UFC 70: Cro Cop vs. Gonzaga was the second UFC event held in the United Kingdom, and the first in Manchester on Saturday, April 21, 2007. 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. The card was broadcast live on pay-per-view in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Setanta Sports.

The televised card on Spike TV drew a 1.84 overall rating (2.8 million viewers), and at its highest point, UFC 70 drew 3.5 million viewers for the main event.

2006 PRIDE World Grand Prix Open-Weight Champion, Mirko Filipović fought heavyweight contender Gabriel Gonzaga in the main event to determine the top contender for the UFC Heavyweight Championship held by Randy Couture.

The card also featured Michael Bisping fighting in England for the UFC for the first time against UFC veteran Elvis Sinosic and Andrei Arlovski taking on prize fighter and training partner of Mirko Filipović, Fabricio Werdum who was making his UFC debut.

Alessio Sakara (born September 2, 1981) is an Italian mixed martial artist and boxer, who currently competes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship's Middleweight Division. Sakara is also a Former World Junior Boxing Contender. He holds notable wins over Elvis Sinosic, Thales Leites, James Irvin.

Sakara was born in Rome on September 2, 1981. When Sakara was five he began to play soccer as a midfielder. Sakara began training in boxing at the age of 11, and at 18 he began training with Roberto Almeida in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Before becoming a mixed martial arts fighter Sakara competed both as an amateur and professional boxer.

In 2008 he signed with American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida. Due to his boxing background, Sakara is primarily a striker.

Sakara was on the Undercard at UFC 55: Fury fighting against Ron Faircloth. The bout was ruled a No Contest due to an inside leg kick to Sakara's groin. Sakara was part of UFC 80 in Newcastle, England, where he won via TKO in the first round against veteran James Lee. Following his victory over Lee, Sakara announced that he would be moving down to the middleweight division. Sakara lost by TKO to middleweight Chris Leben at UFC 82.

Victor "The Matrix" Valimaki (born December 17, 1981) is a Canadian mixed martial artist. He competes in the Light Heavyweight division. Valimaki holds notable victories over Dan Severn, Jason Day and Vernon White.

Victor made his professional MMA debut in 2001, with his first pro fight being with the Maximum Fighting Championship against JR Wallace at MFC 1. Valimaki lost by decision, then bounced back picking up three consecutive wins in a row, two of which was at MFC 3 and MFC 4, improving his record to 3-1.

On September 21, 2002, Victor fought fellow Canadian and UFC veteran, Rob MacDonald. At the end of the first round, Valimaki's coaches noticed that he could not continue the fight, and threw in the towel.

After his fight with MacDonald at MFC 5, Valimaki was absent from fighting for almost 3 years. When he returned to MMA in September 2005, at MFC 8: Resurrection, he faced Dan "The Beast" Severn, and won an impressive, hard-fought Unanimous Decision.

Then, he went on to win 4 more fights from June to September 2006, including wins over Jason Day and Vernon White.

Gabriel Gonzaga-Nogueira (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɡabɾiˈew ɡõˈzaɡɐ]; born May 18, 1979), is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist who currently competes for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, is a former member of Chute Boxe Academy and now fights out of Ludlow, Massachusetts as a part of Team Link. Gonzaga won by a devastating head kick knockout at UFC 70 over MMA legend Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović on April 21, 2007, which earned him a Heavyweight title shot with former five-time UFC Champion and UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture. He won a gold medal in the Ultra Heavyweight division at the 2006 Mundials, which is considered to be the top Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition in the world.

Gonzaga's Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) record is currently 13-6-0 and 8-5-0 in the UFC. He made his MMA debut on April 4, 2003 in Santos, Brazil against Cicero Costa, winning via submission due to punches in the first round.

He made his UFC debut at UFC 56, knocking out Kevin Jordan at 4:39 of the third round. However, Gonzaga had noted that his debut did not come without complications. Weeks before the fight, his pregnant wife started having complications with her pregnancy and lost one of the twins she was carrying. Gonzaga's obligations to his wife during her high risk pregnancy left him unable to train properly.

Michael Gavin Joseph Bisping (born 28 February 1979) is an English mixed martial artist. He fights in the middleweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and is the former Cage Warriors Fighting Championship Light Heavyweight Champion, former Cage Rage Light Heavyweight Champion and The Ultimate Fighter 3 Light Heavyweight Tournament winner. As of March 2012, Bisping is ranked the No. 4 middleweight in the world by Sherdog.

Bisping was born in manchester UK in 1979, but moved to Bridlington, East Yorkshire, England when he was a child. Taking an early interest in martial arts, Bisping began training in a traditional form of jiu-jitsu known as Yawara Ryu under Paul Lloyd Davies when he was 8 years old. In 1994, at the age of 15, Bisping competed as an amateur in England's first "no holds barred" competition, a precursor to modern MMA, called Knock Down Sport Budo (KSBO), organised by Davies.

At the age of 18, Bisping decided to abandon his martial arts training in order "to pursue real life". But less than a year later Bisping began training kickboxing and karate on the advice of Alan Clarking, owner of Black Knights gym, who saw potential in the young fighter. Bisping enjoyed a short, but successful kickboxing career, winning the North West Area title and later the Pro British light heavyweight kickboxing title. After again briefly quitting competition in 1998, Bisping returned to kickboxing to take the Pro British light heavyweight title for a second time. Soon after winning his second kickboxing title, Bisping was forced to abandon his full-time training for a "real job". Bisping worked in factories, slaughterhouses, as an upholsterer, a postman, a tiler, a plasterer, a double-glazing door salesman,production line operative making barbecues at Rectella in Clitheroe and also a relatively successful DJ around the north-west club scene.