99 facts for the diehard MMA fan, Part 5.0

For 20 years UGer ix3623 spoke with fighters and gathered facts, with an eye towards publishing an ebook of no-filler MMA facts to sell on Amazon. Unfortunately, he was told by an Attorney friend that books like these, where you make money and talk about other people, even if they are fact, can get you sued. Since he doesn’t want to be sued, he is posting everything he was going to put in the book here for the UG, for free!

Each week the UG Blog publishes another set of facts facts for the diehard MMA fan: 99 facts for the diehard MMA fan, Part 1

99 Facts for the diehard MMA fan, Part 2

99 Facts for the diehard MMA fan, Part 3.0

99 Facts for the diehard MMA fan, Part 3.1

99 Facts for the diehard MMA fan, Part 4

400. mma fighters in music videos: Renato Babalu Sobral in Still I Rise by Shadows Fall : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbe3eQmp3mQ#t=106

401. mma fighters in music videos: Josh Koscheck in I Get It by Chevelle : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiIMqSqabGs

402. mma fighters in music videos: Chuck Liddell in I could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week by Mandy Moore : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRcOVVMMaE4

403. mma fighters in music videos: Royce Gracie in Attitude by Sepultura : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TanJ9jf-p4

404. mma fighters in music videos: Rashad Evans, Chuck Liddell, Brock Lesner, Matt Hughes, Mike Swick, Rampage, Wanderlei Silva, BJ Penn and others in Cryin’ Like a Bitch by Godsmack : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eXIOK2vOhM

405. mma fighters in music videos: Don hyun kim and Akiyama in “baby i’m sorry” by my name : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzSAO8op0ow

406. mma fighters in music videos:Cain Velasquez in Te Siento & Abusadora by Wisin & Yandel : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_8o-VWTpu4

407. mma fighters in music videos: Alistair Overeem in Sexy and I Know It by LMFAO : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyx6JDQCslE

408. mma fighters in music videos: Chuck Liddell in Cowards by American Head Charge : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU6hufZcV8k

409. mma fighters in music videos: Gabriel Gonzaga in Team Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd2-q1ONHtc

410. mma fighters in music videos: Brendan Schaub, Nate Marquardt and Eliot Marshall in Better Run Run By Hammer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3Qc5dIe1-I

411. mma fighters in music videos: Tito Ortiz in “truth” by Seether : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBXkWVZD4qE

412. mma fighters in music videos: Genki Sudo in World Order by Genki Sudo : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDOPNLzEFH0#t=43

413. mma fighters in music videos: Vitor Belfort in “I’m down” by The Almost : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fMqZhH1XOU

414. “Phil Baroni attended Massapequa High School where he was on the wrestling team, but was expelled when he was a senior for assaulting a janitor at the school, only a week before the state wrestling championships in which he was ranked first. Baroni attended Nassau Community College and became a two time All-American wrestler there, placing fifth and second in the nation. He was also an amateur bodybuilder from the age of 17 to 20, competing in six shows in which he placed either first or second.”

415. UFC 97 was held on on April 18, 2009 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On February 12, 2009, reports surfaced that province regulators (“Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux”, or RACJ) requested a set of rule changes that differ from the Unified Rules of MMA that put the event at risk from taking place. The proposed rule changes banned elbow and knee strikes, mandated a smaller cage, and would stop a fight when a fighter gets knocked down. Before, the RACJ has followed the Unified Rules, but as laws differ by city, state, or province, a commission can insist on the usage of its own rules. On February 18, 2009, it was announced that UFC officials were able to convince the RACJ to reverse its stand and use the Unified Rules. As a concession, the UFC agreed to the banning of foot stomps for this event.

416. The infamous fight between Gary Goodridge and Pedro Otavio where Goodridge repeatedly attempts to squeeze Otavio’s testicles:

“At first, you have all the hallmarks that make for a fun IVC fight – knees that may or may not be low, headbutts, a rabidly pro-Brazil crowd, Mark Coleman yelling “BREAK IT!!” when Goodridge gets a keylock. But as the fight progresses, something odd happens that brings this one into its own territory of craziness.

