UFC 86: Jackson vs. Griffin was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on July 5, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The title bout between Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Forrest Griffin, coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest, was for Jackson's UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. A heavyweight bout between Frank Mir and Justin McCully was cancelled due to Mir's signing on as a coach for the The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir series. Both the Chris Wilson vs. Steve Bruno and Ben Saunders vs. Jared Rollins bout were rescheduled for UFC 87.^{[citation needed]}

At the end of the night, the UFC awarded $60,000 to each of the fighters who received one of these three awards.

Forrest Griffin ($250,000/$100,000 for show and $150,000 win bonus) def. Quinton Jackson ($225,000)

Patrick Côté ($32,000/$16,000 for show and $16,000 win bonus) def. Ricardo Almeida ($23,000)

Joe Stevenson ($60,000/$30,000 for show and $30,000 win bonus) def. Gleison Tibau ($11,000)

Forrest Griffin (born July 1, 1979) is an American mixed martial artist. Since 2005, he has been signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship where he is a former UFC light heavyweight champion.

Griffin, a former Georgia police officer, first rose to prominence after winning the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. In the tournament finals, he fought and defeated Stephan Bonnar in an exciting brawl that is widely credited as sparking the current success of the UFC. He went on to serve as a coach on the 7th season of the reality series opposite Quinton Jackson, whom he later defeated at UFC 86 to become the Undisputed UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. He and Rashad Evans are the only fighters to go from winning The Ultimate Fighter to winning the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.

Griffin graduated from Evans High School in Evans, Georgia, a suburb of Augusta. He then graduated with an A.B. in Political Science from the University of Georgia. While attending school, Griffin served as a law enforcement officer for the Richmond County Sheriff's Office in Augusta, Georgia. He also served as a patrol officer with the University of Georgia Police.

Melvin Paul Guillard, Jr. (born March 30, 1983) is an American mixed martial artist currently fighting in the lightweight division for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He debuted with the company on The Ultimate Fighter 2 television series, losing in the first welterweight elimination bout to Josh Burkman. Guillard received his blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Ricco Rodriguez in 2008. He is currently ranked as being the 15th best lightweight fighter by The USA Today Consensus Rankings, and 7th by MMAWeekly.

In 2005 Guillard fought against fellow future UFC veteran Roger Huerta. After Guillard took a competitive decision victory, the fight was ruled a no contest after Huerta appealed the commission making an accusation that Guillard was greasing between rounds and that he was very slippery since the start of the 2nd round.

Guillard later participated in The Ultimate Fighter 2, but was eliminated from the competition after losing by unanimous decision against Josh Burkman. Guillard returned at the season finale, defeating Marcus Davis by technical knockout due to a cut. Fighting again at welterweight, Guillard lost his next fight, against Josh Neer, by triangle choke submission which surprised many in attendance. Guillard seemed to control the fight until then, opening a large cut on Neer's forehead in the process.

Dennis D. Siver (born January 13, 1979) is a Russian-German mixed martial artist who competes in the featherweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. As of May 2012, Siver is ranked as the #5 featherweight fighter in the world by Fight Matrix. He has two knockouts in the UFC with spinning back kicks to the body, both earning KO of the night.

Dennis Siver was born in Omsk, Russia to a family of Russian citizens of German descent, and moved to Germany at the age of 17. He started training in martial arts in 1994 when he began learning judo, kickboxing and taekwondo. In 1997, he became the WAKO amateur kickboxing champion of Germany.

His mixed martial arts career began in small local shows in Germany and England, amongst other European countries. He fought most frequently for Cage Warriors in England, compiling a record of 3 wins and 1 loss, most notably, one win coming against Jim Wallhead.

After his win against Jim Wallhead at CWFC – Enter The Rough House, Siver was signed by UFC. His debut was against Jess Liaudin at UFC 70 in Manchester, England where he lost via submission (armbar), just 81 seconds into the first round.

Quinton Ramone Jackson (born June 20, 1978), also known as Rampage Jackson, is an American mixed martial artist and actor. He is a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. Jackson rose to prominence in Japan's Pride Fighting Championships where he was noted^{[citation needed]} for his powerful body slams including a knockout victory over Ricardo Arona. In the United States, he is known for his tenure in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Jackson is the first person to unify any of the UFC and Pride FC championship belts, defeating Pride Fighting Championships Middleweight title holder Dan Henderson in 2007. Jackson is ranked as the #5 Light Heavyweight fighter in the world by Sherdog, MMAWeekly and Yahoo! Sports.

Jackson appeared for a second time as a coach on the reality series The Ultimate Fighter opposite Rashad Evans. They were scheduled to fight at UFC 107, but this bout was cancelled when Jackson took a movie role to play B. A. Baracus in The A-Team feature film. Jackson guest co-hosted WWE Raw on June 7, 2010, along with his A-Team co-stars Bradley Cooper and Sharlto Copley. Jackson refuted any doubts to whether acting was getting in the way of his fighting by saying, “I got a whole bunch of movies coming up, they ain’t got nothing to do with my day job,” he retorted at a UFC 135 kickoff presser on July 19, 2011. “I turn down movies all the time to fight. This is my day job fighting. This is what pays my bills and puts my kids through college and stuff."