UFC 85

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 ultimately 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 cancelled 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.

Results

|Catchweight (174 lb) |Thiago Alves |def. |Matt Hughes |TKO (flying knee and punches) |2 |1:02 | |Middleweight |Michael Bisping |def. |Jason Day |TKO (punches) |1 |3:42 | |Welterweight |Mike Swick |def. |Marcus Davis |Decision (unanimous) (29–27, 29–27, 29–27) |3 |5:00 |Swick had 1 point deducted in round 3 for holding the cage. |Middleweight |Thales Leites |def. |Nate Marquardt |Decision (split) (28–27, 27–28, 28–27) |3 |5:00|Marquardt had 2 points deducted during the fight, one in round 2 (illegal knee to the head of a downed opponent) and the other in round 3 (elbow to the back of the head). |Heavyweight|Fabrício Werdum |def. |Brandon Vera |TKO (punches) |1 |4:40 | |Middleweight |Martin Kampmann |def. |Jorge Rivera |Submission (guillotine choke) |1 |2:44 | |Lightweight |Matt Wiman |def. |Thiago Tavares |KO (punches) |2 |1:57 | |Welterweight |Kevin Burns |def. |Roan Carneiro |Submission (triangle choke) |2 |2:53 | |Light Heavyweight |Luiz Cane |def. |Jason Lambert |TKO (punches) |1 |2:07 | |Welterweight |Paul Taylor |def. |Jess Liaudin |Decision (split) (28–29, 29–28, 29–28) |3 |5:00 | |Heavyweight |Antoni Hardonk |def. |Eddie Sanchez |TKO (punches) |2 |4:15 |

Bonus awards

The following fighters received $50,000 bonuses.

• Fight of the Night: Matt Wiman vs. Thiago Tavares
• Knockout of the Night: Thiago Alves
• Submission of the Night: Kevin Burns

References

References

1. Dave Deibert. (2008-06-07). "Thiago Alves beats Matt Hughes at UFC 85". The Vancouver Sun.
2. "Pay-per-view : MMAPayout.com: The Business of MMA".
3. (2008-03-06). "UFC Returns To London". UFC.com.
4. Thomas Gerbasi. (2008-03-04). "Rua Re-Injures Knee, will undergo Surgery". UFC.com.
5. Foster, Eric. (April 21, 2008). "Chuck Liddell Injured, Out of UFC 85". MMA Junkie.
6. Stupp, Dann. (2008-05-27). "Kevin Burns expected to replace Ryo Chonan at UFC 85".
7. Stupp, Dann. (2008-05-28). "Another UFC 85 change: Eddie Sanchez replaces Neil Wain".
8. [http://mmajunkie.com/news/4525/alves-burns-wiman-and-tavares-earn-50k-ufc-85-bonuses.mma Alves, Burns, Wiman and Tavares earn $50K UFC 85 bonuses. MMAjunkie.com] {{Webarchive. link. (2012-07-11)