With Otavio in the mount, Goodridge looks to push him off but gets his foot stuck in The Pedro’s trunks. Then he leaves it there. Then he puts his other foot in. THEN (and you can’t really see this, but it would later be confirmed in interviews) he squeezes The Pedro’s testicles with his toes. Yes, you read that right, Gary Goodridge shoves his foot in his opponent’s trunks and squeezes his balls. That folks, is no holds barred fighting.

They get back to their feet, and this testicular assault leads to a sequence where both men just try to grab each other’s package. But Goodridge is, for whatever reason, more skilled in this area, and it’s The Pedro who recoils in pain.

It’s a truly singular moment in MMA history, as never before or since has one man waged such an all out assault on his opponent’s most sensitive area, though many have tried.”

417. Rashad Evans fought his first fights under the tutelage of veteran wrestler and MMA fighter Dan Severn.

418. Stephen Quadros on Steven Seagal :

“I had heard all the horror stories about how he would hurt actors and stunt performers, dislocated shoulders, kick guys in the nuts to see if they were wearing cups, etc. I had heard about Gene LeBell. So 2 weeks before we started shooting I was training DMX on the soundstage one and Seagal showed up and was throwing a few guys around on some mats on the other side of the stage. So I waited till he was finished and walked over and introduced myself. I figured why wait, he’s going to see me around anyway. But I wasn’t wearing a cup. I had left it in L.A.!!! So I stood kind of sideways just in case he decided to suddenly kick me in the family jewels. During the conversation he moved to where he was standing square with me. So while I was chatting with him I slowly moved back to where I was semi sideways again. He moved again to square up with me. I’m thinking, This is not happening. So I switch to where my right foot was forward, turning sideways again the other direction. I was doing this very subtly. He had that ‘look’ in his eyes as he squared up with me again. I smiled, folded my hands in front of my groin and said I had to get going and walked away. It was VERY weird.

Another time I told him I worked as commentator for the Pride Fighting Championships in Japan. I was wearing the Grupo Chute Boxe t-shirt that Vanderlei Silva had given to me after he defeated Bob Schreiber in the January 2000 Pride. Seagal told me he didn’t think the fighters in Pride were very good and that he couldn’t understand why Kazushi Sakuraba kept winning because he thought he was not very good either. I obviously didn’t agree but felt it was not the time or place to get into it with Seagal. So I said, But at least they test themselves on a regular basis. Then I told him I had heard that he had a student who he thought could defeat Sakuraba. He said he did. I said if he needed help putting the match together I may be able to help him but his guy might be asked to get some experience before going to Japan. We never spoke on the subject after that. I asked him if he would like for me to conduct an interview with him for Black Belt magazine. He declined.

I kind of steered clear of him for the most part. But one time he came on the set and started walking right towards me. I thought, Shit, I don’t have my cup on! So he walks close to me and my radar was up. Then he grabbed my wrist. I am not an Aikido guy and I’m not saying I am better than Seagal at wrist locks but my first instructor was Korean and had taught us Hapkido which included many techniques that were similar to Aikido. So I reversed his grab to were my hand was on his wrist. He grabbed the same wrist with his other hand. I reversed him again. This little game went on for about a minute. I was really trying not to upstage the guy because on a movie set it’s a no win situation to do that to the star, especially him. But I for sure was not going to let him get me into a compromising position physically. I know guys he has hurt to the point of having to have surgery. He suddenly stopped and pointed at me and said, You’re good. I didn’t know what to say so I just smiled. He walked away. “

419. The story of Gene Lebell choking out Steven Seagal “

“while on the set of Out for Justice, Seagal happened to mention that, as a result of his Aikido training and extensive blues guitar playing, his Senseiness was impervious to chokes. LeBell, who at 58, happened to be a stunt coordinator on set at the time, opted to take Seagal up on his boisterous claim. Seagal accepted, was choked out, and proceeded to pee and/or poop his pants. Due to an alleged gag order placed on everyone from LeBell to the cast and crew who happened to witness the event, no one has come forth in the time since to confirm or deny this story. John Leguizamo brought it up once, and was promptly beaten to a pulp.”

