UFC 100 - Background

Background

The event included two championship bouts and a fight between the two coaches on the Spike TV show, The Ultimate Fighter.

The main event was a rematch between UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar and Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir. This championship unification bout occurred as a result of former UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture's year-long resignation from the promotion. During his absence, the UFC created an Interim championship, which Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira won by defeating Tim Sylvia. Nogueira and Mir were opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs Team Mir, and fought for the interim championship at UFC 92.During the airing of the television program, Couture returned to the company and UFC President Dana White announced he would defend the title against Lesnar at UFC 91. The winners of the Couture vs Lesnar and Nogueira vs Mir matches would fight for the undisputed title. In his fourth professional fight, Lesnar defeated Couture via technical knockout to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion. Mir was crowned interim champion after becoming the first fighter to finish Nogueira. The match between Lesnar and Mir was set for UFC 98. However, Mir injured his knee while training, and withdrew from the bout. The next day, it was announced the fight would be moved to UFC 100. Lesnar and Mir had fought once before, at UFC 81 (Lesnar's UFC debut); Mir won via kneebar submission.

The co-main event featured Georges St-Pierre, defending the Welterweight Championship against Thiago Alves. Alves entered the fight after consecutive victories over three top UFC welterweights: Josh Koscheck, Matt Hughes and Karo Parisyan. St-Pierre had previously defended the title against Jon Fitch and UFC Lighweight Champion BJ Penn.

The third match on the main card was between top middleweight contenders Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping. The two were opposing coaches on the ninth season of The Ultimate Fighter (Henderson on Team USA and Bisping on Team UK). Bisping had a professional MMA record of 18–1, and was undefeated since moving to middleweight. He entered the bout following wins over Charles McCarthy, Jason Day and Chris Leben. On June 2, it was announced the winner of the fight would get a shot at UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva.

A preliminary match-up between Dong Hyun Kim and Jonathan Goulet was scheduled for the card, but Goulet withdrew due to a shoulder injury, and was replaced by TJ Grant.

K-1 HERO'S Light Heavyweight Champion Yoshihiro Akiyama made his UFC debut against Alan Belcher.

This event was Sherdog's 2009 Event of the Year.

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