UFC 136: Edgar vs. Maynard 3 was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on October 8, 2011, at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The event coincided with a two day UFC Fan Expo held at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

UFC 136 featured two preliminary fights live on Spike TV.

Josh Grispi was expected to face Matt Grice at the event, but Grispi was forced off the card with an injury and replaced by Nam Phan. Grice himself was also forced from the card with an undisclosed injury and replaced by Leonard Garcia.

Aaron Simpson was expected to face Nick Catone at the event but Catone was forced off the card with an injury and replaced by Eric Schafer.

Mike Russow was scheduled to fight Dave Herman at the event, but the bout was cancelled after Herman failed his preliminary drug test in which he tested positive for marijuana. Herman denies using the prohibited substance.

This event holds the UFC record for most time spent in actual fighting at 158 minutes and 32 seconds beating the last record holder of UFC Fight Night: Maynard vs. Diaz which was 149 minutes and 50 seconds.

Chael Patrick Sonnen (pronounced /ˈtʃeɪl ˈsʌnən/; born April 3, 1977) is an American mixed martial artist who competes as a middleweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He was an NCAA Division I All-American wrestler at the University of Oregon, a silver medalist at the 2000 Greco-Roman World University Championships, as well as a two-time Dave Schultz Memorial International Greco-Roman winner.

As of October 2011^[update], Sonnen is ranked as the No. 2 middleweight in the world by Sherdog.

Sonnen was born Chael Patrick Sonnen on April 3, 1977 in West Linn, Oregon.

Sonnen started his MMA career at the age of 19 in 1997 by defeating Ben Hailey in Vancouver, Washington. His second fight was against future ICON Sport Middleweight Champion and Strikeforce Middleweight contender Jason "Mayhem" Miller. Sonnen went 6–0 in his first six fights, until his loss to Trevor Prangley, which he later avenged in 2006 at UFC Ultimate Fight Night 4. He also fought The Ultimate Fighter winner and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin.

Anderson da Silva (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈɐ̃deʁsõ ˈsiwvɐ]; born April 14, 1975) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist. He is the current UFC Middleweight Champion and the promotion's longest reigning champion. With 14 consecutive wins and 9 title defenses, Silva holds the longest winning streak and title defense streak in UFC history.

Silva is ranked as the number one Middleweight in the world by multiple publications, and is the consensus No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world according to ESPN, Sherdog, Yahoo! Sports, MMAFighting.com and other publications. UFC president Dana White has proclaimed Silva as "the greatest mixed martial artist ever."^{[undue weight? – discuss]} Silva is also the last Cage Rage Middleweight Champion and a former Shooto Middleweight Champion. Besides the UFC and Cage Rage, Silva has fought for a number of other MMA promotions including the Pride Fighting Championships, Shooto and Rumble on the Rock.

Although known primarily for his mastery of Muay Thai striking, Silva is also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt, a rank he earned in 2006 from Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira who follows Gracie Lineage through Carlson Gracie, like Murilo Bustamante and the Brazilian Top Team. He began martial arts training at the age of 14, training Tae kwon do and earning a black belt by the age of 18. He is also a black belt in Judo and a yellow rope in Capoeira.

Dana White (born July 28, 1969) is the current President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a mixed martial arts organization based in the United States.

Born in Manchester, Connecticut on July 28, 1969, White grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, Ware, Massachusetts and Levant, Maine. White is a passionate Boston Red Sox fan. During his youth, he bounced back and forth between Boston and Maine. He attended the University of Massachusetts Boston but did not finish; however, while there he did launch a boxing program for inner-city youth.

White has a background as an aerobics instructor. In 1992, White established Dana White Enterprises in Las Vegas. He conducted aerobics classes at three gyms in the Las Vegas area and began managing MMA fighters Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell.

While working as a manager, White learned that Semaphore Entertainment Group, the parent company of the UFC, was looking for a buyer for the UFC. White contacted childhood friend Lorenzo Fertitta, an executive at Station Casinos, and a former commissioner of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Within a month, Lorenzo and his older brother Frank bought the UFC, with White installed as its president. White currently owns about 9% of Zuffa, LLC, the entity the Fertitta brothers created to own and manage the UFC.

Kenneth Alan Florian (born May 26, 1976) is a retired Peruvian-American mixed martial artist who formerly competed as a lightweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He has a background in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai, and is known for his cerebral approach to the sport based on his meticulous game plans and well-articulated fight analysis. He is also known for his tendency to finish his opponents, having earned stoppages in 12 of his 14 career victories, and for his devastating elbow strikes. He is the only fighter in history to compete in four different weight divisions under the UFC banner, Also Florian is the only fighter currently in the UFC to not have won a title after fighting for the belt three times.

Florian first gained recognition for his appearance on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show. He holds notable victories over former PRIDE champion Takanori Gomi, current UFC contenders Clay Guida, Roger Huerta, Joe Lauzon, Din Thomas, Joe Stevenson, Sam Stout, and Diego Nunes. He has competed for the UFC Lightweight Championship twice and the UFC Featherweight Championship, but came up short against Sean Sherk, BJ Penn, and Jose Aldo. He is currently ranked as the #4 featherweight in the world by MMA Fighting and as the #10 featherweight fighter in the world by MMAWeekly.