On This Day in MMA History

[Carbomb]

10 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

You and seemingly half the hot blonde 20-something year old women who were in Vegas in the mid 2000s. There might never have been a man more appropriately named than Randy. 

He missed a trick not setting up his own fashion label though.

[jimufctna24]

 

 

[wandshogun09]

"Not bad for an old man!"

[Noah Southworth]

There have been bigger stars in the UFC than Randy Couture but I don’t believe there has ever been, or ever will be a fighter so beloved by the fans. Unless you were there at the time, I don’t know that people can understand just how beloved Randy Couture was by the fans. There was an emotional attachment to Randy that you haven’t had with any other fighter since, not even Conor or Ronda. When Randy faced Tim Sylvia, there was a genuine fear for his safety. People weren’t hoping that Randy would win, because nobody thought had a chance. They were hoping that Randy would just make it through the fight in one piece. They were thinking we’d be getting the MMA version of Muhammad Ali against Larry Holmes; the legend coming out of retirement for ‘one last fight and suffering a serious beating in the process.

The Randy Couture vs. Tim Sylvia fight is the most emotional fight in UFC history. There have been better fights, more exciting fights, and even more dramatic fights. But no fight in UFC history has had people living and dying on the outcome like that one. When Couture decked Sylvia with the first punch of the fight, the people in that building went out of their minds. There hasn’t been a reaction like that since. Not Conor beating Aldo or Eddie, not Ronda tapping out people in seconds. Nothing has come close to matching both that reaction and the emotion contained within that reaction. And it wasn’t even a fight-ending punch. There was still 24:50 of the fight to go, and for the whole of that 24:50, the people were on the edge of their seats, hoping against hope that Randy could somehow pull off another miracle, yet still fearful that Sylva could end the fight and crush their hopes and dreams with one punch or kick. In the final ten seconds of the fight, people were counting down like they were counting down the Times Square Ball. And when the buzzer went and the fight was over, the place exploded again because the dream had come true.

It was a fight that had it taken place during the peak of UFC’s popularity, when media coverage was widespread, would have made Randy Couture a sporting legend. It was a real life Rocky story. But Rocky didn’t beat Mason Dixon. That would have been too much, even for a movie. But Randy Couture made a career out of doing the unthinkable. He wasn’t supposed to beat Vitor Belfort (twice), Maurice Smith, Kevin Randleman, Pedro Rizzo (twice), Chuck Liddell, or Tito Ortiz. But he did.

Randy Couture wasn’t the UFC’s biggest star but he was its most beloved, and I don’t think there will be another one like him.

[Noah Southworth]

On This Day in MMA History (September 28th)

UFC 33: Victory in Vegas (September 28th 2001)

This was a historic UFC show for a couple of reasons. It would be the first UFC PPV in several years to be carried by cable companies rather than just satellite providers. The UFC had lost cable coverage due to a relentless campaign by anti-violence advocates, most of whom were politicians who just happened to have ties to a boxing industry that considered the UFC a threat to their business. Part of that return to cable coverage was down to the second, historic and also quite newsworthy aspect of this event as it would be the first ever mixed martial arts event to be sanctioned by the powerful Nevada State Athletic Commission, under the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts that had been established by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board in 2000.

This official sanctioning by the NSAC paved the way for cable companies to start carrying UFC shows again; after all, it’s hard to refuse to carry a sport that is officially sanctioned by one of the most powerful athletic commissions in the country.

However, the UFC did not have things all their own way regarding UFC 33. The originally planned main event for this historic night was to be the much-anticipated fight between reigning UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz and Vitor Belfort. But just one week out from UFC 33, an injury to Belfort during training put paid to that idea and the UFC were left looking for a late-notice replacement, and they found one in the form of Russian wrestler Vladimir Matyushenko.

It wasn’t the most marketable of fights, and the truth is that Matyushenko was not the most marketable of fighters. But with the UFC’s poster child Tito Ortiz carrying the promotional end of things, confidence was high that this show would more than make its mark, especially as it would be the most loaded PPV in the UFC’s short history with three championship fights taking place.

Tito Ortiz vs. Vladimir Matyushenko (the build)

Tito Ortiz had exploded onto the UFC with a brash manner and outspoken attitude that had rubbed just about every fighter on the UFC roster, and most of the more ardent UFC fans the wrong way. These people were very much of the pure sports mindset, a mindset that decried the self-promotional aspects of the fight game. But the cocky and confident Ortiz had won over the fans at large, most of whom took to the larger-than-life fighter and had made him the golden boy of the UFC, the fighter the company counted on to carry their business through some very lean times.

