silva's had more difficult sparring matches, i'm sure. wiezorek looked terrible and was way out of his league in that one. only a matter of time before silva knocked him out or submitted him, and eventually he gets the latter with the rear naked choke.
now that antonio is healthy and is making 265 lbs, it would be nice to see him go up against some top HW's.
wow, that was probably one of the worst cuts i've ever seen. noke cuts kleinbeck with some elbows and the fight is stopped. not too much happening in this one, but i was impressed with noke's ground skills and his level change for the takedown. i thought he'd go for that more often, as the stand up seemed like a stalemate and he got the first one easily.
looking forward to seeing more of noke as he continues to train at jackson's in new mexico.
should be a good grappling match between shields and pyle coming up...
only one round, but a good match. i thought this one would go a little bit longer, but some good reversals and ground work while it lasted. shields gets the rear naked choke to finish.
jake was hurt very badly by that knee right away and a bit of a mistake for pyle to not back up and capitalize, but a nice recovery by sheilds to regain his composure and win the fight.
uppercut and a right hand and cantrell is out. kimbo looked like the veteran and cantrell like the rookie. gary shaw and elitexc must be happy right about now...kimbo lives up to the hype in his first fight.
noons pulls off the upset! it was unfortunate that it was a doctor's stoppage in between rounds that ended it, but noons was definitely getting the better of the stand up and did a very good job of avoiding nick's takedowns, which seemed a little half-hearted. nick should have been blasting the left high kick, but he only threw one. lucky for noons as he kept leaving himself wide open for it.
uppercut and a right hand and cantrell is out. kimbo looked like the veteran and cantrell like the rookie. gary shaw and elitexc must be happy right about now...kimbo lives up to the hype in his first fight.
dammit...I don't get showtime on my dish, only about 4 different versions of showcase :mad:
Go Kimbo...grassroots brawler from da hood. He's training with Bas Rutten at the moment, so we should be seeing a lot more liver shots from Kimbo in the future....hehe
Progress is not made by everyone joining some new fad,
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
shitty about that one, roland, although you didn't miss much. it was a pretty poor show. i didn't have the time when i posted before, but kimbo's fight only lasted 19 seconds, with cantrell missing an initial spinning backfist, then kimbo kind of stalking him to the cage. i think kimbo threw about three punches as cantrell backed into the fence. he landed an uppercut and a right hand / forearm and it was over. cantrell actually tapped out when he fell after the right landed, but he was done for after the first punch.
obviously kimbo has the power in his hands, and even though it was a quick fight, he showed good movement while it lasted. with the training he's getting, his natural athleticism, and his power he could quickly become a legitimate HW threat.
I'm a little late to the party, but what a great fight this week! I tivo'd the episode and just got a chance to watch it tonight. Warmachine opened up a pretty good cut on the bridge of Tommy's nose. I was surprised Tommy was able to turn it around ... losing that much blood (along with the adrenaline) will make you pretty lightheaded. I actually think Mac was talking about Tommy having heart ... he came back so strong in the second round. Warmachine was completely wasted at the end ... wobbling around. I felt kinda bad for him, because he did fight pretty well.
I'm assuming that Dana White is not going to let Matt Serra match up Mac Danzig and Tommy Speer. I'll do my quarterfinal predictions after that gets cleared up because it makes a big difference in how Serra will go about things.
i'm still trying to figure out how the quarters are going to go. it's almost like we haven't seen enough of a couple of the guys to know really who matches up well with who. i know i'd like to see george vs. mac at some point, but other than that, i'm just not sure. that's not to say that the next round won't be good...just that it could be a crapshoot about who faces who. you're right that we'll know better when dana decides on speer and mac, so good luck with your matchmaking, releash.
so, speaking of predictions, it's that time again...this time, though, there are a few where i'd just like to say i have not a clue what's going to happen, but that's a good thing!
UFC 78, November 17, 2007 - Prudential Arena, Newark, New Jersey - PPV
Michael Bisping Vs. Rashad Evans - evans by decision
Houston Alexander Vs. Thiago Silva - silva by ko
Joe Doerksen Vs. Ed Herman - doerksen by submission
Karo Parisyan Vs. Ryo Chonan - chonan by decision
Spencer Fisher Vs. Frank Edgar - edgar by decision
Pre-lims:
Thiago Alves Vs. Chris Lytle - alves by stoppage due to leg kicks
Joe Lauzon Vs. Jason Reinhardt - lauzon by decision
Luke Caudillo Vs. Marcus Aurelio - aurelio by submission
Tamdan McCrory Vs. Akihiro Gono - mccrory by submission
countdown to 78 is on spike tonight. the preview says they'll be taking a look at bisping and evans, as well as houston alexander and thiago silva. it will be nice to see the training camps of a couple of "new" fighters for a change. i think they've done bisping and evans before, so that will probabaly be repetitive.
