jeremy Stephens (UFC 136)

Former WEC lightweight champion Anthony "Showtime" Pettis is 13-2 with his most recent defeat coming against Clay Guida at the TUF 13 finale.

That loss followed his standout performance against Ben Henderson at WEC 53.

He takes on Jeremy Stephens, who is riding a two fight win streak with one of the top to knockouts of the year in his fight with Marcus Davis.

He came back from losing the first two rounds to knock out Davis in the third.

Even though this bout will be broadcast on the Spike TV portion of UFC 136, it could actually mean a lot more for the division than other lightweight bouts.

No. 1: Clay Guida vs. Ben Henderson (UFC on Fox)

On a card headlined by Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos, former WEC lightweight champion Ben Henderson will take on Clay Guida in a lightweight bout that may determine the next title challenger.

Guida is coming off four wins against Pettis, Takanori Gomi, Rafael dos Anjos and Shannon Gugerty.

Henderson is coming off his most impressive victory to date after breaking Jim Miller's seven fight win streak in August. That win followed a decision victory over Mark Bocek.

This should be a high-paced fight throughout and will probably take fight of the night honors on one of the most anticipated cards of the year. It might even be fight of the year.