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. UFC 68 was the first UFC event held in the state of Ohio, and coincided with the 2007 Arnold Sports Festival. The sold-out event produced the highest verifiable live attendance to date for a mixed martial arts event in North America with 19,079 spectators. To date it is the largest attendance for a MMA event in the United States.

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.

Also featured at UFC 68 were the return bouts of former champions Matt Hughes at welterweight and Rich Franklin at middleweight.

The disclosed fighter payroll for UFC 68 was $697,000.

The individual payouts are listed below. Purse amounts includes the payment amounts for show and win, but do not include sponsor payments, fees, taxes, or special award bonuses.

Randy Duane Couture (pronounced /koʊˈtʊər/; born June 22, 1963) is an actor, retired American mixed martial artist, collegiate and Greco-Roman wrestler. During his tenures in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Couture became a three-time UFC Heavyweight Champion, two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, an Interim UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, and was the UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament Winner. Couture is the first fighter to hold two UFC championship titles in two different divisions (heavyweight and light heavyweight). Couture has competed in a record 15 title fights. He holds the most title reigns in the UFC with five. His last fight with Lyoto Machida marked his 24th fight in the UFC, the third most amount of fights in the UFC (Tito Ortiz is first with 26 and Matt Hughes is second with 25). Couture is one of the first members of the UFC Hall of Fame. He is the only person over the age of 40 to have won a UFC championship fight, having done so four times.^{[citation needed]}

Couture was an Olympic wrestling alternate and has lived in Corvallis, Oregon, throughout much of his career, where he served as an assistant wrestling coach and a strength and conditioning coach for Oregon State University. He established Team Quest with Matt Lindland and Dan Henderson, a training camp for fighters, based out of Gresham, Oregon, and headed by coach Robert Folis. In 2005, Couture moved to Las Vegas, where he opened his own extensive chain of gyms under the name Xtreme Couture. He currently trains at his Las Vegas-based gym. Couture partnered with Bas Rutten in the opening of Legends Gym in Hollywood, California.

Timothy Deane Sylvia (born March 5, 1976) is an American professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, professional wrestler, and former two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion. He trains as a member of the Miletich Fighting Systems camp and is part of the Miletich Fighting System Elite group which has had members such as former UFC champions Matt Hughes and, Jens Pulver. Sylvia was promoted to a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on October 31, 2011. He holds notable wins over Andrei Arlovski (x2), Jeff Monson, Ricco Rodriguez, Paul Buentello, Brandon Vera, Jason Lambert and Ben Rothwell

Sylvia joined a karate school as a child, and began wrestling in high school. After graduation, he worked construction, community gardening, hanging sheet rock, a bouncer for Shane Reids bar, and painting houses. He was playing semi-pro football when he became interested in MMA, and began to train with Marcus Davis. During this time he decided to take up boxing and grappling. After training for a year, he got the opportunity to fight in a Rhode Island no-holds-barred amateur event, in which he knocked out his opponent in 17 seconds.

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.

Jason William Dent (born June 12, 1980) is an American mixed martial artist. The Lightweight competitor has held several regional championships, most recently he won the IFBL Welterweight Championship. He runs the GriffonRawl MMA Academy in Mentor, Ohio, and previously hosted an MMA oriented radio talk show on WWGK Radio (AM 1540 KNR2) in Cleveland. and was a competitor on SpikeTV's The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom.

Dent's training in Mixed Martial arts began at age 13 with karate. Just before earning his black belt he moved onto muay thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Dent made his professional MMA debut at Extreme Combat Challenge's Assault event on May 31, 2003, where he defeated Tim Newland with a triangle choke. He won his first professional championship a few months later at Next Level Fighting's first event on September 13, 2003. Once again, using a triangle choke, Dent defeated Nick Spencer for the NLF Lightweight Championship.

He fought in a number of other local events and was eventually offered a chance to fight in a UFC match. In his UFC debut at UFC 63, Dent lost by unanimous decision to Roger Huerta. He was given second chance with a match against Gleison Tibau at UFC 68 which he lost by unanimous decision. Having lost both matches, Dent was cut from the UFC roster.