less talkie from dana, joe and made up experts like kevin iole this time...more from the fighters and their camps, i hope.
it was fourteen years ago that i sat around the tv with a bunch of the boys in our stinky old floor lounge at university eating chicken fingers and fries, watching a 170 man somehow defeat opponents twice his size and hearing the legendary jim brown utter the now infamous..."what we've learned tonight is that fighting is not what we thought it was"...:)
First UFC forever altered combat sports
By Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports
November 12, 2007
On November 12, 1993, everything most Americans thought they knew about fighting was thrown out the window.
At the time, most people figured that the marquee heavyweight boxer, the imprisoned Mike Tyson, was the baddest man on the planet. But there were people with amateur wrestling backgrounds who thought otherwise, figuring that a wrestler could take a boxer off his feet and once he got him there, the boxer’s weapons were useless.
Bruce Lee movies and the TV show "Kung Fu" had another camp believing in the invincibility of board-breaking karate practitioners or people who used flashy kicks.
And some favored kickboxing, with more points of attack, as being a superior fighting form than boxing.
Jiu-jitsu was something advertised in the back of low-rent magazines, and most people, not knowing any better, considered it another form of karate or kung fu.
Basically, almost everyone was clueless.
Rorion Gracie, the son of Helio Gracie and nephew of Carlson Gracie, the stars of the brutal, no holds barred Vale Tudo competitions in Brazil, which had a heyday in the 1950s, had more than just a clue.
He wanted to bring the style of fighting that made his family famous in Brazil to North America. Gracie met Art Davie, a martial arts enthusiast, who pitched the concept to Bob Meyrowitz, who had made millions producing the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show. Meyrowitz's Semaphore Entertainment Group was on the ground floor in pay-per-view, usually promoting concerts.
The concept sounded intriguing. Gracie, Meyrowitz, and their associates came up with an eight-sided cage, the octagon, and billed their creation, the legalized street fight, as the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
"Starting from scratch"
That UFC was nothing like today's marketing juggernaut. There was no such thing as a mixed martial artist. The term mixed martial arts wasn’t developed until many years later.
Campbell McLaren, who Meyrowitz put in charge of marketing the project, in no way believed this was the ground floor of a new sport. In fact, he told people, "The last thing we want is for this to be a sport."
The first show was booked for McNichols Arena in Denver and the secret local promoter of the event was Zane Bresloff, who had to keep his name quiet for fear his regular bosses, the folks at the World Wrestling Federation, would find out about his involvement.
It was billed as anything-goes fighting, to the finish, banned in 49 states (it was actually not banned anywhere – that would come later). On the first show, there were no gloves worn, and everything was legal except biting, attacking the eyes and attacking the groin.
The second show saw the rules modified somewhat: You could attack the groin.
It was billed as world champions from eight fighting sports, although credentials of fighters were often exaggerated and records, and even heights and weights were often outright made up. They would have a one-night tournament with the only way to win being via knockout, submission or a fighter’s corner throwing in the towel. On the eventual videotape release of the show months later, it was billed as the only way to win being knockout, submission, or death. While that may have helped sell tapes, in the long run, that type of promotion was Semaphore’s undoing.
The winner was to receive $50,000. The matches had unlimited five-minutes rounds and no judges. None of the fights went five minutes, as it turned out, and most of the participants didn't have a clue what they were getting into.
The lone exception was Rorion's younger brother, Royce Gracie, who became the UFC's first superstar. Studying under his father from childhood, in many ways the original UFC was designed by Rorion, although his partners weren't fully aware of it, to be an infomercial for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.
Rorion picked the competitors. He avoided picking powerhouse heavyweight wrestlers, and in particular, wrestlers who had studied jiu-jitsu.
The local favorite was Patrick Smith of Denver, billed as having a 250-0 record, and claiming to be impervious to pain, and that no wrestling hold could hurt him. He was billed as a Tae Kwon Do champion, but he was actually a mediocre boxer who had won a martial arts tournament.
Royce Gracie, who had never won anything of substance in Brazil, was billed as the world light heavyweight champion in jiu-jitsu. At 176 pounds, he was the smallest man in the tournament, by design, since the idea was to show that technique was more important than size in fighting, and that a skinny man who looked like he could easily be broken in two by these heavyweights could subdue them all.
