The main event was anticipated to be Chuck Liddell versus Wanderlei Silva, a long-awaited match between the two popular former champions of the UFC and PRIDE, respectively; however, the main event featured a fight between former UFC 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 PRIDE 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, who made his Octagon debut against The Ultimate Fighter 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 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. The card left with eight bouts instead of nine, the UFC scheduled a fight between Rich Clementi and Anthony Johnson to fill out the remainder of the card.