Ortiz had sparked off a war of words with Ken Shamrock at UFC 19 when, after beating Lion’s Den fighter Guy Mezger, Ortiz had performed his trademark ‘gravedigger’ celebration and then put on a t-shirt that said “Gay Mezger is my bitch”. Ortiz’s next fight saw him take on Ken’s adopted brother Frank at UFC 22 for the UFC Middleweight Championship, which was the title that would later be renamed the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Ortiz dominated Shamrock for three rounds, using his superior size and strength to completely control the fight. But the wily Shamrock had played a smart if dangerous game of allowing his larger opponent to tire himself out, and Shamrock came on strong to pound a submission out of Ortiz late in the fourth round.

After the fight, Shamrock publically retired and vacated the UFC Middleweight Championship. Ortiz was back in the title game when he returned to action as he took on Wanderlei Silva at UFC 25 in Japan to fill the vacancy left by Frank Shamrock’s departure. Ortiz survived a few scares to outwrestle Silva, who had yet to develop into the dangerous fighter that he would eventually become, and claim the vacant title. Ortiz’s first title defence would see him return to Japan as he took on and defeated Yuki Kondo at UFC 29, with Ortiz gaining a first-round submission.

Ortiz produced the most memorable finish of perhaps his entire career for his next title defence, against Evan Tanner at UFC 30, as Ortiz slammed Tanner to the mat and knocked him out in just 30 seconds. It was perhaps the keystone moment of Ortiz’s entire UFC tenure. At UFC 32, Ortiz put his newly renamed UFC Light Heavyweight Championship on the line against Elvis Sinosic, and Ortiz again muscled his way to victory as he TKO’d Sinosic in the first round.

Tito Ortiz was the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and had become the poster child of the company. But his next title defence would see him up against not only a fellow wrestler, but a fellow wrestler who, like Ortiz, had experienced weight cutting, potentially offsetting one of Ortiz’s best weapon, his superior size and strength.

Vladimir Matyushenko arrived in the UFC with a 9-1 record, his lone loss being a split-decision defeat at the hands of Vernon White. Matyushenko, a quiet and unassuming looking man, was victorious in his UFC debut as he defeated former title challenger Yuki Kondo by unanimous decision, a fight that was the opener to the UFC 32 PPV.

It wasn’t a particular exciting fight; in fact, it was very boring. And it didn’t inspire much in the way of fan interest or make Matyushenko seem like a world beater. But a victory is a victory and when the UFC needed a late-notice replacement for Vitor Belfort to take on Tito Ortiz, it was the Russian who got the call and Matyushenko had gone from PPV opener to PPV headliner in the space of one card.

The Rest of the Card

As part of the regulations brought about by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, the UFC overhauled their weight classes and now had five weight divisions; lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight. They had champions in four of those weight classes, with only the middleweight division needing a champion. The two fighters chosen to decide who would be the first UFC Middleweight Champion under the new weight classes would Dave Menne and Gil Castillo, and of the two, it was Menne who had the decided experience edge.

Dave Menne was 30-7-2 and had competed against a wide variety of competition. Previous opponents included Matt Hughes, Kyoshi Tamura and Carlos Newton. Menne was also a veteran of fighting multiple times in one night, Menne having fought three times in one night on two occasions and having fought twice in one night on eight occasions. Menne had the experience edge against Castilo and was far more battle tested as well, and also previously competed in the UFC, at UFC 24, whereas this would be the UFC debut for Castillo. Castillo was 8-0, and the most notable name on his resume at the time was Vernon White; Castillo had also fought Nate Marquardt, but this was before Marquardt had made his name in the sport. Menne went into this fight with everything in his favour and was the favourite to become the UFC Middleweight Champion.

The other title fight would see Jens Pulver defend the UFC Lightweight Championship against Dennis Hallman. This was a fight that had a measure of a personal rivalry behind it, especially as Pulver was the teammate of Matt Hughes, whom Hallman had beaten twice, with both of those fights going less than twenty seconds. Pulver was making the first defence of his title, having beaten Caol Uno at UFC 30 by majority decision to become the first ever UFC Lightweight Champion, while Hallman was going into UFC 33 on an eight-fight winning streak, so both men had a lot of momentum behind them.