Gerard Gordeau, a savage streetfighter from Holland who had done some high-profile pro wrestling matches in Japan, was billed as the World Savate champion.
Art Jimmerson was a cruiserweight boxer who at the time had a national ranking.
Teila Tuli was billed as a 425-pound sumo wrestling champion, although he was closer to 350 and never even competed in the high-profile Japanese sumo circuit.
Kevin Rosier was a well-known kickboxer in the '80s, who held one of the dozens of world heavyweight championships the sport had, although past his prime by that point.
Zane Frazier also did some kickboxing, and was advertised as a champion.
And the final entrant was Ken Wayne Shamrock, an American who was a pro wrestling star in Japan. Shamrock's bodybuilder-like physique made him look like what everyone thought an Ultimate Fighting champion should look like. He was billed as the World shootfighting champion.
Shamrock and two other pro wrestlers, frustrated at older stars holding them back, decided to create a pro wrestling circuit, called Pancrase, where the matches would be real. While he had trained in submissions with pro wrestlers for a few years, he had actually only had a few real matches, all under essentially pro wrestling rules with submission finishes, which included no closed fists or even rope breaks.
Shamrock was the only true risk in the tournament for Royce Gracie, in that he knew submissions. But his two months of real fighting experience weren't expected to be able to rival Gracie's lifetime of experience taught through generations.
"Fight night"
About 7,800 fans in attendance, and another 80,000 homes on pay-per-view, saw something unlike anything they had ever witnessed. Some expected spectacular moves like in a martial arts movie, since the idea of this tournament was similar to movies that had been done in the past.
The matches, legitimately, were picked at random, with one exception. Rorion wanted Royce to face the boxer first to make a point, since in the U.S., people thought in a real fight, a boxer would knock everyone out, and he knew differently.
Gordeau and Tuli were up first, and as Tuli blindly charged forward, Gordeau kicked him in the mouth. Teeth went flying. After a bare-knuckle punch to the stunned Samoan, the fight was called in just 30 seconds. Tuli's face was battered. Gordeau had a broken hand and a broken foot. The crowd was stunned and confused.
Rosier and Frazier were next. The two kickboxers ended up on the ground, where neither had much of a clue of what they were doing. Rosier, the second-biggest man in the tournament at 275 pounds, managed to get up and stomp Frazier in the head until he was finished.
Although gloves were supposed to be banned, Jimmerson came in wearing a boxing glove on his left hand. Gracie took Jimmerson down, and Jimmerson panicked and started tapping before a hold was even applied.
The local favorite, Smith, faced Shamrock, and after a big staredown, Shamrock took Smith down and clamped on a heel hook in 1:51. Smith tapped, got up, and wanted to fight again. Yes, the local star, who had bragged he could feel no pain and no hold would have any effect on him, was already out.
With a broken hand and broken foot, Gordeau faced Rosier, who was still gassed out from his first match. It only took Gordeau 1:03 to pound Rosier into tapping.
What everyone expected to be the championship match was next, and became the beginning of one of the great family rivalries. Shamrock took Gracie down and went for the heel hook. Gracie reversed quickly, got the mount, and choked Shamrock out in 57 seconds. Shamrock, having no idea what had just happened, had to be calmed down backstage in the dressing room.
The championship match was almost a formality. Gordeau had no ground experience, and Gracie took him right down and choked him out.
"Back for more"
When the show was over, the decision was that if the first show came close to breaking even, they would do another. In fact, the first show did come close to making money. The second show, another tournament won by Gracie, but with Shamrock not involved, made a profit.
A controversial third show on September 9, 1994, in Charlotte, was really the night UFC was put on the map, seemingly for good. It was built around a tournament designed for Shamrock and Gracie to meet in the finals. Shamrock came in with a torn ACL. But Gracie took an early beating, and had to resort to both hair pulling and knees to the groin (both legal at the time), to hold off the bigger and stronger Kimo Leopoldo. Kimo gassed and tapped out to an armbar, but became an instant superstar just for giving Gracie a tough fight. Gracie took a beating, and was dehydrated and seeing double, and dropped out of the tournament.
Shamrock made it to the finals, and then, claiming he only came to get revenge on Gracie and didn't want to risk his career for any other reason, dropped out. Steve Jennum, an Omaha police officer and alternate became the unlikely champion.
The controversy paid off. By the fourth show, on December 16, 1994, in Tulsa, UFC drew a turn away crowd of 5,857 live, and with 240,000 buys, it was the biggest non-boxing sports pay-per-view event in history (for the sake of this terminology, pro wrestling is not a sport).
Gracie won his third tournament, making Dan Severn submit with a triangle choke, the first time such a move was used in UFC competition. It was also the last time Gracie ever won a match in UFC.
