Over 20 years, ix3623 collected MMA facts and was going to publish an ebook but for reasons explained below, he chose to post the facts free to the Underground forum instead! 99 facts in this installment! Do you think you know your MMA? Are you a die hard MMA fan? Well then, read on!
Excerpted from the Underground - props to ix3623!
Enjoy!
ix3623 circa Aug 24, 2014:
"i was writing an ebook to sell on amazon of no filler mma facts that i have gathered in the last 20 years from fighters i've spoken to and from other things i have read that have been proven fact. unfortunately, i have been told by my lawyer friend that books like these where you make money and talk about other people, even if they are fact, can get you sued. and since i don't want to be sued, i am now going to post everything i was going to put in the book.. here for you guys...for free. i hope you enjoy it. it was meant to be a nice no filler book that was an easy read..anyways.. enjoy..i will post a little by little so it's not too much at once"
1. Zane Frasier was invited to compete in the UFC because he beat up Frank Dux in the lobby of a karate competition. Frank Dux was the fighter in which the film “Bloodsport” was based on.
2. Gerard Gordeau was invited to compete in the UFC because he was from the same gym as Ernesto Hoost whom the UFC was unable to afford.
3. One of Teila Tuli’s teeth that Gerard Gordeau kicked out just missed Referee John McCarthy’s wife when it flew into the crowd. Speaking of Teila Tuli, he played the part of Kemo in the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He also currently stars on the tv show Hawaiian Five-0 as the character Kamekona.
4. Two of Teila Tuli’s teeth stayed embedded in Gerard Gordeau’s foot following the fight. The medical staff at the event decided to just leave them in and bandage the wound.
5. Big John McCarthy applied to fight in the UFC but was told that Royce Gracie was the only one who could represent jiu jitsu. Unrelated to MMA, John was a police officer during the La riots. A video of him being interviewed can be found on youtube :
6. Big John McCarthy’s “Let’s get it on” was a catch phrase created by boxing referee Mills Lane.
7. Big John McCarthy was the person who insisted that fights ended once a fighter could no longer intelligently protect themselves. Prior to that, he was only there as a referee to stop the fight only when a fighter was submitted, ko’ed, or a towel was thrown in.
8. Following his victory against Rumina Sato at a shooto event, Joachim Hansen threw his mouth piece at the crowd which ended up hitting Caol Uno’s mother in the head.
9. At the Pride FC event Final Conflict 2004, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira arrived late for his fight after being stuck in traffic. As a result, his twin brother, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira did his walk in for the opening ceremony.
10. The term “lay and pray” was coined by Stephen Quadros during a match between Kazuyuki Fujita and Gilbert Yvel during Pride Fc 12.
11. Emelianko Fedor’s first official loss was against Tsuyoshi Kohsaka via doctor’s stoppage due to a cut at 17 seconds into the fight. Footage showed that the cut was actually cause by an elbow which was against the rules. Since the event was a tournament, a clear winner needed to advance as draws and no contests would not allow a fighter to advance. Since Fedor could not advance due to his cut, Kohsaka moved on. As a result, Fedor had this entered as a loss instead of a no contest. Randy Couture was also in this tournament but lost to Valentijn Overeem.
12. Shooto is credited as the first mixed martial arts organization.
13. The first fighter to wear traditional mma gloves in the UFC was Tank Abbott, although Melton Bowen wore another style of fingerless leather martial arts gloves at Ufc 4.
14. Keith Hackney was considered to be a competitor on the Ultimate Fighter 4. He passed his medicals but was eventually passed on for the show.
15. Fighter Tra Tellingman has no right pectoral. He lost it after a car accident as a child.
16. Fighter Jeremy Jackson’s wife named their son Nick, after Nick Diaz, when Diaz beat Jeremy right before she gave birth. Jeremy Jackson also happened to be a last minute replacement for Nick Diaz on the Ultimate Fighter 4.
17. Johil De Oliveira was scheduled to fight Matt Serra at Pride Fc 9. During his entrance, Johil was injured by pyrotechnics which led to the fight being canceled. Matt Serra was never invited back to fight for Pride fc.
18. When they were both amateurs, Jorge Rivera , who normally fights at 185, defeated heavyweight Tim Sylvia via unanimous decision.
19. Diego Sanchez is a devout follower of personal power guru Tony Robbins’ teachings. His infamous “YES!” chants are a result of his teachings as a way to add belief that he can achieve anything. Pro wrestler Daniel Bryan has mentioned in interviews that his very popular "YES!" catch phrase was inspired by Diego Sanchez.
20. In an attempt to promote the Gracie family, Rorion Gracie did a Playboy article in 1989 where he issued the Gracie challenge and claimed to be the baddest man on the planet.
21. Egan Inoue was a world champion racquetball player prior to competing in jiu jitsu and mma.
22. In a fight between Rich Franklin and Aaron Brink, the fight was stopped because Brink’s leg got caught between the mat and the fence. As a result, the fight ended in a no contest. Unrelated to mma, Brink was the first mma fighter to be in a porn movie.