The two non-championship fights on the main card would see Yves Edwards take on Matt Serra and Murilo Bustamante face Chuck Liddell.

UFC 33 (preliminary card)

Din Thomas beat Fabiano Iha by unanimous decision. Ricardo Almeida tapped out Eugene Jackson with a triangle choke in the first round. And Jutaro Nakao knocked out Tony DeSouza in fifteen seconds of the second round. Nakao caught DeSouza coming in with a short left that dropped him to the mat. Nakao landed a few punches as the referee leapt in to stop the fight, and whilst DeSouza got up to protest the stoppage, he could barely stand so it was the right call to make, although the fans didn’t like it because DeSouza was a local guy.

UFC 33 (the main card)

The PPV opens up with the original rock metal open, with the theme music that would eventually become the theme to TUF. In the arena, we have lots of fireworks to open up the show, complete with a big stage and video screens, the kind of thing that made PPV’s seem like a big show, an event. The UFC eschewed this in time, officially because they didn’t want to look like pro wrestling but in reality it was to save money.

It’s a shame they never brought these bells and whistles back when they hit it big because these kinds of production values make shows seem like a major event and also make them stand out. UFC shows, whether they’re on PPV or Fight Pass, tend to blend together because they all the look the same from a presentational and production standpoint. They’re very much like WWE Raw in that regard. You can take almost any UFC show from the last several years and if not for the differing sizes of octagon for PPV’s and other shows, you would be hard pressed to identify when exactly the show took place and whether or not it was a PPV or a Fight Night.

With the show taking place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, they run a quick piece with the late Ryan Bennett who is at the Mandalay Bay Sports Book, talking about the odds for the three titles fights, with this being the first time you’ve been able to gamble there on the UFC. In the title fights, Tito Ortiz is the +190 favourite to Vladimir Matyushenko’s -160. Jens Pulver is -120 to Dennis Hallman’s -110, and Gill Castillo is a major underdog at +280 to Dave Menne’s -360. It’s little things like this that make this show seem like a major event and make it really stand out, something the overly sterile modern day production of the UFC could use.

A Moment in Time, a three-woman trio sang America the Beautiful.

Gil Castillo vs. Dave Menne – for the vacant UFC Middleweight Championship was one of those fights that was physically gruelling despite there being not a whole lot of action. Most of the fight saw Castillo, who was puffed up like an 80s WWF guy, pressing Menne up against the cage. There was some intermittent striking and when that happened it was Menne who got the better, although he was pretty reckless with his striking and was leaving himself wide open for a good counterpunch. Menne marked up the face of Castillo over the latter rounds, although that was negated by Menne being docked a point in the fourth round for kneeing a grounded opponent. It happened with Menne on his back and Castillo in side-control but with Menne controlling the head of Castillo; Menne threw up a knee and caught Castillo in the head. John McCarthy, who was the referee, called a timeout, standing the fighters up and taking a point from Menne. There wasn’t much else to this fight, which went the distance. Dave Menne wins by unanimous decision to become the first UFC Middleweight Champion under the new weight class system, although for some reason they don’t announce the actual scores of each judge.

Yves Edwards vs. Matt Serra was only a decent fight but decent is a major step up from the prior contest, especially as this one at least had fair amount of action. It wasn’t always exciting, and the grappling and positional control stuff is really only interesting if you’re into that aspect of fighting. But nobody was riding out the clock like in the previous fight. Edwards won the first round with better striking and Serra won the second round with submission attempts and positional control. The third round was close enough that it could have gone either way but I felt Serra took it with being more aggressive and doing more of what he was going for. Serra won by majority decision but again, no scores were announced.

Murilo Bustamante vs. Chuck Liddell was a pretty poor fight, neither man willing to really press the action. What little action this fight did contain came in the first round, with Liddell tagging Bustamante repeatedly and Bustamante trying to take Liddell down and failing on virtually every attempt. The few times Bustamante could get Liddell down, Liddell was right back, and after a while, Bustamante started dropping to his back repeatedly and pretty well gave up on initiating anything. So did Liddell and it appeared like Liddell had gassed out because he was breathing heavily and not doing much. Again, this was a fight that went the distance with Liddell winning by unanimous decision, a result which garnered a fair amount of booing, purely because he fight had been so boring.

