UFC 76

Background

The main event was anticipated to be Chuck Liddell versus Wanderlei Silva, a match between the two 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 Maurício 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 the 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.

With the card left with only 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.

Results

|Light Heavyweight |Keith Jardine |def. |Chuck Liddell |Decision (split) (29–28, 28–29, 29–28) |3 |5:00 | |Light Heavyweight |Forrest Griffin |def. |Maurício Rua |Submission (rear-naked choke) |3 |4:45 | |Welterweight |Jon Fitch |def. |Diego Sanchez |Decision (split) (30–27, 28–29, 29–28) |3 |5:00 | |Light Heavyweight |Lyoto Machida |def. |Kazuhiro Nakamura |Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) |3 |5:00 |Nakamura testing positive for marijuana after the fight. |Lightweight |Tyson Griffin |def. |Thiago Tavares |Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 30–27, 29–28) |3 |5:00 | |Catchweight (177 lbs) |Rich Clementi |def. |Anthony Johnson |Submission (rear-naked choke) |2 |3:05 | |Lightweight |Jeremy Stephens |def. |Diego Saraiva |Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) |3 |5:00 | |Heavyweight |Christian Wellisch |def. |Scott Junk |Submission (heel hook) |1 |3:19 | |Lightweight |Matt Wiman |def. |Michihiro Omigawa |Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 30–27, 29–28) |3 |5:00 |

Bonus awards

The following fighters received $40,000 bonuses.

• Fight of the Night: Tyson Griffin vs. Thiago Tavares
• Knockout of the Night: No bonus awarded.
• Submission of the Night: Forrest Griffin

References

References

1. "Archived copy".
2. Savage, Greg. (September 10, 2006). "UFC 76 Loses Fight After Gouveia Injury". Sherdog.com.
3. "UFC 76: Rich Clementi vs. Anthony Johnson". UFCMania.com.
4. (September 27, 2007). "Nakamura Tests Positive for Marijuana".
5. "MMA Archives".