UFC 148

UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on July 7, 2012 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the seventeenth UFC event of the year. The card consisted of eleven bouts, with six televised live on pay-per-view, four preliminary bouts on FX, and one on Facebook.

The card's main event featured UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva defending his title against Chael Sonnen in a highly anticipated bout. The contest was heavily promoted, featuring the International Fight Week, as well as the preview show UFC Primetime. Tito Ortiz was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame during the UFC Fan Expo in conjunction with the event, and fought fellow former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin in the co-main event of the evening.

Background

Card changes

Urijah Faber was expected to challenge Dominick Cruz for the UFC Bantamweight Championship in the co-main event (after their stint as opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: Live), but a torn ACL forced Cruz off the card. Faber was then expected to face replacement Renan Barão for the Interim UFC Bantamweight Championship, but that fight was moved to the main event of UFC 149 in Calgary. Barão was originally scheduled to fight Ivan Menjivar on the UFC 148 preliminary card, and Mike Easton replaced Barão in the opening bout of the main card.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a mixed martial arts promotion company. It is the largest in the world and features most of the top-ranked fighters in the sport. Based in the United States, the UFC produces events worldwide that showcase ten weight divisions and abide by the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. The UFC has held over 300 events to date. Dana White serves as the president of the UFC while brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta control the UFC's parent company, Zuffa, LLC.

The first Ultimate Fighting Championship event was held on November 12, 1993 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado. The purpose of the early Ultimate Fighting Championship competitions were to identify the most effective martial art in a fight, with minimal rules, between competitors of different fighting disciplines, including boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Sambo, wrestling, Muay Thai, karate, judo, and other styles. In subsequent competitions, fighters began adopting effective techniques from more than one discipline, which indirectly helped create an entirely separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts.

Chael Sonnen

Chael Patrick Sonnen (/ˈtʃeɪl ˈsʌnən/; born April 3, 1977) is a retired American mixed martial artist who last competed in the light heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Early life and career

Sonnen was born in either Milwaukie, Oregon, United States or West Linn, Oregon (sources differ), and began wrestling from a young age. He attended West Linn High School, where he was a state runner-up. In 1996, Sonnen began training in boxing, with the hope of competing in the UFC upon graduating from high school.

After high school, Sonnen attended Brigham Young University before transferring to the University of Oregon when BYU began considering cutting their wrestling program. At Oregon, Sonnen earned All-American honors, was a two-time PAC-10 runner-up, was a silver medalist at the 2000 Greco-Roman World University Championships, and was a two-time Dave Schultz Memorial Institutional Greco-Roman winner. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology.

Forrest Griffin

Forrest Griffin (born July 1, 1979) is an American retired mixed martial artist and a UFC Hall of Famer. 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 Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar, which is widely credited as sparking the current success of the UFC. He went on to serve as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter 7 opposite Quinton Jackson. Griffin, Rashad Evans, Matt Serra, and Carla Esparza are the only fighters to go from winning The Ultimate Fighter to winning a UFC championship.

Early life

Griffin graduated from Evans High School (Georgia) in Evans, GA, a suburb of Augusta. He then graduated with a Bachelor of Arts 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.

Dana White

Dana Frederick White, Jr. (born July 28, 1969) is an American businessman and philanthropist. He is the President of the mixed martial arts organization Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early life

Dana Frederick White, Jr. was born to Dana White, Sr. and June White on July 28, 1969 in Manchester, Connecticut. White and his sister Kelly were raised by his mother and her family the majority of his childhood. Dana is Irish-American. He began boxing at age 17 and graduated from Hermon High School in Maine in 1987.

Career

Ultimate Fighting Championship (2001–present)

While working as a manager for Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, 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, in January of 2001, Lorenzo and his older brother Frank bought the UFC with White installed as its president. White owns 9% of Zuffa, LLC, the entity the Fertitta brothers created to own and manage the UFC.