| UFC 66: Liddell vs. Ortiz | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
The poster for UFC 66: Liddell vs. Ortiz
| ||||
| Information | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | December 30, 2006 | |||
| Venue | MGM Grand Garden Arena | |||
| City | Paradise, Nevada | |||
| Attendance | 13,761 (12,191 paid)[1] | |||
| Total gate | $5,397,300[1] | |||
| Buyrate | 929,000[2] | |||
| Total purse | $767,000 (disclosed)[3] | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC 66: Liddell vs. Ortiz was a mixed martial arts (MMA) pay-per-view event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on December 30, 2006 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada.
UFC 66's main event was a championship fight with two of the UFC's biggest light heavyweight stars, Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell defending his title against former champion Tito Ortiz. This fight was first announced by Ortiz at the UFC 63 weigh-ins on September 22, 2006.[4]
The co-main event saw Forrest Griffin take on "The Dean of Mean" Keith Jardine. The card also saw the return of former Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski and The Ultimate Fighter 3 winner Michael Bisping's first bout in the UFC since winning that season. During the event, it was made official that Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic had signed a contract with the UFC, and would make his debut with the organization at UFC 67.[5]
The event was the UFC's first show at MGM Grand Arena since UFC 56, and was nearly sold-out, producing the highest live gate revenue in North American mixed martial arts history,[1] extending the previous record at UFC 57 by over $2,000,000 (USD). At the time, it was estimated to be the UFC's biggest pay-per-view success with just over 1 million buys.[6]
The disclosed fighter payroll for the event was $767,000.[3]
| Main Card | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Light Heavyweight | Chuck Liddell (c) | def. | Tito Ortiz | TKO (punches) | 3 | 3:59 | [a] |
| Light Heavyweight | Keith Jardine | def. | Forrest Griffin | TKO (punches) | 1 | 4:41 | |
| Middleweight | Jason MacDonald | def. | Chris Leben | Submission (guillotine choke) | 2 | 4:03 | |
| Heavyweight | Andrei Arlovski | def. | Márcio Cruz | KO (punches) | 1 | 3:15 | |
| Light Heavyweight | Michael Bisping | def. | Eric Schafer | TKO (punches) | 1 | 4:24 | |
| Preliminary Card | |||||||
| Welterweight | Thiago Alves | def. | Tony DeSouza | KO (knee) | 2 | 1:10 | [b] |
| Heavyweight | Gabriel Gonzaga | def. | Carmelo Marrero | Submission (armbar) | 1 | 3:22 | [c] |
| Middleweight | Yushin Okami | def. | Rory Singer | Submission (punches) | 3 | 4:03 | |
| Heavyweight | Christian Wellisch | def. | Anthony Perosh | Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 29–27, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
UFC 66 Fighters' Salaries:[3]
