MMA History

[m9]

So we're winding down 1997. This actually takes place a couple of months before UFC 15 - still working on my sequencing.

Pride 1 - Here we are, the first Pride show. The dragon graphics, the video game sound effect intros.. this is definitely a different time. We've got a few ex-UFC fights like Gary Goodridge, Oleg Taktarov, Kimo, Dan Severn. And you've got a couple of Gracies, Renzo & Rickson. I don't know if it was the ring or what, but this card just wasn't good and did nothing for me.

UFC 15.5 - Missed this one of first posting - also known as UFC Japan. First time we've had Mike Goldberg in there commentating. First UFC appearance of both Frank Shamrock & Sakuraba. Shamrock looked great with a quick armbar win, Randy Couture continued his dominance, and both Vitor Belfort and Tank also had big wins. The most interesting part of this card for me thought involved Sakuraba. In one of the worst stoppages you'll see, Big John awarded the fight to Marcus Silveira as McCarthy thought Sakuraba was hurt when he was just going for a takedown. Clearly a bad call, but McCarthy stopped the fight and Silveira won. Then a clearly pissed Sakuraba tried to steal Bruce Buffer's mic to plead his case. Weird enough scene yet? It gets better. Soon after, McCarthy reviewed the tape and changed it to a No Contest. Guess we'll see a rematch on the next card. Nope, we're going to see it later on tonight after a couple of other fights. Sakuraba wins the "rematch" and everything is back to normal. Just a wild night.

Onto 1998..

UFC 16 - Probably the least interesting UFC card I've watched.. or I'm just getting tired from watching 20 MMA events in two weeks. You have the debut of Pat Miletich, so there's that. But really we've only got one highlight and it's an awesome one - Frank Shamrock with a career-ending, KO slam of Igor Zinoviev. This is one of those cards you sleep-walk through for a couple hours but the main event ending makes up for it with an amazing finish.

Pride 2 - We've got a couple of Gracies again, couple of UFC vets, and we get to see Sakuraba for the first time. Main event featured Mark Kerr winning by disqualification as his opponent basically was trying anything he could to not get slammed by Kerr. Very weird fight ending, but so far we're 0 for 2 in terms of Pride cards being interesting. I have a feeling things will pick up..

UFC 17 - Historic card for a number of reasons and you can tell the sport and the fighters are evolving. First, you have the commentator Jeff Blatnick being announced as commissioner. This appears to be the first time it's called "Mixed Martial Arts" as well. You've got the UFC debut of Dan Henderson, Chuck Liddell, and Carlos Newton. As far as I can tell the Liddell fight wasn't broadcast (unless I fell asleep for 12 minutes) but Newton & Henderson had a great matchup in the finals of their tournament. A week or so ago it was discussed how impressive it was that that Max Holloway is this deep in his UFC career without being knocked down. Well, Dan Henderson gets knocked down within 2 minutes of his UFC debut against a guy I've never heard of before. His finals opponent in Carlos Newton really looks like the new style of fighter - young, fast, and athletic. If you watched this card and heard that 15 years later one guy would still be relevant, you'd probably pick him. The "main event" features a good fight between Frank Shamrock and Jeremy Horn which apparently was taped and then added onto the event later. I tried to figure out why exactly they did that but it seems like there are numerous reasons/stories behind. Either way, it was weird. But after all that, the highlight of the night comes from Pete Williams who delivers an absolute perfect head kick to Mark Coleman. Great KO, and really a great night of fights.

 

[m9]

I've decided to end the "initial" run of these at the end of the decade, so will roll through the rest of 1998 & 1999 then tackle 2000 and beyond sometime in the future as it feels like an appropriate breaking point for now.

Pride 3 - Not much going on here. Sakuraba/Newton was a solid and relevant fight. At this time, Mark Kerr really seems like an amazing & physical force and he gets another win.

Pride 4 - Yet another great Mark Kerr win and Rickson Gracie takes the main event. With Pride 3/4 you really have a ton of Japanese fighters across the board. First look at Igor Vovchanchyn who beats up Gary Goodridge.

UFC Brazil - Final card of 1998 and it's a good one - it's also of note as it's (obviously) in Brazil for the first time. First sign of Pedro Rizzo, who beats Tank in a great slugfest. Pat Miletech wins the initial "lightweight" championship (under 200lbs) by split decision in a long fight with Mikey Burnett. The big story from this card is Vitor Belfort is back and he runs over a guy named Wanderlei Silva making his UFC debut. 44 seconds long, worth checking out. In the puzzling main event you have Frank Shamrock defending his "middleweight" belt over a clearly overmatched John Lober. Lober beat Shamrock when Frank was just starting out, and I guess the UFC decided that was enough to give him a title shot. Lober had beaten Shamrock by split decision and then went onto go 0-5-1 in his next 6 fights before "earning" this title shot where he lost in the first round to Shamrock. So for those who complain about undeserved title fights, good luck finding a guy less deserving than this one.

