Its been almost ten years since i went to a UFC event. It wasnt anything like it is now, there were no weight classes and the winners kept going untill they lost or won. It was the Ultimate Ultimate '96 in Birmingham, Alabama.
It had Ken Shamrock, one of his first ufc fights since one of the very first few ufc's i think. He beat some guy horribly, but, since there was no glove rules back then and he went bare fisted, he broke his hand and couldnt go on.
Also, this is the one where tank abot tried to toss a guy over the rail of the octagon, didnt work but he wone anyway.
Kimo made his return to the ufc in that one too, but about 40 lbs lighter than he had been. he was about 220 or so and fighting paul varlins, from alaska, who weighed in at well over 300 lbs. varlins held him down and punched on him for a while, but, that was back before there were well rounded fighters and he didnt even attempt to get him anything that resembled a submission. (i think shamrock and joyce gracie were the only real submission fighters at that time in the ufc). Kimo ended up on top of varlins, pinning one arm behind his back and just dropping some of the nastiest punches straight to the face. I was about 6 rows out and could hear his head just thumping up off the mat. he only took about five of those before McCarthy stopped it.
the final match was between Don Fry and Tank Abbot. tank hit him with a few quick jabs and each one made a cut on frys face, it looked like he had slapped him with a couple of knives or something. But, back then, you didnt stop a fight for something as trivial as, oh....say, blood gushing into your eyes...haha. anyway, as tank usually does, he punched himself out and got winded and Fry choked him out to win the whole thing. i think he got like 100k for it.
the event was a blast to go to, fighters everywhere, most there to just watch. but, like i said, i havent went to one in almost ten years so im sure there are some major differences. one of the coolest things there, was that they had all the ufc ring mats from all the previous tourneyments hanging up from the rafters around the civic center it was held in. they were all still blood stained and just a mess, way cool.
anyway, sorry for the long post, but when i saw your question, it got me to remembering just how fun it was to be there and i thought id share it with you guys since the UFC today is nothing like it used to be. Some of the fighters actually fought 3 or 4 fights in one night if they were the overall winner. no weight classes, no time limits, no gloves, and the only rules were no eye gouging and not fish hooking...other than that, have at it. i dont remember who it was but in one of the earlier ones, some guy was just teeing off on a guys marble sack like there was no tomorrow....it made me nausious just looking at it. and i remember more than one fight being ended on a strategic head but, which was a very legal and lethal tactic back then.
anyway, thanks for getting me to remember all that, hehe.
Who here has been to an event?
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