UFC 17: Redemption was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on May 15th, 1998 at the Mobile Civic Center, in Mobile, Alabama. The event was seen live on pay per view in the United States, and later released on home video.

The event featured a four man Middleweight Tournament, three Heavyweight Superfights, an alternate bout in case of tournament injury, and a Heavyweight "exhibition" bout. A Middleweight Championship bout between Frank Shamrock and Jeremy Horn was also taped for broadcast on a later pay per view.

UFC 17 was the last UFC event (aside from UFC 23), to feature the "tournament" style format.

UFC 17 featured the first UFC appearance of both Dan Henderson and Carlos Newton, as well as the first MMA fight for Chuck Liddell. UFC 17 marked the first card where the letters "U.F.C." replaced "The Ultimate Fighting Championship" in all the logos and when referred to by the announcers/commentators. The new logo used the similar character from the old logo (with hands on his hips instead of punching the globe) combined with the letters UFC on the bottom.

Brock Edward Lesnar (/ˈlɛznər/; born July 12, 1977) is an American professional wrestler, actor, former mixed martial artist and amateur wrestler, signed with WWE and appearing on its Raw brand. He is also a former UFC Heavyweight Champion and former #1 ranked mixed martial arts (MMA) Heavyweight by Sherdog; he was ranked #5 before he announced his retirement at the end of 2011. Lesnar is an accomplished amateur wrestler, winning the 2000 NCAA heavyweight wrestling championship and placing second in 1999, losing in the finals to 1999 world freestyle wrestling champion and future New England Patriots offensive lineman Stephen Neal.

He gained prominence in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from 2002 to 2004, where he is a former three-time WWE Champion, becoming the youngest WWE Champion at age 25 with his first reign. Lesnar was the 2002 King of the Ring and the winner of the 2003 Royal Rumble. After leaving WWE, Lesnar pursued a career in the NFL. He played during the preseason for the Minnesota Vikings, but ended up being a late cut. Lesnar returned to professional wrestling at the end of 2005, and joined New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), where he won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in his first match. He was officially stripped of the title by NJPW in July 2006, and took the physical belt with him to Inoki Genome Federation (IGF), where he was still recognized as IWGP Champion until June 2007.

Vítor Vieira Belfort (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈvitoʁ viˈejɾɐ bɛwˈfɔʁ]; born April 1, 1977) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. Belfort was born in Rio de Janeiro and studied jiu-jitsu with the Gracie family, namely Carlson Gracie. He received a black belt under Carlson and currently trains with Xtreme Couture, fighting in the middleweight division. He is currently ranked as the #3 middleweight in the world by MMA Weekly.

Vítor was born on April 1, 1977 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to a French father and a Greek mother. Belfort is married to Joana Prado and together they have three children, a son named Davi (born February 5, 2005), a daughter named Victoria (born October 31, 2007), and a daughter named Kyara (born June 7, 2009).

Belfort also had a small part in a reality show on Brazilian television and appeared next to his wife when she was photographed for the Brazilian edition of Playboy.

On January 9, 2004, Vítor's sister, Priscila Belfort disappeared and the relatives received no information about her. In August 2007, a woman (identified as Elaine Paiva) confessed that she participated in her kidnapping and killing and that she was kidnapped to pay off a four thousand dollar debt Paiva had with drug dealers. Paiva was arrested along with three others alleged to be involved in the kidnapping. The group allegedly buried her body in the woods in Rio de Janeiro where police conducted searches but her remains have never been found. Her family however do not accept this version and believe that Priscila is still alive somewhere. Vítor still maintains a missing sign in the Brazilian version of his website.

Joseph Rolando Benavidez (born July 31, 1984) is an American mixed martial artist. After fighting in smaller shows while working as a screen printer in Las Cruces, New Mexico, he joined up with Urijah Faber's Team Alpha Male in 2007. He has since fought in Dream and most recently the World Extreme Cagefighting promotion. He currently fights as a flyweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. His fighting style has drawn comparisons to training partner and former WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber.He is currently the #2 ranked flyweight in the world by Sherdog.

Benavidez attended Las Cruces High School where he played varsity football, winning two State Championships, and wrestled varsity for 4 years (1999–2002). In 2000 Benavidez became the State Wrestling Champion of New Mexico at 103 lbs during his sophomore year. Benavidez also wrestled one year (2001–02) at William Penn University in Iowa before moving back to Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Benavidez has been competing for several years in mixed martial arts. The exact number of underground or unsanctioned fights he participated in is unknown, but he was undefeated in all of his professional fights until his first loss to Dominick Cruz via decision in 2009. The fight turned out to be a #1 contenders match for the WEC Bantamweight (135 lb) Title. His next fight was on March 6, 2010 at WEC 47 where he defeated his opponent former WEC Bantamweight champion Miguel Torres, who dominated the division with 17 consecutive wins. Both Benavidez's first loss and Torres loss of the Bantamweight title occurred on August 9, 2009 at WEC 42. Benavidez's next fight was at WEC 52 where he submitted world renowned submission specialist Wagnney Fabiano in the second round via guillotine choke. Benavidez has used Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold" (or a similar version of the song) as his entrance music throughout his career, which alludes to his preferred method of finishing a fight.

Brad Pickett (born September 24, 1978) is an English mixed martial artist and the former Cage Rage British Featherweight champion and UCMMA Featherweight Champion. He currently competes as a Bantamweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. As of October 2011, Pickett is ranked the #8 bantamweight in the world by Sherdog.Dana White and Mike Goldberg have stated that Pickett is one of their favourite fighters to watch due to his crowd pleasing style of fighting.

Brad's nickname and his flamboyant entrance to the ring are not derived from Brad Pitt's character "One Punch Mickey" from the movie Snatch but from his grandfather.^{[citation needed]} His unique entrance sees him entering to the song "Wallop" by Chas & Dave, wearing a string vest, cutoff jeans and his customary trilby hat.^{[citation needed]} He is a supporter of the London football club Tottenham Hotspur.

He has fought mainly for the Cage Rage organization. Pickett's first appearance was on 27 November 2004 with a win over Stuart Grant. Pickett became the British Cage Rage Featherweight Champion on 10 September 2005 at Cage Rage 13 by defeating Ozzy Haluk via submision following a flying footstomp to the face. Pickett later lost the belt to the tough Robbie Olivier by rear naked choke in round 3. He is the former UCMMA Featherweight champion.