It ended up in the last thirty seconds, in a weird situation. He was kinda outta desperation, he rolled to a kneebar and an ankle lock. He had my leg, I’m sitting and have his feet and all I can see is his butt. You know, he was “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” and I can’t really get my leg out, and it just pops into my head, ‘spank him.’
That’s how former two-division UFC champion and UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture described delivering one of the most humiliating beatdowns in MMA History, ten years ago today. The event was UFC 44: Undisputed. Couture’s opponent was then light-heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz, who had successfully defended his title a record five times; a record that would not be broken until last weekend. The date was September 26, 2003 (do you feel old now?).
Believe it or not, there was a time long, long ago when the relationship between the Coutures and the UFC was something other than mutual disdain. It was the early aughts, and after pounding out Chuck Liddell for the interim LHW championship at the previous event, Couture would successfully unify the belts with a five-round drubbing of Ortiz.
While there was no shaming “The Hunting People’s Champ” for losing to a legend like Couture, there was plenty of shame to be seen in the final thirty seconds of the fight, when “The Natural” proceeded to spank his younger foe like he had just found a bag of grass in his sock drawer. For lack of a better word, it was…hilarious.
At 40 years of age, Couture would become the oldest fighter to ever win a UFC title. And he wasn’t even done yet.
But Couture vs. Ortiz wasn’t the only historic beatdown to happen at UFC 44. Not by a long shot…
It ended up in the last thirty seconds, in a weird situation. He was kinda outta desperation, he rolled to a kneebar and an ankle lock. He had my leg, I’m sitting and have his feet and all I can see is his butt. You know, he was “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” and I can’t really get my leg out, and it just pops into my head, ‘spank him.’
That’s how former two-division UFC champion and UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture described delivering one of the most humiliating beatdowns in MMA History, ten years ago today. The event was UFC 44: Undisputed. Couture’s opponent was then light-heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz, who had successfully defended his title a record five times; a record that would not be broken until last weekend. The date was September 26, 2003 (do you feel old now?).
Believe it or not, there was a time long, long ago when the relationship between the Coutures and the UFC was something other than mutual disdain. It was the early aughts, and after pounding out Chuck Liddell for the interim LHW championship at the previous event, Couture would successfully unify the belts with a five-round drubbing of Ortiz.
While there was no shaming “The Hunting People’s Champ” for losing to a legend like Couture, there was plenty of shame to be seen in the final thirty seconds of the fight, when “The Natural” proceeded to spank his younger foe like he had just found a bag of grass in his sock drawer. For lack of a better word, it was…hilarious.
At 40 years of age, Couture would become the oldest fighter to ever win a UFC title. And he wasn’t even done yet.
But Couture vs. Ortiz wasn’t the only historic beatdown to happen at UFC 44. Not by a long shot…
– In the evening’s co-main event, Tim Sylvia defeated fellow giant Gan McGee by first round knockout, only to be immediately stripped of the title after testing positive for steroids in his post fight drug test. He would not fight again until nearly a year later at UFC 48. It would not end well.
– Speaking of heavyweights, Andrei Arlovski would score a quick knockout over fellow Belarusian Vladimir Matyushenko one fight prior to the Sylvia/McGee scrap, cementing his place as a top heavyweight and punctuating the UFC’s “Greatest Knockouts” lists forevermore.
– On the preliminary card, a debuting Nick Diaz would score a third round submission via armbar over future TUF 4 contestant and despicable rapist scumbag Jeremy Jackson. The victory brought Diaz’s lifetime record against Jackson — who to this day holds the only (non cut-related) stoppage victory over Nick — to 2-1.
On this day, March 19, one year ago, a lanky 23-year-old from Rochester, NY stepped into the Octagon to face the biggest challenge of his young MMA career. He would meet the challenge head-on and walk out of the cage 20 minutes later a champion.
The fighter was Jon Jones and the challenge was PRIDE legend and then-UFC light heavyweight champ Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, whom he faced that night for the title. Jones demonstrated the poise and skill set of a veteran, finishing Rua in the third round after controlling the first two frames, and in doing so, he quieted the doubters, if only for a moment.
(“Where is your hero now?”)
