Background
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 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 2005 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix Champion and future UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Mauricio Rua, who made his Octagon debut against TUF 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.
None of the preliminary bouts made it to the PPV due to the length of all the main card bouts.
Read more about this topic: UFC 76
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