---

That wraps up 1998. I think at this time you just have Pride starting out and really trying to figure out where they stand. They have a mix of ex-UFC fighters and Japanese fighters but the product just isn't great at this point.

The UFC on the other hand is in a pretty good spot. They are pushing out events every few months and seem to be adding more guys. The tournament for the most part is dead, though I believe they do bring it out at least once in the future. Overall you are starting to see a much better product than the early years, though.

 

[m9]

UFC 18 - First card where they officially call it "UFC". First fight for Bas Rutten in the UFC, and he wins with a late finish. Evan Tanner also made his debut with a win. Tito Ortiz continues his rivalry with the Shamrock Lions Den and beats Jerry Bohlander. In case anyone wants to know if 2021 Tito Ortiz is an idiot due to 20 years of CTE, we get the great gem from Tito in the post-fight interview: "I came in here 110% mental, that's about 100% of this game. The rest is physical". Never change, Tito.

UFC 19 - First fight for Kevin Randleman, who wins to setup a fight vs Bas Rutten in the future. Tito continues his Lions Den rivlary by beating Guy Metzger. Chuck Liddell makes his first televised appearance.. and gets beaten by submission by Jeremy Horn.

UFC 20 - Mario Yamasaki makes his first appearance as a ref! Wanderlei Silva gets his first UFC win. This card is mostly known as the HW fight between Bas Ruttten and Kevin Randleman, which Bas got the win for despite being on his back for much of the fight and his face looking like a mess. However, Rutten did do a ton of work from the bottom and kept the fight close. This would unfortunately be Rutten's last fight in the UFC due to injuries.

 

[m9]

Going to finish this off with the 4 Pride cards of 1999. Definitely picked and choose the relevant fights here, then will finish off my trip through MMA in the 90s with the last 3 UFC cards tomorrow.

Pride 5 - This is the card that really left me wondering what I was watching. Sakuraba beats Belfort in a very strange fight where Belfort does very little except lie on his back for much of the fight. I'm not saying it was a fix but.. maybe? I read into the fight afterwards and it seems it could go either way, with many people saying Belfort was hurt or tired. Then in the main event, you had Takada (who was I guess, a pro wrestler) beat Mark Coleman (still a very good fighter at this time) in another strange one where Coleman did very little the entire fight only to lose to a weird heel hook in the 2nd round. As someone who has watched a ton of Mark Coleman fights in two weeks, he looked nothing like what he has in every other fight. Obviously a fixed fight, and looking it up online after the fact it was confirmed to be a fix.

Pride 6 - Really nothing of interest here at all. Mark Kerr with another win and at this point looks like an unstoppable beast. More on that later..

Pride 7 - Card starts off with a guy getting DQ'd for axe kicking a guy in the back of the head after the bell. A few other fights, but the key one is Igor Vovchanchyn illegally knee striking Mark Kerr in the head and knocking him out. So, no contest. The part that is interesting to me is that at this point Kerr is 11-0 and pretty much looks unbeatable. He's insanely strong and can finish guys on the ground. I don't know what kind of rankings they had back then, but it wouldn't surprise me that if in 1999 Mark Kerr was the #1 HW in the world. He then proceeded to go 4 and 11 in his next 15 decisions. Did that knee really f*** him up that much? It really makes me interested in watching his documentary because the decline after this fight was unlike anything I can really remember.

Pride 8 - Frank Trigg makes his first appearance with a nice TKO. If you are going to watch one thing from this card, just look up Igor Vovchanchyn v Francisco Bueno. It will be worth typing all those letters in - just an amazing clean knockout. Renzo Gracie wins by decision, however Royler Gracie doesn't as he ends the decade submitting to Sakuraba. This is the first time a Gracie has lost in MMA, and it was even with his own modified rules of no stand-ups and no judges.

Just my final thoughts on Pride in the 90s - at this point, it still has a ton of work to do. Overall the fights seem a bit slow, and obviously the fixed fights are weird. Sakuraba is a star, while guys like Kerr & Vovchanchyn are still at the top. At this point it still seems like they are a second tier below the UFC and still playing catch-up. Obviously the best of Pride is ahead, and eventually when I go back into this there's lots to look forward to.

