UFC 116: Lesnar vs. Carwin

Shane Carwin, who won the interim heavyweight championship by defeating Frank Mir at UFC 111, will face current heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. The two were originally set to face each other at UFC 106, before Shane Carwin won the interim heavyweight championship, but Brock Lesnar pulled out of the fight due to an illness that kept him from training.

Cheick Kongo was scheduled to face Roy Nelson, but a back injury has sidelined Kongo. Nelson is expected to face Junior dos Santos at UFC 117.

Alessio Sakara was set to fight Nate Marquardt, but Sakara pulled out of the bout after the death of his father.

Jacob Volkmann was scheduled to fight Paul Kelly as one of the preliminary fights, but Kelly reportedly had to pull out of the July 3 fight due to visa issues. The bout will possibly be rescheduled for a later date.

Also, UFC newcomer Ricardo Romero was scheduled to fight Steve Cantwell after Cantwell's recent medical ban ended. However, the fight was cancelled for unknown reasons and Cantwell was replaced by UFC returnee Seth Petruzelli.

On June 17, 2010, Julio Paulino withdrew from his fight against Daniel Roberts. Forrest Petz returned to the UFC and replaced Paulino.

On June 22, 2010, Wanderlei Silva had to withdraw from his co-main event fight against Yoshihiro Akiyama due to three broken ribs and an injured right knee. Akiyama is now scheduled to face Chris Leben.

The bout between Kendall Grove and Goran Reljic was originally slated for the live prelims show on Spike TV. However, it was later demoted and replaced by Seth Petruzelli vs. Ricardo Romero because of Grove's criticism of the Spike TV network and the Ultimate Fighter television show.

UFC President Dana White confirmed that the winner of the heavyweight title fight will defend the title against Cain Velasquez.

Main card

Lightweight bout: Australia George Sotiropoulos vs. United States Kurt Pellegrino

Welterweight bout: United States Chris Lytle vs. United States Matt Brown

Light Heavyweight bout: Canada Krzysztof Soszynski vs. United States Stephan
Bonnar

Middleweight bout: Japan Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. United States Chris Leben

Heavyweight Championship bout: United States Brock Lesnar (c) vs United States Shane Carwin (ic)