Bellator 53

Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg was a mixed martial arts event held by Strikeforce. It was held in San Jose, California on August 15, 2009. The event aired live on the Showtime cable network and marked the first time two women headlined an MMA event in history.

UFC 87: Seek and Destroy was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on August 9, 2008, at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The card was headlined by a welterweight championship bout between champion Georges St. Pierre and challenger Jon Fitch.

UFC 86: Jackson vs. Griffin was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on July 5, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The title bout between Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Forrest Griffin, coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest, was for Jackson's UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.

UFC 85: Bedlam was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on June 7, 2008, at The O2 Arena in London, United Kingdom. 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.

UFC 83: Serra vs St-Pierre 2 was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The event was held on April 19, 2008, at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. UFC 83 was the UFC's first event in Canada. It was headlined by UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Serra and UFC Interim Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre in a match to unify the championship.

UFC 82: Pride of a Champion was a mixed martial arts (MMA) event that took place on 1st March, 2008 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The main event was a UFC & Pride FC middleweight title unification match between UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and PRIDE FC welterweight champion Dan Henderson.

UFC 79: Nemesis was a mixed martial arts (MMA) event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), that took place on December 29, 2007 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main event featured the highly anticipated rubber match between former UFC Welterweight Champions Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes. The Co-main event featured a fight between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva.

UFC 76: Knockout was a mixed martial arts (MMA) event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The event took place on September 22, 2007 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Though the event was subtitled Knockout, the entire card ironically produced no knockouts. 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.

UFC 74: Respect was a mixed martial arts (MMA) event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The event took place on August 25, 2007 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main event was a UFC heavyweight championship bout which featured UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture defending his title against Gabriel Gonzaga.

UFC 70 was the second UFC event held in the United Kingdom, and the first in Manchester. The first UFC event in the UK was UFC 38: Brawl at the Hall on July 13, 2002. UFC 70 was also only the seventh UFC event held outside the United States, and the first since UFC 38. 2006 PRIDE Open-Weight Grand Prix Champion, Mirko Cro Cop fought Heavyweight contender Gabriel Gonzaga in the main event to determine the top contender for the UFC Heavyweight Championship held by Randy Couture.

UFC 69: Shootout was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday, April 7, 2007 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The card was headlined by heavy favourite Georges St. Pierre defending his welterweight title against The Ultimate Fighter 4 welterweight winner Matt Serra.

UFC 68: The Uprising was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on March 3, 2007 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. In the main event, UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia was set to defend his title against Randy Couture, who was coming out of a 12-month retirement. Couture, a former UFC Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight Champion, hadn't fought as a heavyweight since UFC 39 in 2002.