 

[m9]

UFC 21- Important in that it was the first card to have judges using the 10-pt must system along with the rounds changing to how they still are today. Not much to take away in terms of fights on this card.

UFC 22- Big card here, including the debut of both Matt Hughes plus Chuck getting a big win. You also have one of the scariest knockouts I've seen with Brad Kohler vs Steve Judson. Definitely worth checking out. Also worth checking out is a great main event between Frank Shamrock and Tito Ortiz. Ortiz dominated from top position for a ton of the fight, but eventually Shamrock caught him late in Round 4. Some Anderson Silva/Chael Sonnen vibes with this one. Great card.

UFC 23 - Final card of the 90's for the UFC, but unfortunately it's nothing special. The card was in Japan so they crowned a "UFC Japan" champion with a mini-tournament. Pedro Rizzo with a nice win and Kevin Randleman wins the vacated belt to end the decade.

Final thoughts on UFC in the 90s - it took a few years, but the fights are starting to resemble what we see today. They started losing a bit of talent to Pride, but similar how they do today just seem to push up new stars like Randleman, Frank Shamrock, and Tito Ortiz with guys like Hughes and Liddell just getting going.

 

[pistolpete11]

In case anyone wants to know if 2021 Tito Ortiz is an idiot due to 20 years of CTE, we get the great gem from Tito in the post-fight interview: "I came in here 110% mental, that's about 100% of this game. The rest is physical". Never change, Tito.

But seriously, Tito.....change. Change a lot.

 

[pistolpete11]

Japan's involvement in the UFC has always been interesting to me for some reason.

It is the first place they go outside of the US. They have 4 events there from 1997-2000 and the only other country they go to in that time is the one event in Brazil. Then they don't go back to Japan until 2012. I imagine part of that is PRIDE dominating the market (either fair and square or because of politics/Yakuza influences), but the UFC acquired PRIDE in 2007. So it was still 5 years of not going back to Japan. Then they go in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, skip 2016, and go in 2017. Haven't been there since.

It's just weird that it was such a strong market for them in 2 different stints and the rest of the time it's like it doesn't exist.

 

[m9]

Japan's involvement in the UFC has always been interesting to me for some reason.

It is the first place they go outside of the US. They have 4 events there from 1997-2000 and the only other country they go to in that time is the one event in Brazil. Then they don't go back to Japan until 2012. I imagine part of that is PRIDE dominating the market (either fair and square or because of politics/Yakuza influences), but the UFC acquired PRIDE in 2007. So it was still 5 years of not going back to Japan. Then they go in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, skip 2016, and go in 2017. Haven't been there since.

It's just weird that it was such a strong market for them in 2 different stints and the rest of the time it's like it doesn't exist.

The first break is explained a bit in that they were trying to basically start UFC Japan as it's own company around the year 2000. SEG (UFC owners) basically were running out of money though around this time and couldn't compete with Pride so they bailed on the idea.

The later delay is interesting though, because they intended to run Pride in 2007 and keep it going.. or at least so they said at purchase. It seems that they found a ton of shady stuff with Pride (and yeah, of course Yakuza involvement) so they decided or were told to stay away for a few years. I'm sure the real story is out there and I'm equally sure it's a great one.

 

[lebdafor norris]

But seriously, Tito.....change. Change a lot.

His head size probably doubled in size throughout the years, does that count?

 

[CDJ]

UFC 18 - First card where they officially call it "UFC". First fight for Bas Rutten in the UFC, and he wins with a late finish. Evan Tanner also made his debut with a win. Tito Ortiz continues his rivalry with the Shamrock Lions Den and beats Jerry Bohlander. In case anyone wants to know if 2021 Tito Ortiz is an idiot due to 20 years of CTE, we get the great gem from Tito in the post-fight interview: "I came in here 110% mental, that's about 100% of this game. The rest is physical". Never change, Tito.

UFC 19 - First fight for Kevin Randleman, who wins to setup a fight vs Bas Rutten in the future. Tito continues his Lions Den rivlary by beating Guy Metzger. Chuck Liddell makes his first televised appearance.. and gets beaten by submission by Jeremy Horn.