420. Gene Lebell on the situation :

“Well, if a guy soils himself, you can’t criticize him, because if they just had a nice big dinner an hour before, you might have a tendency to do that. Steven Seagal is a very outstanding martial artist. I’ve got nothing against Steven. Personally, myself I don’t think he’s taught these mixed martial artists how to win a match…He’s done a lot for martial arts, but I know where he’s insulted Randy Couture. Well, Randy Couture if he ever got mad, would have him for lunch. And that isn’t to put down Steven, but ‘closed mouth don’t catch any foot. In other words, you can’t put your foot in you mouth if you keep it closed. When we had a little altercation or difference of opinion, there were thirty stuntmen and cameramen that were watching. Sometimes Steven has a tendency to cheese off the wrong people, and you can get hurt doing that.”

421. Actor John Leguizamo on Steven Seagal :

We were in rehearsals for Executive Decision. I’m playing his Master Sargeant and we come in for rehearsals and he says, ‘I’m in command. Everything I say is law. Anybody doesn’t agree?’ I was like, ‘Bwahahaha.’ I started cracking up because he sounded like a retard and he came up and he Taekwondo’ed my ass against the brick and he [hit me with his elbow], Leguizamo recalled. He’s six-foot-five and he caught me off guard and knocked all of the air out of me and I was like, ‘Why?! Why?!’ I really wanted to say how big and fat he was and that he runs like a girl, but I didn’t because all I could say was, ‘Why?!’ Why’d he slam me against the wall? We were rehearsing. What’s the bid deal? Why can’t I call him names? If I can’t let it out it’s going to build like a cancer.

His publicist told my publicist that he wants to punch me out, but he can’t because he’s going to be in jail soon, so I’ll be fine. He is [going to jail] isn’t he? That’s what I heard. I better stop talking about him. I thought he was getting put away for a while.

422. Ronda Rousey on Steven Seagal :

“If he says anything bad about Gene to my face, I’d have to make him crap his pants a second time. Obviously, the guy’s a liar. He told everybody he taught Anderson Silva that kick. I mean, seriously, the guy doesn’t have a very good track record. He’s Aikido. I mean, Aikido’s cool, but who in MMA does Aikido? Who has an Aikido background? ‘So and so coming to the cage is a world champion with a background in Aikido.’ You never heard that once. Have you heard that once? That’s for a reason. It’s because Gene LeBell would destroy Steven Seagal again, even as old as they are now. If they had like a super master-master division, Gene would still throw it down, man. I’d still put my money on him to this day.””

423. Dan Severn on how he advised Rashad Evans to attend a professional wrestling class in order to become a more marketable personality and how The Beast was involved with getting Evans onto The Ultimate Fighter: “Rashad Evans for example was quiet as a church mouse. Rashad Evans did the first of his training down at my training facility, Michigan Sports Camps at Coldwater, Michigan. He did his first amateur (MMA) matches with my company The Danger Zone. He did his first pro matches with my company The Danger Zone. It is because of me, and my making my phone calls to the UFC, I got him into the Ultimate Fighter in the first place….He took that opportunity, so I told him ‘Rashad, you need to come watch these professional wrestlers…..you will learn something. You will learn how to cut promos. You will learn what is known as ring presence. It teaches you so much. It teaches you how to tell a story with your facial expressions and your audio and body language.’ And he started adding more to his repertoire. Because fight shows across the United States are a dime a dozen. ‘Whats going to set you apart is you (Rashad), your personality.’ “

424. How foot stomps got banned in Quebec.

The info is from way back in the early 00’s but explains a bit of why the footstomps were banned in that particular UFC.

MMA in Quebec was one of the first places that it was legalized in Canada. It was done under the banner of “mixed boxing” for the Quebec Athletic Comission as that was the loophole used to get around the law banning it and get it regulated. Because it was under the mixed boxing moniker they allowed it to happen but without elbow and knee strikes although you could punch and kick as it would then resemble kickboxing.

The smaller cage was as a result of the cage being bigger than the boxing ring and standing fighters up if they were down too long resembled the standing 8 count rule. Refs however let a lot of things go as they had discretion and as time went by the rules were pretty much what the unified rules were. However, when the UFC finally came to town they had to go with the rules that were written, and not just what was happening. Hence they requested some written rule changes to accommadate their brand.

The foot stomps however was a hard line in the sand for a reason.

Footstomps were banned in Quebec as a result of a fighter named Alex “Pecker” Gasson who was a fighter under Shawn Tompkins. He is also a coach and friend of mine.

