History
Loretta Hunt, news editor for Sherdog.com, reports, “I know for a fact the UFC was considering a female bout between Erica Montoya and the late Shelby Walker a few years ago.” About this planned but never realized fight, "Big Dog" Benny Henderson Jr. asked Shelby Walker, “It has been rumored that you may fight Erika Montoya at UFC 51, is there any truth to those rumors?” Walker replied, “Yeah there is truth to those rumors, it has been talked about a lot and when I asked Dana White if he was going to put us on the show he said possibly, so that is where it stands right now. I haven’t heard anything more from this but my biggest dream would be to fight in the UFC.”
The event was also to be held in Japan, but UFC President Dana White moved it back to Las Vegas. Headlining the card were fan favorites Tito Ortiz and Vitor Belfort.
This was the last UFC event to feature a non-title matchup as the main event instead of an also-scheduled title fight on the same card. All future UFC events with title matches featured one as the main event.
The total fighter payroll for the event was $456,000.
Read more about this topic: UFC 51
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