"Backlash"
But the evolution of fighting and the show’s popularity became UFC’s biggest obstacles. Newspapers and television shows started covering the story of the UFC, with its popularity being written as the latest sign of a decadent society.
The smoking gun was on that VHS sleeve, "You can win by knockout, submission or death." Plus, as fighters started to actually learn the game, fights started getting longer, and after a few shows went past their allotted three hours on pay-per-view, time limits were put in. After too many inconclusive finishes in key fights, judges were put in.
At this point, Rorion Gracie sold his stake in the company to Meyrowitz. Gracie knew with the combination of bigger men and better athletes discovering the game, more people learning ground fighting, and time limits and judging, that it was better for Gracie jiu-jitsu for Royce to leave as the invincible ruler of the cage.
The original UFC's popularity peaked in 1995. There are a number of factors that led to the collapse and near demise of UFC only two years after it seemingly established it was here to stay.
The key was political pressure causing, one-by-one, almost all the key cable systems to pull the shows, killing the key pay-per-view revenue stream. A series of bad main events didn't help. And the early lure, the idea of proving, in a real anything goes fight, what style would win, had run its course.
It would take another decade and a change of ownership and direction to bring UFC back to the forefront.
wow! sounds like it's come a long way over the the last fourteen years!!
pretty brutal in the beginning though! :eek: teeth flying? head stomping? yikes! mook, had i been in that stinky common room with you, i would've sat you on my lap and hid behind you! (just for the record, that's the way i 'watched' the Excorsist at my friend's 13th birthday party )
how was the countdown show? i was going to check it out, but it wasn't on until midnight! :(
edit: for math...
~~*~~ ...i surfaced and all of my being was enlightend... ~~*~~
wow! sounds like it's come a long way over the the last fourteen years!!
pretty brutal in the beginning though! :eek: teeth flying? head stomping? yikes! mook, had i been in that stinky common room with you, i would've sat you on my lap and hid behind you! (just for the record, that's the way i 'watched' the Excorsist at my friend's 13th birthday party )
how was the countdown show? i was going to check it out, but it wasn't on until midnight!
edit: for math...
yes, fourteen...either i was thinking my first year, 1992, or i just realized my degree is useless... wait...i already figured that out when i graduated!
yeah, the first show was quite a mess in terms of production and overall control of the event. the announcers had no idea what was going on, the "referee" didn't know what he was doing, and neither did most of the fighters! pretty sloppy stuff other than gracie and shamrock.
the countdown show wasn't too bad. the first half was a bit repetitive as they'd done features on bisping and evans before. the second part was good because it showed a look into houston alexander's training camp and thiago silva's training at chute boxe in brazil. there was actually less talk from dana and joe, and i don't think they had anyone else on giving their opnions either so that was nice for a change.
...if only i had pics of that lounge...ewww...actually i'm happy i don't have pics to show you because it was scary like the exorcist...haha
haha... yes... the boys' floors really were distinctly more disgusting than the girls'... we only used our common room to watch Y&R and 90210...
can't wait for TUF tonight!! it's going to be so good! is the first fight tonight? or are we only picking?
vas-y MAC!
hahaha 90210! ...i had to laugh when you said that because it just reminded me of this guy i used to work with. big guy, never thought he would like 90210, but we'd get off work at the bar around 4:30 a.m. or so and if we were running late, he'd start yelling 90210...i have to get home to see 90210, as it was on re-runs at 5 a.m. anyway....to get back on track...
i always noticed that any of the girls' lounges we went to smelled clean and there were no chicken wings or cig butts on the floor. i thought they were customary, considering ours was the first i'd seen.
as far as i know, there's a fight tonight. it should be the first quarter final after the selections. most seasons, if i recall correctly, they've shown two fights in one episode but that usually happens after the fight selection episode. my preview on the tv says "team serra is forced to make a tough decision" so i'm not sure what kind of crap dana tries to pull...we shall see. in the preview it shows dana saying something during the fight announcements and hughes is smiling, so i wonder if there was some "catch" to picking the quarters that he didn't tell serra about. hmm...it should be a good episode tonight in any case!
i'm starting to read more and more rumours that one of the quarter finalists gets kicked off the show this year for the fight they showed in the original preview for the season. it looked like jared and war machine to me, but they're not quarter finalists, so i don't know how much truth there is to the rumour.
we shall see...i'm thinking mac vs. richie hightower is the first match...:D
hey ceg, here's what is says on the ufc homepage...