On this day, March 19, one year ago, a lanky 23-year-old from Rochester, NY stepped into the Octagon to face the biggest challenge of his young MMA career. He would meet the challenge head-on and walk out of the cage 20 minutes later a champion.
The fighter was Jon Jones and the challenge was PRIDE legend and then-UFC light heavyweight champ Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, whom he faced that night for the title. Jones demonstrated the poise and skill set of a veteran, finishing Rua in the third round after controlling the first two frames, and in doing so, he quieted the doubters, if only for a moment.
His next two finishes over former champions Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Lyoto Machida would further legitimize “Bones” and cement the footings of the legacy of the UFC’s youngest champion ever. His impressive mark may be duplicated or surpassed some day by a lifelong MMA-trained 22-year-old, but until then Jones will continue his reign and look to continue to bulldozer through all comers at 205, starting with onetime teammate and current number one contender/nemesis Rashad Evans next month at UFC 145.
(Video courtesy of YouTube/Machinemen)
Will he retain his belt and continue his freight train reign of dominance? Who knows, but at least we do know we’re all in for a hell of a ride come April 21.
Tanner, who was open about his fights with alcohol abuse and his personal demons is said to have called his manager, John Hayner to let him know that his dirt bike had run out of gas a few miles from his camp and that his trip was going well besides the mishap. When he failed to answer calls from friends the next day, police were dispatched and after a brief aerial search, located Tanner’s camp and his remains a few miles away from his abandoned motorcycle.
Hayner told us at the time that the troubled 37-year-old had turned his life around thanks to a move to Oceanside and the rebirth of his career in the UFC where he recently re-signed. Tanner was hoping that the desert trip, which he planned for months and did hours of research for, would leave him feeling rejuvenated and ready to build on the mistakes he made in his last bout — a hard-fought split-decision loss to Kendall Grove at the TUF 7 finale that June.
“He was in a real positive state of mind, he wasn’t having any drinking problems or any of those types of problems. He was really feeling good about his life,” Hayner told CagePotato.com. Here was a famous UFC fighter who didn’t have enough food to eat at times. I’d call him just to make sure he had food in his fridge, but he never let it get him down. Starting over was kind of a theme in his life. He hardly ever lived in the same place more than six months,” Hayner said. “He moved out to Vegas and then found it too shallow for him, so he moved out to Oceanside and had a great place, he was learning to surf, and he was really enjoying his day-to-day life.”
Tanner, who was open about his fights with alcohol abuse and his personal demons is said to have called his manager, John Hayner to let him know that his dirt bike had run out of gas a few miles from his camp and that his trip was going well besides the mishap. When he failed to answer calls from friends the next day, police were dispatched and after a brief aerial search, located Tanner’s camp and his remains a few miles away from his abandoned motorcycle.
Hayner told us at the time that the troubled 37-year-old had turned his life around thanks to a move to Oceanside and the rebirth of his career in the UFC where he recently re-signed. Tanner was hoping that the desert trip, which he planned for months and did hours of research for, would leave him feeling rejuvenated and ready to build on the mistakes he made in his last bout — a hard-fought split-decision loss to Kendall Grove at the TUF 7 finale that June.
“He was in a real positive state of mind, he wasn’t having any drinking problems or any of those types of problems. He was really feeling good about his life,” Hayner told CagePotato.com. Here was a famous UFC fighter who didn’t have enough food to eat at times. I’d call him just to make sure he had food in his fridge, but he never let it get him down. Starting over was kind of a theme in his life. He hardly ever lived in the same place more than six months,” Hayner said. “He moved out to Vegas and then found it too shallow for him, so he moved out to Oceanside and had a great place, he was learning to surf, and he was really enjoying his day-to-day life.”
In an eerie bit of foreshadowing, Tanner spoke about the fact that he may not return from the trip in one SPIKE TV blog post before rebuking the opinions of reporters and fans who thought his planned expedition was reckless and dangerous in another.
“I’ve been gathering my gear for this adventure for over a month, not a long time by most standards, but far too long for my impatient nature. Being a minimalist by nature, wanting to carry only the essentials, and being extremely particular, it has been a little difficult to find just the right equipment,” he wrote. “I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment, could cost me my life. I’ve been doing a great deal of research and study. I want to know all I can about where I’m going, and I want to make sure I have the best equipment.”