For some reason, Mike Goldberg kept calling Bustamante ‘Bustamonch’. And in between the second and third rounds, they interviewed Joe Rogan.

Jens Pulver © vs. Dennis Hallman – for the UFC Lightweight Championship . Not much happened in the first round due to Hallman staying on his back dropping his back at every opportunity, although he did provide the lone moment of excitement when he went for armbar off his back. The second round was ungodly dull with Hallman pulling guard almost right away and Pulver spending the entire round in Hallman’s guard and doing nothing. The referee, Mario Yamasaki, was constantly telling them to get working, but they ignored him. The third was little better, with Pulver landing a few punches early on and Hallman quickly taking Pulver down and pulling guard. Not much happened aside from a brief flurry at the half-way mark with Pulver pummelling Hallman, with Pulver content to throw punches to the body and Hallman clearing stalling and holding on and waiting out the clock. Early in the fourth round, Hallman quickly pulled guard but Pulver tried to counter and it ended up with Pulver having to escape and stand up, but in doing so he let Hallman get a hook in so with Pulver standing, Hallman was trying to take his back. It didn’t last long as the fan was soon back on the ground with Pulver ending up back in the guard of Hallman and nothing happening for the final three minutes of the round. In the fifth round, outside of a crazy flurry at the end that was sparked by Hallman actually throwing a dropkick, all that happened was Hallman constantly going for the rolling kneebar and then staying on his back to try and goad Pulver into coming to the ground. Other than that, Pulver and Hallman just circled each other and did nothing, not one punch or kick was thrown, even just to gauge distance or get a reaction. Literally nothing was happening. The fight went the distance and 25:00 of almost nothing was finally at an end. Pulver won by unanimous decision.

Tito Ortiz vs. Vladimir Matyushenko

The Fight Pass version of this show goes straight from the finish of the previous fight to Bruce Buffer introducing Ortiz and Matyushenko. They completely edit out Ortiz’s entrance, Ortiz coming out to a cool video on the video wall, fireworks, and Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff”. It’s an entrance that makes Ortiz seem like a superstar and makes this show seem like a big production. It’s the kind of thing that the UFC has been sorely lacking for years and that Bellator does to make their major shows seem like grand spectacles and big events, grander and bigger than even the biggest UFC shows. It’s the one area of their product that the UFC, for whatever reason, have never shown an interest in addressing.

The fight itself was counted on to drag this show out of the very large hole it had dug itself into, and it failed miserably. This fight is why Tito Ortiz got the knock of being a ‘lay-and-pray’ guy because that is all he did for the majority of it; he’d take Matyushenko down and then literally do nothing but hold on. Once in a while, he’d throw couple of punches, but they weren’t delivered with any zip or with the intention of doing anything but to keep busy. Ortiz had no interest in advancing his position or working Matyushenko over in any way. Early in the fourth round, Ortiz did get the mount and pound on Matyushenko, but in no time it at all Ortiz went back to just laying on Matyushenko and doing nothing.

Matyushenko tried a little here and there, at least whenever had the chance, but Matyushenko was no better than Ortiz in that his main strategy after being taken down was to literally hold onto Ortiz and ride out the clock. He showed no interest in trying to work his out from under Ortiz, and it’s not like Matyushenko had the chance to counter something because Ortiz never tried anything. This fight was 25:00 of virtually nothing happening and it was the perfect capper to a night of virtually no action. Ortiz won but he really lost because you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who came out of UFC 33 wanting to ever see Ortiz, or the UFC again.

Numbers and Notes

Attendance: 9,500
Gate: $816,660
PPV Buys: 75,000

The Aftermath

UFC 33 was a complete disaster, a terrible show that came at the absolute worst time to have a terrible show. The UFC was being carried again by cable providers and their PPV’s were available in more homes than they had been in years. Their potential PPV audience was as big as it had ever been. And they were treated to a show filled with fights were very little happened, and, in fact, where there were long periods where literally nothing happened, at all. If that wasn’t bad enough, and it was, the show ran long and a lot of the aforementioned cable systems cut out in the middle of the main event. Not only were the fans treated to a lousy show, a lot of them weren’t even able to see the end of it.