The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs Team Serra
Episode 9
Matt Serra makes his picks for the quarter-finals. Dana asks Team Serra to make a tough decision. It’s time for the first quarterfinal fight.
...so there must be selections, then the first fight.
i think i may have trouble staying awake for this one...been one of those days...ahhh, what am i saying? i'll stay up. nothing to do tomorrow but wait impatiently for saturday to roll around.
hughes says that he would throw a fit if they matched up tommy and mac, but if the shoe was on the other foot and only two of serra's guys were left something tells me he wouldn't have a problem matching them up with each other.
hughes says that he would throw a fit if they matched up tommy and mac, but if the shoe was on the other foot and only two of serra's guys were left something tells me he wouldn't have a problem matching them up with each other.
that's for sure!
I'm disappointed that we won't get to see George vs. Mac... well... not until the finals, that is!
~~*~~ ...i surfaced and all of my being was enlightend... ~~*~~
1st: John Kolosci Vs. Mac Danzig
2nd: Matt Arroyo Vs. Troy Mandaloniz
3rd: Richie Hightower Vs. George Sotiropoulos
4th: Ben Saunders Vs. Tom Speer
john sounded very confident about wanting to test himself against the veteran in the house and beat him. mac says no way he is losing this fight. both guys seem confident, so it might be a good one....
yeah, less than one. :( i knew i would feel bad for one of them by the end. both seem like very good guys.
great performance from mac. john worked way too hard for a takedown and mac stayed so busy with elbows and punches that john was just spent. he should have been more confident with his stand up because he was landing some nice body kicks in the beginning. sometimes you freeze up, i guess...probably moreso when you know you're fighting a very good fighter like mac.
nice speech and edit to the hummingbird at the end.
he had some good lines in this show. i respect his outlook on life and that he's able to admit when he's been at fault or treated someone poorly and apologize for it. being in that house would make anyone a little grumpy!
Comments
now that antonio is healthy and is making 265 lbs, it would be nice to see him go up against some top HW's.
looking forward to seeing more of noke as he continues to train at jackson's in new mexico.
should be a good grappling match between shields and pyle coming up...
jake was hurt very badly by that knee right away and a bit of a mistake for pyle to not back up and capitalize, but a nice recovery by sheilds to regain his composure and win the fight.
kimbo makes his tv debut next...
nick none too happy about that one...
dammit...I don't get showtime on my dish, only about 4 different versions of showcase :mad:
Go Kimbo...grassroots brawler from da hood. He's training with Bas Rutten at the moment, so we should be seeing a lot more liver shots from Kimbo in the future....hehe
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
shitty about that one, roland, although you didn't miss much. it was a pretty poor show. i didn't have the time when i posted before, but kimbo's fight only lasted 19 seconds, with cantrell missing an initial spinning backfist, then kimbo kind of stalking him to the cage. i think kimbo threw about three punches as cantrell backed into the fence. he landed an uppercut and a right hand / forearm and it was over. cantrell actually tapped out when he fell after the right landed, but he was done for after the first punch.
obviously kimbo has the power in his hands, and even though it was a quick fight, he showed good movement while it lasted. with the training he's getting, his natural athleticism, and his power he could quickly become a legitimate HW threat.
i'm still trying to figure out how the quarters are going to go. it's almost like we haven't seen enough of a couple of the guys to know really who matches up well with who. i know i'd like to see george vs. mac at some point, but other than that, i'm just not sure. that's not to say that the next round won't be good...just that it could be a crapshoot about who faces who. you're right that we'll know better when dana decides on speer and mac, so good luck with your matchmaking, releash.
so, speaking of predictions, it's that time again...this time, though, there are a few where i'd just like to say i have not a clue what's going to happen, but that's a good thing!
UFC 78, November 17, 2007 - Prudential Arena, Newark, New Jersey - PPV
Michael Bisping Vs. Rashad Evans - evans by decision
Houston Alexander Vs. Thiago Silva - silva by ko
Joe Doerksen Vs. Ed Herman - doerksen by submission
Karo Parisyan Vs. Ryo Chonan - chonan by decision
Spencer Fisher Vs. Frank Edgar - edgar by decision
Pre-lims:
Thiago Alves Vs. Chris Lytle - alves by stoppage due to leg kicks
Joe Lauzon Vs. Jason Reinhardt - lauzon by decision
Luke Caudillo Vs. Marcus Aurelio - aurelio by submission
Tamdan McCrory Vs. Akihiro Gono - mccrory by submission
less talkie from dana, joe and made up experts like kevin iole this time...more from the fighters and their camps, i hope.
First UFC forever altered combat sports
By Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports
November 12, 2007
On November 12, 1993, everything most Americans thought they knew about fighting was thrown out the window.
