UFC 67

Lore & Background

This event was the first UFC pay-per-view since UFC 60 to have no championship bouts on the card. The main event was originally scheduled as a middleweight title fight between champion Anderson Silva and Travis Lutter, but Lutter failed to make weight, so it became a non-title contest. The welterweight title bout between Matt Serra and Georges St-Pierre was postponed due to a knee injury to St-Pierre. Two former PRIDE stars debuted: Mirko Cro Cop (2006 PRIDE Open-Weight Grand Prix Champion) faced Eddie Sanchez, and Quinton Jackson (acquired from the WFA) fought Marvin Eastman. Also making their UFC debuts were future Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida and future Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar.

In Their Own Story

The Mandalay Bay Events Center hummed with a low, restless energy. Two hundred rows of fans in the upper deck had been chanting "PENN! PENN!" for the better part of an hour, the sound bouncing off the concrete walls and settling into the carpet like a second heartbeat. In the fighter's entrance corridor, B.J. Penn sat on a bench, ice packs strapped to his forearms, watching the clock on a small TV mounted above the door. He could hear the crowd through the concrete. He could hear his own pulse louder. Across the corridor, in the opposite room, Matt Serra was doing his thing—talking, laughing, slapping the mat with his palms, getting his corner men to argue with him. The two men would meet in thirty minutes, in a cage that was barely twenty feet across, and one of them would walk out still wearing the gold. The other would have to wait. The lights dimmed. The announcer's voice cracked through the speakers. And the noise in the building shifted, all at once, into a single sustained roar.

Reader's Guide

The event took place on February 3, 2007, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the first UFC pay-per-view in high-definition. No championship bouts were held. The main event was Anderson Silva vs. Travis Lutter (non-title). Other notable fights included Mirko Cro Cop vs. Eddie Sanchez, Quinton Jackson vs. Marvin Eastman, and the debuts of Lyoto Machida and Frankie Edgar.

Did You Know?

• UFC 67 was the first UFC pay-per-view broadcast in High-Definition.
• Travis Lutter failed to make weight for his scheduled middleweight title fight, so it was changed to a non-title bout.
• Two future champions—Lyoto Machida and Frankie Edgar—made their UFC debuts at this event.
• Mirko Cro Cop, the 2006 PRIDE Open-Weight Grand Prix Champion, made his UFC debut here.