No rules no gloves – 100 pound weight difference!

This fight happened in April of 1997 during the very early years of MMA in the United States. No gloves, no time limits, no weight limits, and almost no rules at all. The event was the HookNShoot Absolute Fighting Championships 1.

175 pound submission wrestler, Phil Stroffolino vs 275 pound freestyle fighter, Chad Bartlett in this quarter final tournament style fighting event.

The unassuming 5′ 4″ 170lb computer programmer / video game designer, a legitimate genius with an IQ of 196 was the last person you would ever expect to be a fighter.

In 1996 Stroffolino entered a closed door Open Weight tournament that featured a variety of competitors including professional fighters and some very accomplished athletes.

Stroffolino was the smallest man to enter in the tournament.

Stroffolino shoots in, Bartlett yells, and he almost tumbles into the crowd as he’s taken down. Stroffolino is in side control, and because the fight is practically in the seats, it’s stopped and restarted in the same position. Stroffolino tries to take the mount but is bucked off.

As Bartlett kicks him off, Stroffolino goes for an armbar and then transitions into a leglock. The last of the sequence is used to sweep Bartlett and Stroffolino instead decides to hold onto knee on belly rather than mount. A lot of hard punches force a tapout.

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Twenty years after the oddity of the first event, Jeff Osborne’s HOOKnSHOOT remains one of the sole survivors of MMA’s old west era. From the dawn of SEG, to the boom of Zuffa, through the corporatization of FOX, HOOKnSHOOT has endured, staging over 100 official shows – plus untold more that haven’t been seen by the public – while birthing the careers of UFC champions and future Hall of Famers alike.