(Video courtesy of YouTube/onceiwasachampion)
“It seems some MMA websites have reported on the story, posting up that I might die out in the desert, or that it might be my greatest opponent yet, etc. Come on, guys. It’s really common down in Southern California to go out to the off-road recreation areas in the desert about an hour away from LA and San Diego,” Tanner later explained. “So my plan is to go out to the desert, do some camping, ride the motorcycle, and shoot some guns. Sounds like a lot of fun to me. A lot of people do it. This isn’t a version of ‘Into the Wild.’”
Unfortunately it turned out to be exactly that.
RIP Evan Tanner. Believe in the power of one.
If you get the chance to see the Tanner documentary Once I was a Champion, do yourself a favor and check it out.
Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson went down 3 years ago.
Why it matters:
• Bobby Southworth retained his Strikeforce light heavyweight strap by defeating Anthony Ruiz via unanimous decision. Ruiz beat B-South in their previous bout the previous november, but it wasn’t a title fight. Neither was Southworth’s fight that September against Bill Mahood at the Playboy mansion. It didn’t matter though since he won that fight by verbal submission when Mahood (who later tested positive for steroids) injured his ribs. Southworth, who held the strap longer than any other fighter would lose the belt in his next fight with Renato Sobral. Since then, it has changed hands four times.
• Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez (who won the title by defeating then-champion Clay Guida) lost his title to Strikeforce U.S. lightweight champion Josh Thompson in his second title defense via unanimous decision. After defending the newly-unified title once, Thomson would lose the belt in the rematch the following April. Melendez hasn’t lost since.
• Strikeforce women’s welterweight tournament winner Miesha Tate made her promotional debut.
Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson went down 3 years ago.
Why it matters:
• Bobby Southworth retained his Strikeforce light heavyweight strap by defeating Anthony Ruiz via unanimous decision. Ruiz beat B-South in their previous bout the previous november, but it wasn’t a title fight. Neither was Southworth’s fight that September against Bill Mahood at the Playboy mansion. It didn’t matter though since he won that fight by verbal submission when Mahood (who later tested positive for steroids) injured his ribs. Southworth, who held the strap longer than any other fighter would lose the belt in his next fight with Renato Sobral. Since then, it has changed hands four times.
• Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez (who won the title by defeating then-champion Clay Guida) lost his title to Strikeforce U.S. lightweight champion Josh Thompson in his second title defense via unanimous decision. After defending the newly-unified title once, Thomson would lose the belt in the rematch the following April. Melendez hasn’t lost since.
• Strikeforce women’s welterweight tournament winner Miesha Tate made her promotional debut.
Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson
June 27, 2008
HP Pavilion
San Jose, California
Preliminary Card
Alexander Trivino defeated Eric Jacob via Submission (Armbar) at 0:37 of round 1.
Jorge Interiano defeated Travis Johnson via TKO (Doctor stoppage) at 3:00 of round 2.
Cyrillo Padilha def. Jesse Jones via Unanimous Decision.
Bryan Caraway def. Alvin Cacdac via Submission (Rear-naked choke) at 1:39 of round 1.
Bobby Stack defeated Jose Palacios via Unanimous Decision.
Chris Cariaso def. Anthony Figueroa via Submission (Rear-naked choke) at 4:34 of round 2.
Jeremiah Metcalf defeated Raymond Daniels via Submission (Rear-naked choke) at 0:59 of round 2.
Main Card
Miesha Tate def. Elaina Maxwell via Unanimous Decision.
Bobby Southworth defeated Anthony Ruiz via Unanimous Decision to retain the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Championship
Billy Evangelista def. Nam Phan via Split Decision.
Josh Thomson defeated Gilbert Melendez via Unanimous Decision to win the Strikeforce Lightweight Championship
Eric Lawson defeated Jesse Gillespie via Submission (Rear-naked choke) at 1:03 of round 1. This fight was delayed until after the main event.
EliteXC put its first foot in the grave 3 years ago.
Why it matters:
An EliteXC planned ShoXC event scheduled for this day in 2008 was inexplicably postponed, signalling that the promotion was possibly in trouble. Although they didn’t give a reaon for the cancellation of the show less than three weeks out, it was reported that they had problems securing the Sycuan Casino and Resort in San Diego, California.