At the time, most people figured that the marquee heavyweight boxer, the imprisoned Mike Tyson, was the baddest man on the planet. But there were people with amateur wrestling backgrounds who thought otherwise, figuring that a wrestler could take a boxer off his feet and once he got him there, the boxer’s weapons were useless.
Bruce Lee movies and the TV show "Kung Fu" had another camp believing in the invincibility of board-breaking karate practitioners or people who used flashy kicks.
And some favored kickboxing, with more points of attack, as being a superior fighting form than boxing.
Jiu-jitsu was something advertised in the back of low-rent magazines, and most people, not knowing any better, considered it another form of karate or kung fu.
Basically, almost everyone was clueless.
Rorion Gracie, the son of Helio Gracie and nephew of Carlson Gracie, the stars of the brutal, no holds barred Vale Tudo competitions in Brazil, which had a heyday in the 1950s, had more than just a clue.
He wanted to bring the style of fighting that made his family famous in Brazil to North America. Gracie met Art Davie, a martial arts enthusiast, who pitched the concept to Bob Meyrowitz, who had made millions producing the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show. Meyrowitz's Semaphore Entertainment Group was on the ground floor in pay-per-view, usually promoting concerts.
The concept sounded intriguing. Gracie, Meyrowitz, and their associates came up with an eight-sided cage, the octagon, and billed their creation, the legalized street fight, as the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
"Starting from scratch"
That UFC was nothing like today's marketing juggernaut. There was no such thing as a mixed martial artist. The term mixed martial arts wasn’t developed until many years later.
Campbell McLaren, who Meyrowitz put in charge of marketing the project, in no way believed this was the ground floor of a new sport. In fact, he told people, "The last thing we want is for this to be a sport."
The first show was booked for McNichols Arena in Denver and the secret local promoter of the event was Zane Bresloff, who had to keep his name quiet for fear his regular bosses, the folks at the World Wrestling Federation, would find out about his involvement.
It was billed as anything-goes fighting, to the finish, banned in 49 states (it was actually not banned anywhere – that would come later). On the first show, there were no gloves worn, and everything was legal except biting, attacking the eyes and attacking the groin.
The second show saw the rules modified somewhat: You could attack the groin.
It was billed as world champions from eight fighting sports, although credentials of fighters were often exaggerated and records, and even heights and weights were often outright made up. They would have a one-night tournament with the only way to win being via knockout, submission or a fighter’s corner throwing in the towel. On the eventual videotape release of the show months later, it was billed as the only way to win being knockout, submission, or death. While that may have helped sell tapes, in the long run, that type of promotion was Semaphore’s undoing.
The winner was to receive $50,000. The matches had unlimited five-minutes rounds and no judges. None of the fights went five minutes, as it turned out, and most of the participants didn't have a clue what they were getting into.
The lone exception was Rorion's younger brother, Royce Gracie, who became the UFC's first superstar. Studying under his father from childhood, in many ways the original UFC was designed by Rorion, although his partners weren't fully aware of it, to be an infomercial for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.
Rorion picked the competitors. He avoided picking powerhouse heavyweight wrestlers, and in particular, wrestlers who had studied jiu-jitsu.
The local favorite was Patrick Smith of Denver, billed as having a 250-0 record, and claiming to be impervious to pain, and that no wrestling hold could hurt him. He was billed as a Tae Kwon Do champion, but he was actually a mediocre boxer who had won a martial arts tournament.
Royce Gracie, who had never won anything of substance in Brazil, was billed as the world light heavyweight champion in jiu-jitsu. At 176 pounds, he was the smallest man in the tournament, by design, since the idea was to show that technique was more important than size in fighting, and that a skinny man who looked like he could easily be broken in two by these heavyweights could subdue them all.
Gerard Gordeau, a savage streetfighter from Holland who had done some high-profile pro wrestling matches in Japan, was billed as the World Savate champion.
Art Jimmerson was a cruiserweight boxer who at the time had a national ranking.
Teila Tuli was billed as a 425-pound sumo wrestling champion, although he was closer to 350 and never even competed in the high-profile Japanese sumo circuit.
Kevin Rosier was a well-known kickboxer in the '80s, who held one of the dozens of world heavyweight championships the sport had, although past his prime by that point.
Zane Frazier also did some kickboxing, and was advertised as a champion.
And the final entrant was Ken Wayne Shamrock, an American who was a pro wrestling star in Japan. Shamrock's bodybuilder-like physique made him look like what everyone thought an Ultimate Fighting champion should look like. He was billed as the World shootfighting champion.
