UFC 116

Lore & Background

Shane Carwin, who won the Interim Heavyweight Championship by defeating Frank Mir at UFC 111, faced current heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. The two were originally set to face each other at UFC 106, then UFC 108, before Carwin won the interim heavyweight championship, but Lesnar pulled out of the fight both times due to an illness (diverticulitis) that kept him from training. Cheick Kongo was scheduled to face Roy Nelson, but a back injury sidelined Kongo.

Nelson fought Junior dos Santos at UFC 117. Alessio Sakara was set to fight Nate Marquardt, but Sakara pulled out after the death of his father. Jacob Volkmann was scheduled to fight Paul Kelly, but Kelly reportedly had to pull out due to visa issues; the bout was rescheduled for UFC Live: Jones vs. Matyushenko. Ricardo Romero was scheduled to fight Steve Cantwell, but the fight was cancelled for unknown reasons and Cantwell was replaced by Seth Petruzelli.

On June 17, 2010, Julio Paulino withdrew from his fight against Daniel Roberts; Forrest Petz returned and replaced Paulino. On June 22, 2010, Wanderlei Silva withdrew from his co-main event fight against Yoshihiro Akiyama due to three broken ribs and an injured right knee; Akiyama was then matched against Chris Leben. The bout between Kendall Grove and Goran Reljic was originally slated for the live prelims on Spike TV but was later demoted and replaced by Petruzelli vs. Romero because of Grove's criticism of Spike TV and The Ultimate Fighter.

UFC President Dana White confirmed that the winner of the heavyweight title fight would defend the title against the undefeated Cain Velasquez.

Reader's Guide

The event featured a heavyweight championship unification bout between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin. The co-main event was originally Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama, but Silva withdrew and Chris Leben stepped in. Other notable fights included Chris Lytle vs. Matt Brown, Stephan Bonnar vs. Krzysztof Soszynski, and George Sotiropoulos vs. Kurt Pellegrino. Bonus awards: Fight of the Night ($75,000 each) went to Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Stephan Bonnar and Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Chris Leben; Knockout of the Night ($75,000) to Gerald Harris; Submission of the Night ($75,000) to Brock Lesnar.