UFC Fight Night: Dillashaw vs. Cruz (also known as UFC Fight Night 81) was a mixed martial arts event held on January 17, 2016 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.

A UFC Bantamweight Championship bout between defending champion T.J. Dillashaw and former WEC and UFC Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz headlined this event.

Beneil Dariush was expected to face Mairbek Taisumov at this event. However, on December 3, Dariush was forced to pull out of the bout due to injury. He was replaced by Chris Wade. In turn, Taisumov was pulled from the fight during the week leading to the event due to alleged visa issues and was replaced by promotional newcomer Mehdi Baghdad.

Dennis Bermudez was expected to face Maximo Blanco at this event. However, on December 5, Bermudez pulled out of the bout due to a staph infection in his shin. On January 4, it was announced that he was replaced by promotional newcomer Luke Sanders.

Patrick Williams was expected to face Rob Font at this event. However, Williams was forced to pull out due to injury in late December. He was replaced by promotional newcomer Joey Gomez.

Jimy Hettes was expected to face Charles Rosa. However, on January 10, only 8 days before the event, Hettes pulled out due to injury. He was very briefly replaced by promotional newcomer Augusto Mendes. Just two days later, Mendes was removed from the fight and was replaced by Kyle Bochniak.

Promotional newcomer Abdul-Kerim Edilov was expected to face Francimar Barroso at the event. However, Edilov pulled out of the fight in the days leading up to the event citing a knee injury and was replaced by fellow newcomer Elvis Mutapcic.

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