Shamrock and two other pro wrestlers, frustrated at older stars holding them back, decided to create a pro wrestling circuit, called Pancrase, where the matches would be real. While he had trained in submissions with pro wrestlers for a few years, he had actually only had a few real matches, all under essentially pro wrestling rules with submission finishes, which included no closed fists or even rope breaks.
Shamrock was the only true risk in the tournament for Royce Gracie, in that he knew submissions. But his two months of real fighting experience weren't expected to be able to rival Gracie's lifetime of experience taught through generations.
"Fight night"
About 7,800 fans in attendance, and another 80,000 homes on pay-per-view, saw something unlike anything they had ever witnessed. Some expected spectacular moves like in a martial arts movie, since the idea of this tournament was similar to movies that had been done in the past.
The matches, legitimately, were picked at random, with one exception. Rorion wanted Royce to face the boxer first to make a point, since in the U.S., people thought in a real fight, a boxer would knock everyone out, and he knew differently.
Gordeau and Tuli were up first, and as Tuli blindly charged forward, Gordeau kicked him in the mouth. Teeth went flying. After a bare-knuckle punch to the stunned Samoan, the fight was called in just 30 seconds. Tuli's face was battered. Gordeau had a broken hand and a broken foot. The crowd was stunned and confused.
Rosier and Frazier were next. The two kickboxers ended up on the ground, where neither had much of a clue of what they were doing. Rosier, the second-biggest man in the tournament at 275 pounds, managed to get up and stomp Frazier in the head until he was finished.
Although gloves were supposed to be banned, Jimmerson came in wearing a boxing glove on his left hand. Gracie took Jimmerson down, and Jimmerson panicked and started tapping before a hold was even applied.
The local favorite, Smith, faced Shamrock, and after a big staredown, Shamrock took Smith down and clamped on a heel hook in 1:51. Smith tapped, got up, and wanted to fight again. Yes, the local star, who had bragged he could feel no pain and no hold would have any effect on him, was already out.
With a broken hand and broken foot, Gordeau faced Rosier, who was still gassed out from his first match. It only took Gordeau 1:03 to pound Rosier into tapping.
What everyone expected to be the championship match was next, and became the beginning of one of the great family rivalries. Shamrock took Gracie down and went for the heel hook. Gracie reversed quickly, got the mount, and choked Shamrock out in 57 seconds. Shamrock, having no idea what had just happened, had to be calmed down backstage in the dressing room.
The championship match was almost a formality. Gordeau had no ground experience, and Gracie took him right down and choked him out.
"Back for more"
When the show was over, the decision was that if the first show came close to breaking even, they would do another. In fact, the first show did come close to making money. The second show, another tournament won by Gracie, but with Shamrock not involved, made a profit.
A controversial third show on September 9, 1994, in Charlotte, was really the night UFC was put on the map, seemingly for good. It was built around a tournament designed for Shamrock and Gracie to meet in the finals. Shamrock came in with a torn ACL. But Gracie took an early beating, and had to resort to both hair pulling and knees to the groin (both legal at the time), to hold off the bigger and stronger Kimo Leopoldo. Kimo gassed and tapped out to an armbar, but became an instant superstar just for giving Gracie a tough fight. Gracie took a beating, and was dehydrated and seeing double, and dropped out of the tournament.
Shamrock made it to the finals, and then, claiming he only came to get revenge on Gracie and didn't want to risk his career for any other reason, dropped out. Steve Jennum, an Omaha police officer and alternate became the unlikely champion.
The controversy paid off. By the fourth show, on December 16, 1994, in Tulsa, UFC drew a turn away crowd of 5,857 live, and with 240,000 buys, it was the biggest non-boxing sports pay-per-view event in history (for the sake of this terminology, pro wrestling is not a sport).
Gracie won his third tournament, making Dan Severn submit with a triangle choke, the first time such a move was used in UFC competition. It was also the last time Gracie ever won a match in UFC.
"Backlash"
But the evolution of fighting and the show’s popularity became UFC’s biggest obstacles. Newspapers and television shows started covering the story of the UFC, with its popularity being written as the latest sign of a decadent society.
The smoking gun was on that VHS sleeve, "You can win by knockout, submission or death." Plus, as fighters started to actually learn the game, fights started getting longer, and after a few shows went past their allotted three hours on pay-per-view, time limits were put in. After too many inconclusive finishes in key fights, judges were put in.
At this point, Rorion Gracie sold his stake in the company to Meyrowitz. Gracie knew with the combination of bigger men and better athletes discovering the game, more people learning ground fighting, and time limits and judging, that it was better for Gracie jiu-jitsu for Royce to leave as the invincible ruler of the cage.
