UFC 42: Sudden Impact was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on April 25, 2003, at American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. The event was broadcast live on pay per view in the United States, and later released on DVD.

UFC 42 was the first UFC event to take place in Florida. Headlining the event was a Welterweight Title bout between Matt Hughes and Sean Sherk. UFC 42 also marked the first UFC appearance of future Middleweight Champion Rich Franklin.

Joe Rogan provided the lead commentary for this event and was joined by colour commentator Phil Baroni with further analysis by Eddie Bravo.

Mark William Calaway (born March 24, 1965) is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name The Undertaker. He is signed to WWE and is the company's most tenured competitor. Calaway began his wrestling career with World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) in 1984. He joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as "Mean" Mark Callous in 1989. When WCW did not renew Calaway's contract in 1990, he signed with the World Wrestling Federation in October and, after shortening his name from Kane the Undertaker to simply The Undertaker, has remained with the company since.

The Undertaker has two contrasting personas. The first is the role of The Deadman, an undead, occult-like figure, which has consisted of many different styles. He debuted his original Deadman persona during his own on-camera debut at Survivor Series (1990). At this event, the Undertaker was clad as a Western mortician. Next, in October of 1998, the Undertaker appeared as the leader of the Ministry of Darkness (with similar apparel). Since WrestleMania XX, the Undertaker has appeared as a hybrid version of the Deadman character, using elements of the previous Deadman incarnations.

Joseph James "Joe" Rogan (born August 11, 1967) is an American martial artist, stand-up comedian, actor, writer and color commentator. He is best known for playing Joe Garrelli on the NBC sitcom NewsRadio, commentating for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, hosting the NBC reality show Fear Factor and The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

Rogan was born in Newark, New Jersey. His paternal grandfather was Irish and the remainder of his ancestry is Italian.

In 1981, at age fourteen, he became a practitioner of Kenpo Karate before transitioning to Taekwondo. He eventually gained a 2nd dan black belt. A four-time state champion in Massachusetts, in 1987 he was the USA Taekwondo U.S. Open Champion. In 1996, he began training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Jean Jacques Machado, eventually earning his brown belt. In addition, he holds a brown belt in 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu under Eddie Bravo.

He also practiced and competed in kickboxing.

In 1994, he co-starred on the Fox comedy Hardball as Frank Valente, the young, ego-centric star player on a fictional professional baseball team. From 1995 to 1999, he co-starred on the comedy NewsRadio. He portrayed Joe Garrelli, the electrician at WNYX, a news radio station in New York City. In 2002, he appeared on the episode "A Beautiful Mind" of Just Shoot Me as Chris, Maya Gallo's boyfriend. In 2011, Rogan played his first major character in a movie in the Kevin James movie Zookeeper. He is slated to play himself in an upcoming action-comedy starring Kevin James called Here Comes the Boom, set to be released in the summer of 2012.

James William "Jim" Ross (born January 3, 1952) is a professional wrestling commentator, referee, restaurateur, occasional wrestler, and former company executive of WWE, where he currently works as a talent relations consultant and on WWE NXT as a Play-by-Play announcer. Ross was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest commentators in wrestling history. He is known affectionately by wrestling fans as Good Ol' JR. In recent years, he has developed his own brand of barbecue sauces and cookbooks.

While attending Westville High School, Ross was the first baseman on the Westville baseball team. Ross was a two-time all-conference football player for the Westville Yellowjackets in 1968–69. His maternal grandparents owned a general store in Westville, Oklahoma and his paternal grandfather Dee Ross owned an off-sale beer store and was a carpenter. Ross was also President of the Student Body, a 4 year letterman in basketball, and State Vice President of the Future Farmers of America where he was State Speech Champion in 1968. Ross was also named Honorable Mention on the 1969 High School All State Football team by the Tulsa World as a center.

Paul Heyman (born September 11, 1965) is an American entertainment producer, best known for his career in professional wrestling as a promoter, manager, commentator and journalist. He is also an occasional actor in film. He is currently signed to WWE appearing on its WWE Raw brand under his ring name Paul Heyman.

Heyman was the creative force behind Extreme Championship Wrestling in the 1990s. He has also briefly worked in World Championship Wrestling, the American Wrestling Association and World Wrestling Entertainment, including WWE's ECW brand where he was recognized as the ECW Representative.

Paul Heyman was born in Scarsdale, New York. By age 11, he was running a mail order business selling celebrity and sports memorabilia from his home.

While still a teenager, Heyman fast-talked his way backstage at a World Wide Wrestling Federation event at Madison Square Garden as a photojournalist. He was paid by the company for several of his photographs.

Heyman attended Westchester Community College, where he worked at the radio station, and later became a promoter for the New York City nightclub Studio 54 in the mid 1980s.