This event was the first UFC pay-per-view event since UFC 60 to have no championship bouts on the card. In the main event, the middleweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter 4, Travis Lutter was scheduled to challenge middleweight champion Anderson Silva for the middleweight title, however he was not able to make weight and the fight was changed to a non-title contest.[5]
The welterweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter 4, Matt Serra, was also scheduled to challenge the welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. However, St.-Pierre injured a knee during training and the bout was postponed.[6]
Quinton Jackson — whose contract was acquired by the UFC after Zuffa's buyout of the World Fighting Alliance — made his debut against Marvin Eastman, whose contract with the WFA was also bought by Zuffa. Eastman has an early win over Jackson in the KOTC promotion.[9] It was also the UFC debut of future Light Heavyweight Champion, Lyoto Machida and also the debut of the future Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar.
^The bout, originally scheduled to be a title defense for Silva, was changed to a non-title match when Travis Lutter failed to weigh in at the contracted weight for the title fight.[11]
^This bout was aired on the pay-per-view broadcast.
^This bout was aired on the pay-per-view broadcast.