Former UFC champion Ricco Rodriguez resumes his decidedly strange career tonight on a boxing card in Las Vegas:

The Las Vegas Hilton has hosted some legendary
boxing cards:This isn’t one of them.

Ricco Rodriguez, a former UFC heavyweight champion, also fights tonight. He’s 29-9 in MMA action. But this is only his second boxing match. He won via knockout in his first. His opponent is also 0-1 and from Arizona.

It’s been a strange trek for Rodriguez. He defeated Randy Couture in 2002.

Then things got pretty weird.

He attempted to sell his UFC belt on eBay at one point. Why he trying to do that was probably answered when he appeared on VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.�

Then, in the main event, we’ll be treated to 41-year-old Las Vegan Kevin Kelley. He used to be the WBC featherweight champ. That was from late 1993 to early 1995.

So, to put it mildly, there are a lot of formers here tonight.

Ricco still has heavy hands, though his ability to take a punch has always been in question. So, too, has his conditioning and based on his stint on ‘Celebrity Rehab’ hasn’t gotten any better over the years.

Also on the card is Kevin Kelley, who was a very solid fighter until age caught up with him. He’s been in against some serious opposition including ‘Prince’ Nasem Hamed, Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik ‘El Terrible’ Morales. His 1997 bout with Hamed was particularly entertaining, winning the ‘Ring Magazine’ Fight of the Year award.

The biggest news surrounding tonight’s card is the return of boxing to the Las Vegas Hilton. Suffice to say that this won’t be one for the history books as were bouts featuring Ali, Sonny Liston, Larry Holmes and Mike Tyson.

The Hilton returns; a lot of formers @ Las Vegas Sun