One of Pecker’s fights in Quebec saw him footstomp a guy repeatedly who tried to clinch and stall and the resulting injuries and over all visual appearance of the damage afterwards was so bad that the QAC banned the technique.

Yves Lavigne, who is a poster here, would be able to tell you more as he was there as well during these early days.

Pecker currently trains and coaches fighters, runs promotional events for BJJ, grappling, and MMA under “Peck’rd Promotions” and it an all around hell of an awesome guy.

425. Remco Pardoel on his fight with Marco Ruas : “He was not really fair. He used grease. So at that time I did not have the experience to fight a guy with oil over his body. I loved to get a rematch. He declined. Ruas has to live with the fact that he is a cheater. My Gi was full of grease. Maybe I can say that my technique wasn’t refined enough. But if he didn’t use any grease whatsoever, it would have been a different ending. I made an official complaint after the event and it was clear to feel that my Gi was greased up. A rematch never came. This fight, the one against Smith in the UK and one Pancrase fight I regret. All others I just won or lost fair and square. “

426. Jason Delucia on Steven Seagal : “Around about 1991 Steven Seagal said in Black Belt Magazine that if anyone wanted to challenge him, that they should go to his dojo and do so. So I did. Haruo Matsuoka, headmaster at that time, received me and said that he would pass the word. And so I stayed and studied every single class while I waited. Incidentally, it was the same dojo seen in “Above the Law.” I went morning and night to every class. He never honored his open challenge. The Dojo finally closed and moved mid 1992; that was that.” “

427. Emmanuel Yarborough was a well decorated collegiate wrestler, achieving D2 All American status in 1983, and D1 All American in 1986. He was the 1995 Amateur Sumo Champion and holds the Guinness world record for heaviest athlete. He’s even had a brief acting career, appearing in the HBO drama Oz and several commercials.

428. After his fighting career, which only included a single MMA appearance at UFC 4 (against Steve Jennum), Melton Bowen would have one last strange moment in the media spotlight. Following the infamous “Miami Cannibal” case in 2012 in which a man on bath salts attacked and viciously bit the face of a homeless man, Bowen stepped forward to reveal that he knew the man in question and had actually knocked him out when the man attacked him after a dispute over music :

video of the news story including melton talking about it can be found here:

http://www.sportsgrid.com/video/melton-bowen-cannibal-knockout/

http://larrybrownsports.com/everything-else/melton-bowen-knocked-out-miami-cannibal-rudy-eugene/139694

429. “Andy Anderson got his spot in UFC 5 by supplying the ring girls from his “Totally Nude Steak House”. In his UFC promo pitch, Anderson claimed that if he won his UFC fights he’d be donating his purse to a charity for the blind. But much like claims that Joe Son and Kimo were traveling ministers, it’s a proposition made dubious by the reality that Anderson was a member of the Aryan Brotherhood and would go on to receive 20 years in prison as the leader of a meth manufacturing and distribution business. “

Anderson’s court case record : http://www.fbi.gov/dallas/press-releases/2010/dl051310b.htm

“A Texas man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for trafficking the illicit drug methamphetamine and laundering the proceeds. Herbert “Andy” Anderson, 46, of Fort Worth, was convicted by a federal grand jury in January. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the head of the drug ring in question was a former member of the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Club and had ties to the Aryan Brotherhood. The group reportedly was “organized, dangerous and deadly”. Anderson and another man, John Holt, 55, of Palmer, Texas, were convicted at trial, 15 others pleaded guilty, one was acquitted and one remains a fugitive. Those convicted, all of whom face lengthy prison sentences, were: Alfredo Medina, 49, of Dallas; Marisol Perez-Leon, 30, of Dallas; Thomas Gerry, 61, of Bedford; Steven Adams, 51, of Euless; John Holt, 55, of Palmer; Wade Smith, 48, of North Richland Hills; Roger Flittie, 61, of Euless; Juan Cruz, 44, of Corpus Christi; Brian Perryman, 52, of Fort Worth; Robert Bays, 54,”

430. Frank Shamrock on Ken Shamrock’s steroid use :

“My brother Ken did them his whole life. Why do you think that his mind is so fried? Why do you think he crumbles before the big fights? He’s got no psyche. He let steroids give him a false sense of security and the moment that stuff is gone he’s no longer superman. … He’s the only guy that I’ll tell on, because he’s always in trouble anyway.”