The original UFC's popularity peaked in 1995. There are a number of factors that led to the collapse and near demise of UFC only two years after it seemingly established it was here to stay.
The key was political pressure causing, one-by-one, almost all the key cable systems to pull the shows, killing the key pay-per-view revenue stream. A series of bad main events didn't help. And the early lure, the idea of proving, in a real anything goes fight, what style would win, had run its course.
It would take another decade and a change of ownership and direction to bring UFC back to the forefront.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=AhEm2daFdK72z66iRba3zdY9Eo14?slug=dm-earlyufc111207&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
pretty brutal in the beginning though! :eek: teeth flying? head stomping? yikes! mook, had i been in that stinky common room with you, i would've sat you on my lap and hid behind you!
how was the countdown show? i was going to check it out, but it wasn't on until midnight! :(
edit: for math...
yes, fourteen...either i was thinking my first year, 1992, or i just realized my degree is useless... wait...i already figured that out when i graduated!
yeah, the first show was quite a mess in terms of production and overall control of the event. the announcers had no idea what was going on, the "referee" didn't know what he was doing, and neither did most of the fighters! pretty sloppy stuff other than gracie and shamrock.
the countdown show wasn't too bad. the first half was a bit repetitive as they'd done features on bisping and evans before. the second part was good because it showed a look into houston alexander's training camp and thiago silva's training at chute boxe in brazil. there was actually less talk from dana and joe, and i don't think they had anyone else on giving their opnions either so that was nice for a change.
...if only i had pics of that lounge...ewww...actually i'm happy i don't have pics to show you because it was scary like the exorcist...haha
haha... yes... the boys' floors really were distinctly more disgusting than the girls'...
can't wait for TUF tonight!! it's going to be so good! is the first fight tonight? or are we only picking?
vas-y MAC!
hahaha 90210!
i always noticed that any of the girls' lounges we went to smelled clean and there were no chicken wings or cig butts on the floor. i thought they were customary, considering ours was the first i'd seen.
as far as i know, there's a fight tonight. it should be the first quarter final after the selections. most seasons, if i recall correctly, they've shown two fights in one episode but that usually happens after the fight selection episode. my preview on the tv says "team serra is forced to make a tough decision" so i'm not sure what kind of crap dana tries to pull...we shall see. in the preview it shows dana saying something during the fight announcements and hughes is smiling, so i wonder if there was some "catch" to picking the quarters that he didn't tell serra about. hmm...it should be a good episode tonight in any case!
i'm starting to read more and more rumours that one of the quarter finalists gets kicked off the show this year for the fight they showed in the original preview for the season. it looked like jared and war machine to me, but they're not quarter finalists, so i don't know how much truth there is to the rumour.
we shall see...i'm thinking mac vs. richie hightower is the first match...:D
The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs Team Serra
Episode 9
Matt Serra makes his picks for the quarter-finals. Dana asks Team Serra to make a tough decision. It’s time for the first quarterfinal fight.
...so there must be selections, then the first fight.
i think i may have trouble staying awake for this one...been one of those days...ahhh, what am i saying? i'll stay up. nothing to do tomorrow but wait impatiently for saturday to roll around.
that's for sure!
I'm disappointed that we won't get to see George vs. Mac... well... not until the finals, that is!
Quarter-Final Matches:
1st: John Kolosci Vs. Mac Danzig
2nd: Matt Arroyo Vs. Troy Mandaloniz
3rd: Richie Hightower Vs. George Sotiropoulos
4th: Ben Saunders Vs. Tom Speer
john sounded very confident about wanting to test himself against the veteran in the house and beat him. mac says no way he is losing this fight. both guys seem confident, so it might be a good one....
yeah, while i was watching it i was thinking...c'mon hughes...you know you'd do that!
definitely too bad about no george vs. mac yet, but as you said it would make for a heck of a final.
"If anyone moves my f***ing hummingbird feeder again, heads are going to roll!"
not something you hear someone say often, eh?
Mac's takedown defence is amazing!!
feel bad for Johnny though... he's a cutie...
yeah, less than one. :( i knew i would feel bad for one of them by the end. both seem like very good guys.
great performance from mac. john worked way too hard for a takedown and mac stayed so busy with elbows and punches that john was just spent. he should have been more confident with his stand up because he was landing some nice body kicks in the beginning. sometimes you freeze up, i guess...probably moreso when you know you're fighting a very good fighter like mac.
nice speech and edit to the hummingbird at the end.
hahha.. that was classic...
alright, i'm off to bed... night mook!
+1 about the bbq.