It’s too bad that the show didn’t happen. If it had, we may at least one decent match-up with a fighter that could eventually bolster Strikeforce’s roster.
Hector Lombard was supposed to be on the card, but when the show was scrapped, the up-and-coming Cuban Judoka chose not to fight for the struggling promotion and instead went back to Australia to defend his Cage Fighting Championship middleweight strap in May and September of that year.
A few weeks after the event was put on ice, EliteXC announced during a conference call for its July 26 CBS show that it had downgraded president Gary Shaw’s role to basically that of a consultant with the company.
ProElite Executive Chairman Doug DeLuca put his PR skills to good use when describing the demotion.
“Gary is still very involved with ProElite. Gary and our team from Day One at ProElite basically took MMA at our company from ground zero to a huge network success. So, Gary’s got a lot to be proud of in the MMA world. In the process of doing it, as you can imagine, Gary being from the East Coast and we being a West Coast company, took a lot of time from Gary. He was traveling nonstop. It took a toll on his boxing business, which is very successful, and it took a toll on his family. To some degree, it took a toll on his health.We collectively made the decision that Gary was going to back off a little bit, kind of take a little bit of a relaxed role as far as being involved front and center, which is a good thing for all those three things, for his health, for his boxing business, and for his family,” Deluca explained…sort of. “But Gary is still very much involved, and I still talk to him almost every day. He’s still there. Gary’s interest still lies in EliteXC and ProElite, making it a top organization in the world. That’s the status with Gary.I would say he’s more or less consulting in terms of all his promoter abilities, all his contacts and everything Gary does. So Gary is kind of behind the scenes with us, kind of shaping the direction of the company, the way it’s going, pulling the strings in terms of how we’re going to promote, what we’re going to do. Again, his involvement is very much similar to what it’s always been. The difference is, he’s not going to be front and center, doing all the time consuming stuff that he’s done in the past.”
What a shame…
Ultimate Chaos: Lashley vs. Sapp went down two years ago.
Why it matters:
The event, that was promoted by Prize Fight MMA and Fight Force International, took place in Biloxi, Mississippi at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum and featured a number of notables including Bobby Lashley, Bob Sapp, Chris Horodecki, William Sriyapai, Gilbert Yvel, Pedro Rizzo and Affliction Clothing CEO, Tom Atencio.
• Sriyapai has not fought since being defeated byfirst-round rear naked choke to Horodecki.
• Rizzo hasn’t lost since being knocked out in the opening frame by Yvel. He is riding a three-fight win streak with “Ws” over Jeff Monson, Gary Goodridge and Ken Shamrock.
• Yvel hasn’t won since beating Rizzo and will now fight under PRIDE rules at Colosseo Fighting Championships July 23 event against Tony Lopez.
Ultimate Chaos: Lashley vs. Sapp June 27, 2009 Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum Biloxi, Mississippi
Main Card
Bobby Lashley def. Bob Sapp via TKO (punches) at 3:17 of round 1.
Gilbert Yvel def. Pedro Rizzo via KO (punches) at 2:10 of round 1.
Javier Vasquez def. Mark Kergosien via submission (guillotine choke) at 0:59 of round 1.
Chris Horodecki def. William Sriyapai via submission (rear naked choke) at 4:02 of round 1.
Wachiim Spiritwolf def. Brett Cooper via KO at 3:41 of round 1.
Tom Atencio def. Randy Hederick via TKO (stoppage) at 5:00 of round 2.
Brandon Harder defeated John Harris via submission (arm triangle) at 4:31 of round 2.
James Orso defeated Danny Abbadi via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Preliminary Card
Eric Bradley def. Kelly Leo by TKO (punches) at 0:11 of round 2
Colin O’ Hanlon def. Lance Thompson by Submission (Strikes) at 4:16 of Round 1.
Drew Wallace def. Eric Graham by TKO (Strikes) at 4:02 of Round 2.
Rocky Overstreet def. Greg Maher by Submission (Kimura) at 2:08 of Round 1.
Jonathan Mackles def. Shiloh Pisarich by Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) at 2:29 of Round 2.
