It's a fight with plenty of history behind it, but the UFC 93 light heavyweight main event between veterans Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson also points to the future.
The winner is expected to drop down to 185 pounds and face Michael Bisping after Season 9 of "The Ultimate Fighter" to determine if the popular English middleweight has the chops to challenge champion Anderson Silva in a division crying out for a real contender for the tough Brazilian.
"They're definitely the next level," Bisping said of Henderson and Franklin. "Either one of them will be a huge test, a huge challenge. But I welcome that as a fighter. These are the types of fights that I want to have, I feel that I'm now at the stage of my career where I'm ready for these types of fights and I welcome it."
Franklin, the former UFC middleweight champion, and Henderson, former Pride titleholder in its equivalent of the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, made their names by winning those sort of marquee battles.
Silva and Lyoto Machida are the only men to have beaten Franklin (26-3), with Silva defeating him twice. And it's taken the sport's elite -- the likes of Anderson Silva, Wanderlei Silva, Quinton Jackson, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Ricardo Arona -- to take down Henderson (23-7).
By comparison, Bisping (18-1 including 7-1 in the UFC) is almost a MMA baby-- albeit one who is growing in leaps and bounds.
Henderson, 38, and Franklin, 34, have no qualms about facing off in Dublin. Like two grizzled bulls finding themselves in the same herd, confrontation seemed inevitable.
But having the winner meet the 29-year-old Bisping in a matchup of TUF 9 coaches has Franklin -- who has already served as coach on the reality TV show once -- scratching his head, especially when it means returning to middleweight one fight after the UFC asked him to move back to light heavyweight.
"For him, if they're trying to build him into that contender for a title shot at 185 pounds, then a win over me would pretty much put him there I would guess," Franklin said of Bisping. "But for me, I don't know what that would really do for my career other than if I win the fight, it gives me another tally mark in the victory column."
Henderson is more laid-back about the career path awaiting the winner.
"I'm OK with all of that," he said nonchalantly.
The reactions speak volumes about the two fighters.
Henderson, on the surface, is Mr. Cool from California. Problems roll off his back. Little fazes him. He does not overthink.
Franklin, a former math teacher, calculates everything. When he fought as a middleweight, he meticulously tracked his weight cut, chronicling every detail in a journal.
"When I make 185 pounds, the weight cut itself is its own event," he acknowledged. "It's as stressful -- if not more stressful -- for me than the fight."
But weight is not an issue this time.
"I don't have any weight cut. It was nice to be able to eat over the holidays, that's for sure," said Henderson, noting 205 pounds is about as heavy as he ever gets.
Franklin only has to cut five or six pounds to make 205 -- a picnic compared to getting down to 185.
"When I was fighting [Matt] Hamill the last fight, I said to my coach I don't even feel like it's fight week because I should be miserable right now, chewing on ice cubes and not being able to eat," he said of the move to 205. "So I feel much better the whole week of the fight. But now the trade-off there is that I'm going to be fighting guys that are probably a little bigger than me, so it just depends on how you fare in the fight."
Henderson doesn't entertain such thoughts.
"It's probably just a mental thing but I've never felt I'm the smaller guy out there," Henderson said. "I'm out there trying to beat him up just the same and I've never felt weak, that I couldn't do what I wanted to do to my opponent, no matter how big they were."
The issue of bouncing between different divisions has drawn plenty of attention prior to the fight, more so since the winner will be shedding pounds to meet Bisping.
Franklin has come up with a strategy to handle the yo-yo weight changes.
"Each fight is its own separate entity and that's the way I chose to think about it," he said.
Henderson sees the movement up and down as a positive.
"I view it as it kind of gives you better opportunities for more matchups, and more opportunities for the fans to see different matchups that maybe, if I'm stuck in one weight class, they wouldn't be able to see," Henderson said. "And again, I don't feel small at one weight class and the weight cut isn't bad to make the other. It doesn't make me lose focus in any way. I'm still focused on being the best fighter I can be, so it doesn't take away anything in that matter."
Henderson brings a big right hand and strong wrestling and clinch games to the O2 Arena in Dublin. He'll be looking to use the right all he can against the left-handed Franklin.
"If I was coaching a conventional fighter and he was fighting a southpaw, the first thing I would say to him is throw a lot of right hands. Any boxing coach would say the same thing," Franklin said. "So yeah, I'm sure that's going to be a bit of concern, or perhaps problematic. I tell you what I can't do. I can't get stupid and stand in the pocket and not use my footwork and let him throw those right hands."
The durable Henderson won a decision over a talented jiu-jitsu fighter in Rousimar Palhares in his last fight at UFC 88 in September. He knows Franklin brings a much more dangerous, technical all-around game to the cage.
Cuts could be an issue for the former UFC champion. Franklin suffered a nasty gash in his UFC 88 TKO of Hamill. In an admirable show of bravado, he gave fans the thumbs up between rounds as if to say he was enjoying himself, even though parts of his skin were dangling in front of his eye.
The cut has since healed but Franklin says the scar tissue around the eye had him concerned for a while.
Bisping will be cageside in Dublin, scouting his next opponent. He admits he'd be lying if he said he didn't care who won.
"I have no preference who I'd rather fight apart from the fact that Rich Franklin's a southpaw and they're a pain in the backside -- southpaws -- so I'd probably lean towards Dan Henderson simply because he's an orthodox fighter," said the Brit, who beat a left-handed fighter in Chris Leben his last time out. "I don't want to fight two southpaws on the trot but if I've got to, then I've got to and, like I say, I'll welcome it."
Neil Davidson is general sports editor of The Canadian Press.