UFC 20 - Mario Yamasaki makes his first appearance as a ref! Wanderlei Silva gets his first UFC win. This card is mostly known as the HW fight between Bas Ruttten and Kevin Randleman, which Bas got the win for despite being on his back for much of the fight and his face looking like a mess. However, Rutten did do a ton of work from the bottom and kept the fight close. This would unfortunately be Rutten's last fight in the UFC due to injuries.

f***ing incredible quote from Tito, May put that on my gravestone

 

[m9]

Decided to dig back in here a bit, albeit not at the pace I was doing before and skipping stuff that isn't really relevant in the grand scheme of things.

UFC in the Year 2000:

UFC 24 - You see this card on paper (or on Fight Pass) and it looks absolutely terrible. The big fights don't even have a big name. Of course the reason for that is that Kevin Randleman slipped backstage warming up and knocked himself out, cancelling the main event. The sport is wild sometimes. Fun fact I didn't know or remember: Trainer/Manager "Crazy" Bob Cook fought once in the UFC and it was on this card vs Tito Ortiz friend/training partner/etc Tiki Ghosn. Actually kind of a fun fight.

UFC 25 - Tito v Wanderlei main event for the vacant middleweight (205) belt on another Japan card after Frank Shamrock "retired". Not the most exciting fight, a Tito decision. He controlled Wanderlei on the ground for most of the fight, although each guy caught each other on the feet in Round 2 and 3. Not even any interesting Tito quotes in this one.

UFC 26 - First card with "bantamweight", which was 155lb and under. Pulver and Hughes continue their careers while Miletich & Randleman defend their belts.

UFC 27 - Last card under the old ruleset. Very little of interest here, with Rizzo defending his HW belt with a quick win over Severn with a couple of awesome leg kicks including the finishing one. Going to move on as the last two cards of 2000 have much more interesting stories for the sport in general.

UFC 28 -

Lots going on here. First card sanctioned in New Jersey and first under "unified rules". You have to wear trunks & gloves, stricter weight classes, and the only super HW fight ever in the UFC. One of the judges for the night? A young (well like 35) Doug Crosby.

Storylines here in almost every fight. Matt Hughes brother - Mark - gets his one fight in on the prelims where he wins a decision. HOFer Jens Pulver with an awesome 15 second KO. Classic Goldberg moment when he thinks Pulver's nickname is Lil Eagle (it's Lil Evil) and we get the infamous "Lil Eagle soars again!" line.

Debut of Andre Arlovski, with a quick sub of porn star/porn addict/drug smuggler/TV star/father of mass murderer Aaron Brink. RIP.

Debut as well of Josh Barnett in that super HW fight plus the debut of "Babalu" Sobral. Barnett actually looked awful for much of this fight, but once the 300lb(!) Gan McGee tired out then Barnett was able to lock in a sub.

Randy Couture comes back to the UFC and gets his belt back over Kevin Randleman with a TKO. Randleman actually out-wrestled Couture early but just completely gassed out and could do nothing once he got on his back.

Honestly a card that felt really similar to what we got from the UFC in the 200s. Just felt like something different, and interesting that it happened before Zuffa takes over in 2001.

UFC 29 -

Last card in 2000 and the final UFC in Japan before a quick 11-year break. This is the last UFC even under SEG, Zuffa takes over in 2001 so it's a big night for a couple of reasons.

Chuck Liddell with a decision over Jeff Monson on the prelims, but then the next 6 fights have finishes all under 7 minutes.

Matt Hughes in the second fight of the night, and some backstory: A 4-0 Matt Hughes lost in 17 seconds to Denis Hallman on the regional scene. From there Hallman had some mixed results, going 6-4 in his next 10 fights albeit against good competition. In the meantime, Matt Hughes became an absolute tank winning 18 fights in a row in the next two years to go to 22-1. Good time for that rematch to avenge the Hallman loss, right? Well, it took a bit longer this time.. 20 seconds later and Hallman subs him out again. From there Hughes goes on to be one of the best 170ers ever while Hallman has a pretty middling career.

Evan Tanner & Matt Lindland with dominant wins. Pat Miletich looks great with another win. Tito Ortiz gets crushed early with a flying knee.. and then absolutely runs over a completely overmatched Yuki Kondo on the ground. Fun fight while it lasted.

Last note here - I know it comes to an end here in 2001, but I've really come to enjoy Jeff Blatnick on colour commentary. Very understated but it's a nice change from three guys talking over each while we get bombarded with ad reads. A simpler time, I suppose.

Pride 2000 -

Was going to dig deeper into Pride, but man there isn't much to look at in 2000. Gracie/Sakuraba stuff but those are some looooong fights. Watched Henderson/Wanderlei, which was a decision but had some fun moments in a good back & forth bout. 2001 looks much more interesting.