The
main event was anticipated to be
Chuck Liddell versus
Wanderlei Silva, a match between the two former champions of the UFC and
PRIDE, respectively; however, the main event featured a fight between former
Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell and
The Ultimate Fighter 2 alum
Keith Jardine, with both fighters returning from knockout losses at
UFC 71. Also appearing on the card was
2005 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix Champion and future
UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Maurício Rua, who made his Octagon debut against
TUF 1 winner
Forrest Griffin.
Welterweight Diego Sanchez returned after his decision loss at
UFC 69 to
Josh Koscheck when he faced
Jon Fitch, a training partner of Koscheck and a former
Purdue University wrestler who was in the midst of a thirteen-fight win streak. A scheduled bout between the light heavyweights
Jason Lambert and
Wilson Gouveia was removed from the card after Gouveia suffered a severely broken nose during training. A replacement for Gouveia was not found. With the card left with only eight bouts instead of nine, the UFC scheduled a fight between
Rich Clementi and
Anthony Johnson to fill out the remainder of the card. None of the preliminary bouts made it to the PPV due to the length of all the main card bouts. ==Results==