This show coming at the time it did was a big knockback for the UFC, and Dana White has said that he felt this show put them back a year in terms of winning people over and getting across both the UFC and the sport of MMA. And to their credit, the UFC has never shied away from admitting how bad this show was; at the post-show press conference to UFC 111, Dana said that UFC 33 was the only show they had where every fight sucked. When UFC 149 turned out to be an equally poor show, Dana remarked that it felt like UFC 33 all over again. And in the post-fight press conference for UFC on FOX 6, Dana outright called UFC 33 the worst show they’ve ever had.

And I don’t think he’s wrong. Almost every bad UFC show has had a fight, even if it’s just the one that has been good or otherwise entertaining enough to make the show not be a total DUD. Even the notorious UFC 61 had a decent fight between Yves Edwards and Joe Stevenson, a fight that also had the added bonus of turning into perhaps the bloodiest contest in UFC PPV history. But UFC 33 had nothing. The only entertaining moment of the whole night was in the preliminary fights, with Jutaro Nakao knocking out Tony DeSouza. That was it as far as excitement went. UFC 33 is, by far, the worst show in UFC history.

Bellator 74 (September 28th 2012)

This show is built around the quarterfinals of welterweight tournament, with the eventual winner of the tournament earning themselves a shot at the Bellator Welterweight Championship.

Andrey Koreshkov vs. Jordan Smith – welterweight tournament quarterfinal was closely contested and was primarily a battle between the ground-and-pound of Koreshkov and the submissions of Smith, especially in the first round, which could have gone either way. The third round was a little more Koreshkov and with Smith clearly winning the second, it came down to the first round; I gave it to Smith because he had Koreshkov in danger a couple of times whilst Koreshkov only had Smith in danger once, right at the end. But that was enough to sway the judges, all three of whom gave the fight to Koreshkov 29-28.

Michel Tsarev vs. Tim Welch – welterweight tournament quarterfinal had a decent fight. Tsarev landed an illegal upkick and the referee halted the fight and brought in a translator to tell Tsarev that he shouldn’t do that. Telling the fighter the rules is something that should have been covered before the fight, so someone fouled up here.  Tsarev submitted Welch in the second round with a rear naked choke.

Nordine Taleb vs. Marius Zaromskis – welterweight tournament quarterfinal was really entertaining for the most, the fight turning into a fun kickboxing battle. Taleb was landing the harder kicks, whilst Zaromskis was landing the harder punches. Zaromksis was also pressing forward more, although in the third round, he seemed to be the more tired because he was looking to press Taleb against the fence and hold him there. It was a close fight as well and I expect Zaronskis to get the nod because he did land the bigger shots and he dropped Taleb twice and also had him dazed at point as well. Zaromskis did get the win, by unanimous decision.

Lyman Good vs. Jim Wallhead – welterweight tournament quarterfinal was a solid-if-unspectacular fight, dominated by Good who worked Wallhead over with punches in the clinch and in the pocket. It wasn’t like Wallhead was a punching bag but it’s not like he troubled Good, either. Wallhead did suffer a couple of lowblows, with Good finally getting a point deducted for kneeing Wallhead in the groin late in the third round, but that did little to take away from a dominating performance from Good who won by unanimous decision with scores of 29-27.

Numbers

Ratings: (MTV2) 0.2 rating for 190,000 viewers.

Other Notes for September 28th

Sengoku 5 (September 28th 2008)

The Middleweight Grand Prix Tournament opened up with the four quarterfinal matches taking place on this show. Siyar Bahadurzada TKO’d Evangelista Santos in just 22 seconds when Santos suffered an arm injury. It came about with the two clinched up; as they went to the mat, Santos’ elbow hit the mat at the wrong angle and appeared to be dislocated by the impact. Jorge Santiago tapped out Logan Clark with an arm triangle in the second round. Kazuhiro Nakamura beat Paul Cahoon by unanimous decision. And Yuki Sasaki submitted Yuki Kondo in the second round with a rear naked choke. Of special interest to fans of Japanese pro wrestling, Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Takashi Sugiura took on Alexandre Ribeiro, a highly decorated submission grappler in what was Ribeiro’s MMA debut and Sugiura’s fourth and final MMA fight. Ribeiro TKO’d Sugiura in the third round.

Our next entry will see discussion of PRIDE 22: Beasts from the East II and UFC on Fuel TV 5: Struve vs. Miocic, as well as passing comment on one of Strikforce’s more unique events.