431. Shortly following his positive test in 2009 following a win at WarGods over Ross Clifton, Shamrock came clean about his history of use in an interview with Mike Straka.

MIKE STRAKA: “You know, there’s a cliché in fighting if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.”

KEN SHAMROCK: “That’s right.”

MIKE STRAKA: “Let’s talk about it. Have you done steroids?”

KEN SHAMROCK: “Absolutely.”

MIKE STRAKA: “Do you still do steroids?”

KEN SHAMROCK: “Nope.”

MIKE STRAKA: “No?”

KEN SHAMROCK: “Nope.”

MIKE STRAKA: “How easy is it to get steroids?”

KEN SHAMROCK: (laughs) “It’s like going to the grocery store. It’s that easy. It’s that simple. But when start trying to make things bigger and better, you’re going to get yourself hurt.”

MIKE STRAKA: “What did the fans want, though? They want bigger and better.”

KEN SHAMROCK: “They want homeruns, baby. They want people jacking them out of the park but then when they find out about it they want to stick their hand in the sand, ‘oh how bad, that was stupid, why’d you do that? You’re crazy. Don’t let them in the Hall of Fame!’ It’s like, let’s point the finger because if we don’t point the finger at somebody else, we have to point it at ourselves because… we knew. So, nobody wants to takes responsibility, but everybody wants to see it. And that’s the way it’s always going to be and it always will be. Someone is going to take the fall, period.”

MIKE STRAKA: “You think steroids should be legal?”

KEN SHAMROCK: “Absolutely. Absolutely.”

432. Following his loss at UFC 7, Ryan Parker was slated to compete at a future event, but a change in the contract wording that sought to disallow throat strikes apparently caused him to exit the competition, feeling that his technique would be overly limited. Currently he has a blog, Ryukuma, where he talks about the history of various Okinawa Karate styles.”

Here is a video of Parker getting kicked in the groin, punched in the spine and throat, etc … Much like the video he sent to the UFC that got him his spot at UFC 7 :

433. UFC 6 competitor John Matua is actually a distant cousin of the famous Sumo wrestler Akebono, who was mentored by UFC 1 competitor Teila Tuli. Matua claimed to have entered the UFC to raise funds for his brother who had been shot and paralyzed trying to stop an attempted rape.

434. Andrei Arlovski on attempted suicide through Russian roulette : ” First time I was 16, second time I was 30,..It’s when you don’t care about anything.

After his devastating second knockout loss, Arlovski returned to his native Belarus. I talked to some priest. He read me a poem, Arlovski related. He also spent couch time with a sports psychologist to the Russian Olympic wrestling team and communed with his family.

I cried a lot after my fights, you know. When I lost to Fedor, I cried. When I lost to Rogers, I cried. You might be surprised, but I had tears alot in my last relationship, Arlovski told, referencing his relationship with Playboy model Patricia Mikula.”

435.Mmike Goldberg exposing his missing teeth

436. “On December of 2011, Guy Mezger was involved in an altercation between a man and a woman in which he stepped in only to find the man was carrying a knife. “

Mezger :

“I said, ‘Listen, the cops are called,’ and he said, ‘You called the cops?’ I was like, ‘Yeah,’ and he starts coming at me. It’s funny because he didn’t know how to fight … I’m like, ‘Hey buddy, settle down…calm down,’ and all this stuff. He tried to bite at me and then he tried to grab my nuts with his left hand. Then I just had enough, so I did a head-and-arm-throw. [It’s] one of my better throws. We hit the concrete and it knocked him out.” “I didn’t expect him to get up. I figured [he ‘d do] one of two things: he’d either back off and talk shit, which I expected because he got handled pretty easy, or he’s coming. I was acting like I wasn’t really paying attention, but I was paying attention. Somehow in there he pulled a knife out, but I really didn’t see it because I really was paying attention up until then…” “I didn’t see him pull it out,” he recalled. “He came at me and I knew he was coming, so I kind of pushed him away and side-stepped. He was throwing a really kind of wild punch, which I thought was a punch — I didn’t know he had a knife in his hand — and I kind of blocked it with my left and hit him with the right and knocked him out again. When he fell down, the knife fell out of his hand and I was like, ‘Oh, shit. I got lucky. I could have got stuck.’ I didn’t even see it. When I looked at my hand I saw a little bit of blood, so I just put pressure on it. I didn’t realize how bad it was.” “I went back over to the girl and picked her up because I accidentally pushed her when I was trying to get her out of the way and the guy starts rolling over crawling towards the knife. I kicked the knife about two or three feet away and he started crawling towards it, so I had to go after him again,” Mezger said with an incredulous laugh. “I swear to God, just as I punch him in the face to knock him out the third time, the cops pull up and they pull out their tasers and I’m like, ‘No good deed goes unpunished.’ I got tased for trying to help this chick out. [No], I didn’t get tased. Things got worked out. [I was] like, ‘I’m the good guy, not the bad guy.’ That was basically it.”

