Background
The card was plagued by a number of injuries sustained by scheduled fighters, forcing the UFC to rework the card several times. Originally, the main event was to be between light heavyweights Chuck Liddell and Mauricio Rua; however, Rua required surgery on an injured knee and could not compete. Rashad Evans then replaced Rua in the main event with Liddell, but Liddell was forced to withdraw from the card due to a hamstring injury.
The UFC then named James Irvin as Liddell's replacement to fight Evans, but Irvin sustained a foot injury that forced him to pull out. Evans was then removed from the card as well. The main event was then changed to Matt Hughes against Thiago Alves. Hughes took the fight on short notice as a favor to the UFC and Alves came in four pounds overweight.
In other changes, a Jonathan Goulet and Paul Kelly match was scrapped when Goulet dropped out citing a lack of training time, followed by Kelly withdrawing before his opponent could be named because of an injury sustained in practice. Due to legal problems which resulted in a lack of time to prepare for his fight with Michael Bisping, Chris Leben was forced to withdraw from the card and the UFC announced Jason Day would face Bisping. Ryo Chonan was replaced by Kevin Burns, and Neil Wain was replaced by Eddie Sanchez.
Read more about this topic: UFC 85
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)