UFC 82: Pride of a Champion was a mixed martial arts (MMA) event that took place on 1st March, 2008 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

The main event was a UFC & Pride FC middleweight title unification match between UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and PRIDE FC welterweight champion Dan Henderson.

A welterweight matchup between Jon Fitch and Akihiro Gono was originally scheduled, but Gono was forced to withdraw after suffering a hand injury in training. Gono was replaced by Chris Wilson. The Fitch/Gono matchup was rescheduled for UFC 94.

At the event, former UFC heavyweight champion Mark Coleman was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.

At the end of this event, $60,000 was awarded to each of the fighters who received one of these three awards.

Main Card

Preliminary Card

Total Fighter Payout: $932,000

Read above for bonuses.

Daniel Jeffery Henderson, (born August 24, 1970) is an American mixed martial artist and former Olympic wrestler, who competes as a middleweight and light heavyweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is the former Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion and was the last Welterweight 183 lb (83 kg; 13.1 st) and Middleweight 205 lb (93 kg; 14.6 st) champion of Pride Fighting Championships. He was the only mixed martial artist to concurrently hold two titles in two different weight classes in a major MMA promotion. Henderson is also the UFC 17 Middleweight Tournament Winner, the 1997 Brazil Open Lightweight Tournament Champion, the RINGS King of Kings 1999 Tournament Winner, and the 2005 PRIDE Welterweight Grand Prix Champion.

Henderson also owns the Clinch Gear MMA apparel brand. As of May 2012, Henderson is ranked the #2 light heavyweight by Sherdog.

Dan Henderson was born in Downey, California and grew up in Apple Valley, California. He attended Victor Valley High School in Victorville, California, and earned medals at the California State Wrestling Championships in 1987 and 1988. He was a member of the 1987 Victor Valley High School wrestling team state champions. Henderson went on to wrestle at both Cal State Fullerton and Arizona State University, participating in the 1993 NCAA championships. He represented the United States in the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling.

Anderson da Silva (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈɐ̃deʁsõ ˈsiwvɐ]; born April 14, 1975) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist. He is the current UFC Middleweight Champion and the promotion's longest reigning champion. With 14 consecutive wins and 9 title defenses, Silva holds the longest winning streak and title defense streak in UFC history.

Silva is ranked as the number one Middleweight in the world by multiple publications, and is the consensus No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world according to ESPN, Sherdog, Yahoo! Sports, MMAFighting.com and other publications. UFC president Dana White has proclaimed Silva as "the greatest mixed martial artist ever."^{[undue weight? – discuss]} Silva is also the last Cage Rage Middleweight Champion and a former Shooto Middleweight Champion. Besides the UFC and Cage Rage, Silva has fought for a number of other MMA promotions including the Pride Fighting Championships, Shooto and Rumble on the Rock.

Although known primarily for his mastery of Muay Thai striking, Silva is also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt, a rank he earned in 2006 from Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira who follows Gracie Lineage through Carlson Gracie, like Murilo Bustamante and the Brazilian Top Team. He began martial arts training at the age of 14, training Tae kwon do and earning a black belt by the age of 18. He is also a black belt in Judo and a yellow rope in Capoeira.

Evan Loyd Tanner (February 11, 1971 – c. September 8, 2008) was an American professional mixed martial arts fighter. He was a former UFC Middleweight and USWF Heavyweight champion with a professional record of 32 wins and 8 losses. He was also the first American to win the Pancrase Neo-Blood tournament in Tokyo, Japan.

Tanner won his first championship when he defeated Heath Herring at USWF 7, and went on to successfully defend that title five times. Tanner then won the UFC Middleweight title at UFC 51, stopping David Terrell with strikes in the first round.

Tanner held notable wins over Phil Baroni(2x), David Terrell, Robbie Lawler, Heath Herring, Paul Buentello, Elvis Sinosic, Ikuhisa Minowa and Travis Fulton.

Tanner was born in Amarillo, Texas and graduated from Caprock High School in 1989 where he won the Texas State Championships in wrestling as a junior and senior despite only entering the sport in his sophomore year of high school. Tanner attended college but dropped out because he felt that he was not receiving a "real world" education that he was searching for.

Heath Herring (born March 2, 1978 in Waco, Texas, raised in Amarillo, Texas) is a retired American Heavyweight professional mixed martial artist who attained popularity fighting for PRIDE FC in Japan and most recently fought in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is primarily known for fighting the world's top heavyweight talent, such as Fedor Emelianenko, Mirko Filipović, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Brock Lesnar.

Herring was an MMA fighter who practices sambo and Muay Thai. He currently lives in Las Vegas.

Herring was known for unique hairstyles and colors as well as wearing a cowboy hat and duster coat to the ring. His appearance was very popular among the Japanese crowd.

Herring is a long time veteran in PRIDE, where he participated in 17 fights. He took part in the first Heavyweight title fight against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira where he lost by unanimous decision. Despite his earlier championship loss to Rodrigo Nogueira he was widely considered the number one contender until his first round loss to Fedor Emelianenko. His most notable wins are over Evan Tanner, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mark Kerr, and Cheick Kongo.