injury Mezger sustained by his attacker:

437. In the documentary “Rites of Passage”, Kevin Randleman revealed that he had been sexually molested as a child and attempted suicide as a result. “

438. “Jonathan Wiezorek entered his UFC 47 bout against Wade Shipp with a broken back and won. He had refused to tell the promoters of his situation in order to prevent the fight from being scrapped, however, he ended up not being invited back to fight again because they thought his performance was awful.”

backstory :

“While at Mandalay prior to the fight, if he had to walk more than 200 yards, he would break out in sweat due to the intense pain. During the fight, Wiezorek did all he could do to win; which was move forward, clinch for a takedown, and try to get top position for a win. He could not punch or shoot leg takedowns for fear of his back locking up. While not pretty, this strategy did work for him eventually. He took Shipp down with a front head-lock/rear heel trip combination, mounted him, and pounded out a ref stoppage.

“Upon returning to Chattanooga, his physician located a break of one of his vertebrae that existed prior to the fight. The break was across the upper corner of one lower vertebrae. Basically, a large triangle shaped portion had broken from the vertebrae. Unfortunately for Wiezorek, his ultimate display of heart and sacrifice did not impress many fans. Not knowing the backstory, this is understandable. “

“How could the athletic commission and mandatory medical screenings miss something so monumental?

Wiezorek : Those are the initial x-rays it was just missed. No real fault to the Doctor he was just doing me a favor. I Thought That I was being a pussy and had the x-ray taken. The fracture was missed so I tried to keep training. Some days I couldn’t walk. When I had a second x-ray taken it was the same as the first the break was just missed. I went to a chiropractor and he tried to do some realignment that did not seem to help. I went to a chiropractor in Vegas I felt like this was an opportunity of a lifetime and that I could suck it up and win. I had him adjust my back and when he got the bones back in place it offered some relief walking got easier but any twisting motion sent pain shooting down my leg. I did look bad in that fight, I agree but I won in the first round. I hope that the UFC will give me another chance to prove myself. Until then all I can do is train and keep fighting!”

439. During his celebrity boxing match against todd bridges, vanilla ice had tank abbott as a corner man.

“MMAMemories.com: You were cornerman for Vanilla Ice when he faced Todd Bridges in Celebrity Boxing on FOX. How did this come about?

Tank Abbott: Me and Vanilla Ice had a mutual friend. And put us together. And he wanted me to be in his corner. Nothing was going on so I went and did it for him.

MMAMemories.com: But he didn’t fare to well did he?

Tank Abbott: I think he was in a lil bit of shock. I don’t think he knew what he was getting into. Before the fight I was trying, Come on, man. Let’s get yourself right. And he was kinda like, Ha ha, jokin’ around a lot. I had to slap him in the face a few times, like, You gotta be ready to go to war, you know? Let’s go. And he was kinda like, Ha ha, just goofin’ off. Like he was gonna go out and do a concert or something. And I think that’s probably what everybody saw. His lack of seriousness.

MMAMemories.com: Did he go the distance?

Tank Abbott: Yeah, he went the distance. He just ran the whole time though. 

440. Ken Shamrock missed the UFC 2 event because of a broken hand, but he was deemed fit enough to fight in UFC 3 despite having a partial tear in his ACL.

441. “Several years before they fought in UFC 2, Jason DeLucia and Royce Gracie went up against each other in a Gracie Challenge match at Royce’s brother Rorion Gracie’s jiu-jitsu school.”

