Fight fans are in for a treat this Saturday night, as UFC trots out a free Fox TV show that looks better on paper than many PPV cards. The main event rematch between Lightweight fighters Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier promises fast-paced action featuring opponents that will be hungry to finish the fight. This matchup would likely be captivating even without any knowledge of the context surrounding it, but for fans that have been following the fighters' careers closely, Saturday's action represents a crossroads for both featured fighters.

Saturday's main event is a rematch of a fight that originally took place last year at UFC 211 in Dallas, TX. It was Eddie Alvarez's first fight since being demolished by superstar Conor McGregor, and the fighter known as the "King of the Underground" was looking to erase the stink of defeat and avoid suffering back-to-back losses for the first time in his career. Poirier, for his part, found himself in familiar territory going into UFC 211 -- he was yet again looking to start a new winning streak after his prior streak was ended by devastating a KO, a pattern than has repeated no less than three times in Poirier's nine-year career.

For Poirier, it long felt like he was a high-level fighter who simply could not win "the big one." First, his five-fight win streak was snapped by "Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung in 2012 in Poirier's first-ever main event fight. Poirier eventually rebounded to accrue a three-fight win streak before being mentally and physically defeated in a first-round KO loss to Conor McGregor. Poirier then moved up to Lightweight, where he compiled a four-fight win streak before again being finished in the first round by Michael Johnson. Johnson put an exclamation point on the finish by standing over and taunting the freshly knocked out Poirier. At UFC 211 Poirier hoped to rebound and win a second consecutive fight coming off of that brutal loss.

Alvarez/Poirier I delivered on action, but did not deliver a satisfying result. Early in the fight Poirier battered Alvarez. The hittable, but resilient Alvarez miraculously survived Poirier's barrage and shifted momentum in the second round, turning up the heat and somehow managing to gain control of the fight just moments after nearly being finished. Alvarez bursted out of his defensive shell and rushed Poirier with powerful hooks, and with Poirier turtled up against the fence on one knee, Alvarez delivered a couple of powerful knees to the head that left Poirier crumpled. Unfortunately for Alvarez, it is of course illegal to knee the head of a downed opponent, and the fight ended in a No Contest.

Since then, Poirier has campaigned relentlessly for a rematch, claiming that his No Contest should have been a DQ win, as he felt Alvarez threw the illegal strikes intentionally. While the distinction between a DQ win and a No Contest may seem like a petty distinction, to Poirier it was personal -- it wasn't just a matter of adding a win to his record, but a matter of letting the record reflect that (in Poirier's view) Alvarez intentionally sought an illegal way out rather than letting the fight come to its natural conclusion.

Alvarez was less eager to make the rematch. Unlike Poirier, Alvarez's career is not in the posture of a veteran journeyman looking to break through to the next level, but rather that of a next-level fighter nearing the tail end of his career. Alvarez preferred to move on to the next one, hoping to land a true "big name" such as Nate Diaz. Eventually he settled on then-undefeated former World Series of Fighting champion Justin Gaethje in a bout that the fighters said would determine who was the "King of Violence." Eddie won by stoppage, and though the fight lived up to its hype, it wasn't quite enough to atone for Alvarez’s devastating loss to McGregor and propel him into Lightweight's top tier along with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson.

In his quest to earn this rematch, Poirier has also stayed active. He defeated former champion Anthony Pettis in yet another fight that featured memorable action with an unfulfilling result; the bloody, back-and-forth war was stopped when Pettis suffered a rib injury that was not intentionally inflicted by Poirier. Poirier finally earned something of a trademark win over a big name by fighting the aforementioned Justin Gaethje on the heels of Alvarez's win over Gaethje.

With Lightweight's top trio of Khabib, Conor, and Tony Ferguson waiting for a fight with each other, Alvarez and Poirier have eclipsed everyone else ranked below them (aside from perhaps the ascendant Kevin Lee). For Alvarez, this is the last fight left on his UFC contract. Alvarez is a valuable name fighter to UFC even if he suffers a bad loss here, but with a win he is a bona fide top star of the division heading into contract negotiations.

Even with a secure contract in hand, a loss would be much harder to swallow for Poirier. As outlined above, Poirier is very familiar with the heartbreak of losing to a personal rival right on the precipice of greatness. Each time that narrative has played out in the past, Poirier has earned his way back into contention. But now at age 29 with 29 MMA fights under his belt, a loss could put a permanent ceiling on Poirier's career, especially in the super-crowded Lightweight division.

Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier are both action fighters who are willing to trade big shots in pursuit of victory. When they clash this Saturday, there will be a lot more at stake than a raised hand and a win bonus.