After his first fight with Royce, Delucia wanted a rematch and as a result Rorion invited him to the UFC to have a chance to fight Royce again, which he did.

442. According to Zane Frazier , he had been teaching classes for Frank Dux and Dux never paid him. Frank Dux disputes that account and says that Frazier sucker punched him while wearing brass knuckles. Never the less, this fight happened and was witnessed by Rorion Gracie and Art Davie after attending the U.S. karate championships where they were scouting for potential fighters for the UFC. Zane was then invited to participate in UFC 1.

443. Art Davie attempted to get kickboxing legend Dennis Alexio to fight in the UFC. He offered him 50,000 dollars but Alexio turned it down.

Davie : “We wanted anyone who made sense to fight. I sent out faxes, and, of course, most people ignored me. I wanted Dennis Alexio, the kickboxer who plays Jean Claude Van Damme’s brother in Kickboxer, and I offered him $50,000—but he wouldn’t do it. Mike Tyson would have cost us a zillion dollars, and we didn’t have that kind of money. We tried to get Leon Spinks, the former heavyweight champ who defeated Muhammad Ali. That failed. We finally got Art (King) Jimmerson, the world’s Number 10 cruiserweight boxer, who was scheduled to fight Tommy Hearns six weeks after [what would come to be known as UFC 1].”

444. John McCarthy took over as referee at UFC 2 because Rorion Gracie was upset that UFC 1 ref Joao Barreto stopped the Gerard Gordeau vs Teila Tuli fight. At the time, referees were not allowed to stop fights unless a fighter quit or the towel was thrown in.

“So tell me, when you went in to work your first bout at UFC 2, what guidelines were you given?

BJM: (laughs) The guidelines I was given were, ‘Don’t stop the fights. The fighters will tap out or the corners will throw the towel in. That’s how the fights will stop.’ That’s honestly how I got my job, because the very first UFC fight ever, Joao Barreto was the referee. Teila Tuli was down and got kicked by Gerard Gordeau, and Joao stopped the fight and Rorian Gracie was upset because that wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

So you got the job with the UFC because someone else messed up?

Yeah, The first fight I did that night was between a guy named Scott Morris and Sean Daugherty. In the fight, Daugherty went down and got neck cranked and he tapped out. I thought, ‘Hey, this is easy.’ The way I tried to deal with (the lack of stoppages) was to tell the fighters and their corners in the rules meeting, look, if your fighter’s in trouble, I’m going to look over at your corner and say, ‘Watch your fighter.’ If he doesn’t get himself out of trouble I’m going to say, ‘Watch your fighter, throw the towel.’ That was supposed to let them know that I wanted them to stop it, because I couldn’t.

When did you realize that the lack of stoppages was a bad idea?

Well, that night there was a fight between Orlando Weit and Robert Lucarelli, who was, you know, not all that skilled. Lucarelli started taking a real bad beating and I was screaming for his corner to throw in the towel, and finally they did it. After the fight I went over and said to them, ‘What the hell is wrong with you? Are you trying to get your guy hurt? Why didn’t you throw in the towel?’ And they said, ‘He told us he’d kill us if we threw the towel.’ It was right then and there that I knew I was in trouble. Some of the corner people weren’t smart enough to know when to throw the towel in, or maybe they just wouldn’t.

Was that when you knew there had to be referee stoppages?

When it really hit me that something needed to change was later that night in the fight between Scott Morris and Pat Smith. Morris’ people were from Robert Bussey’s Warriors International. I’ll never forget it. Morris slipped on a throw and he started eating shots from Smith, and I looked at his corner and said, ‘Throw the towel, throw the towel.’ They looked at me, shook their heads, and threw it in the audience. I screamed at them and Pat Smith thought I was telling him to stop fighting, so he stopped, thank God. At the very end of the show I went and told Rorion Gracie that I would never do it again, because they were going to get somebody seriously hurt. A couple weeks later they called and said okay, for the next one I could stop the fight, but only if someone clearly couldn’t continue. That’s when I came up with the term ‘intelligent defense,’ after UFC 3, to let people know when and why I was going to stop the fights.

445. Art Davie on Rickson and Royce Gracie :

“Rickson wanted a million dollars. He said, ‘You and Rorion are making the big bucks. I want a million dollars.’ I said, ‘We ain’t making that kind of money, and we ain’t paying that kind of money.'” “Rickson had really prepped Royce, so whatever the problems they had that I wasn’t aware of had been put under the carpet. In a very real sense, Rickson had put his spine into Royce’s back. At the show, I heard later on from Todd Hester, the publisher and editor of Gladiator Magazine, that Royce had lost it in the rehearsal. He was down on his knees crying, and Rickson was cradling him like a father. He said Rickson was holding him, like a dad holds his son, and comforting him.” “The three most unhappy guys (after UFC 1) at the Monster’s Ball on Saturday night were Pat Smith, who’d gotten caught in an ankle lock by Ken Shamrock,and Ken Shamrock, who couldn’t believe that a 175-pound guy in a gi had made him tap out. And the third guy was Rickson Gracie.”

446. UFC co creator Campbell MClaren on who came up withe the idea of an octagon for the UFC :

“Is it true that Conan The Barbarian director John Milius came up with the idea for The Octagon?

Oh, absolutely. All the movie tough guys knew of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in Hollywood. John was in that camp, and I think he trained with the Gracies for a little while. I came out on a trip 20 years ago and met with John, met with Arnold Schwarzenegger,met with Jean-Claude Van Damme,you know, we did kind of a, Let’s round up the Hollywood tough guy strategy session. Arnold said [does Arnie impression], “Yah, that’s a good ideah, you should do that right away. I can’t do that, I’m a moovie star for families now, but that’s a great ideah.” You know, he really said that. He was going, “Yah, now! What are you doing heah now? You should be doing this now.” So he was very encouraging. And Jean-Claude Van Damme goes, “You’re gonna scare a lot of the paper tigers in the martial arts world.” You know, all the guys that sell styles of fighting that no one can really use. Van Damme was very cool. Chuck Norris, not so cool; he was badmouthing it. He didn’t want to be involved, he thought it was bad for the martial arts. How is it bad for the martial arts to find out if your hokey “woona woona woona” style actually works or not? How is that bad? The UFC, one of the things it did that I’m fairly proud of, it really changed the martial arts. You know, it made them more what Bruce Lee had always talked about – less nonsense and more reality. But not everybody likes reality.

447. So what exactly was Milius’ contribution?

Mclaren : We talked about where to put a no-rules fight with all these different types of fighters, and I was sort of thinking a sumo ring, which is just the floor, or maybe a boxing ring. And Milius said, “No, you should fight in an octagon, the way Conan fought in a stone octagon in Conan The Barbarian.” It was totally John’s idea. It’s one of those things where you go, Octagon? That sounds cool. Like, a hexagon does not sound cool. But you hear octagon and it was really fermenting in my mind. “There are no rules,” the Octagon, it all sounded like a trailer for a movie. God bless John, he wrote Dirty Harry,he wrote the line, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” from Apocalypse Now. You can’t argue with that guy. Well, mostly –he also said, “You should put Greek columns around it.” And I was going, “No, we’re not putting Greek columns around it.” To myself I said that, because that’s corny, you know, “Witness the spectacle of Rome.” We wanted an urban edge. I really was thinking about razor wire on top, but everybody said no, that’s too much, even for you. We considered Plexiglas walls, but realized that if one guy took another guy and slammed him into that, that would hurt. We were gonna do mesh, like nylon pantyhose mesh, but that didn’t seem practical. So the set designer, Jason Cusson, made it a workable design. But really, straight up, John Milius said the octagon.

448. UFC co creator Campbell McLaren went on to create The Iron Ring for BET and Viacom. The show featured famous rappers Ludacris, Nelly, TI and Floyd Mayweather building teams of MMA fighters. He said: “It was a TV ratings success but was not well received by MMA fans. I learned a lot from the mistakes and applied that to Combate Americas (his newest venture).”

449. The latest that there has ever been a knockout in a UFC fight (3-rounds) was by John Howard at 4:55 of round 3 at the TUF 10 Finale against Dennis Hallman.

450. The latest that there has ever been a submission in a UFC fight (3-rounds) was by Cole Miller at 4:48 of round 3 at UFC 86 against Jorge Gurgel.

TO BE CONTINUED…