23. As a child, Chuck Liddell starred in the 1981 movie “The Postman Always Rings Twice”:
24. Shad Smith was the first openly gay mma fighter.
25. The fastest knockout in mma history was 2 seconds when Ryohei Masuda knocked out Takahiro Kuroishi at Rings : The Outsider 2 on July 19, 2008, in Tokyo.
26. On the day of Kevin Randleman’s title defense against Pedro Rizzo at UFC 24, Randleman slipped and fell on concrete while warming up. The fall knocked him unconscious. Randleman ended up being taken to the hospital which led to the cancelation of the fight.
27. Boxers James “Bone Crusher” Smith and Leon Spinks were both considered for UFC 1 before settling with Art Jimmerson.
28. Art Jimmerson wanted to back out of the event once he learned the rules (because he had a fight with Thomas Hearns a month later), but SEG offered him 15,000 dollars just to show. This made him the highest paid fighter to fight in the UFC as most of the other fighters were offered only 1000 dollars for their initial appearance. As Art saw how brutal the fights were during the event, Jimmerson’s corner conspired to throw in the towel at the first sight of trouble, which they did. The towel unfortunately got caught in the fence and the referee did not see it. Jimmerson both verbally and physically tapped out.
28. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was run over by a truck when he was 11. He was in a coma for four days. As a result of the accident, he lost a rib and part of his liver and was hospitalized for 11 months. Nogueira has a big scar on his body as a result.
29. When Gerard Gordeau kicked Tuli’s teeth out, it not only flew past Big John McCarthey’s wife, but also a group of sponsors from Gold’s Gym, which along with viewing the other brutal fights, led them to pull out of their advertisement deal with the UFC.
30. In his fight against Gerard Gordeau at UFC 1, Royce Gracie did not let go of his choke because in his previous fight against Ken Shamrock, the referee missed Shamrock tapping and also because Royce was infuriated that Gordeau bit Royce during their fight.
31. Prior to the UFC, Dana White was an boxercise instructor. He conducted classes in 3 different gyms in Las Vegas . He also began managing Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell. A photo of Dana teaching a boxercise class can be easily found circulating on the internet.
32. While working as a manager, White learned that Semaphore Entertainment Group, the parent company of the UFC, was looking for a buyer. White contacted his childhood friend Lorenzo Fertitta, an executive of Station Casinos and a former commissioner of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Within a month, Lorenzo, and his brother Frank bought the UFC and appointed Dana as president. The Ufc was bought for 2 million dollars.
33. Jose Aldo received the scar on his cheek when he was a child after his sisters rolled him onto a barbecue pit during a 1986 world cup party
34. The Patrick Smith / Scott Morris fight only ended because Patrick Smith stopped hitting him. John McCarthy didn't have the power to stop the fight as a referee in the early UFC days,and Morris' cornerman stated beforehand that they would never throw in the towel. They looked away when McCarthy looked at them and motioned for them to throw in the towel. With Morris all but unconscious and not in a state to submit, Smith simply got up and walked away, ending the fight.
35. Weight classes were introduced in the UFC at UFC 12.
36. Rorion Gracie tried to replace Royce Gracie with Rickson at UFC 3. The decision was made but Rickson then wanted more money from Rorion to fight. When he did not receive this, he parted ways with his family and stopped cornering and training Royce.
37. Kimo entered UFC 3 only weeks before the event when Joe Son went to Art Davie's office (shirtless and driving a convertible Porsche) and convinced him to let Kimo on the show. Davies agreed solely on Kimo's appearance. Kimo was only a street fighter with zero credentials, but was elevated to 3rd degree black belt (Tae Kwon Do) for the event.
38. The Giant cross that Kimo brought to the ring was not supposed to have been brought to the octagon. David Isaac, who worked for the company, didn't want fighters bringing in props because he didn't want the UFC to resemble Pro Wrestling. When a huge box came in, Joe Son told SEG that the box contained training equipment. It was in fact the cross.
39. Kimo wrote an apology letter to the Gracie family after he ran into the ring and celebrated with Joe Son when Royce was unable to continue the tournament. Relson Gracie confronted Joe Son and challenged him to a fight due to the disrespect which is what resulted in Kimo writing the letter in order to clear the air.
40. Tank Abbott got his nickname as a reference from the film "Every Which Way but Loose". He was compared to Tank Murdock. His discipline of "Pit Fighting" was a made up term by Art Davie to use instead of "Street Fighter".
41. Tank was suspended by the UFC for an altercation he had with Allan Goes. If that wasn't bad enough, Tank's girlfriend got into an argument with John McCarthy's wife Elaine over the occurrence. When Tank returned and found out about the argument, he approached Elaine and threatened to kill her. This prompted Big John to force UFC'S hand and say "either he goes or I go". Ultimately, Tank got a paid suspension from fighting and ended up signing a letter of apology to make amends. Other known incidents concerning Tank Abbott include an incident with Patrick Smith in which Tank and 3 other men attacked Smith in an elevator for talking trash. Tank was also in an incident with Wallid Ismail which was separated.
42. Felix Lee Mitchell wanted to wear boxing gloves in his fight against Ken Shamrock and even wore them into the octagon. He was forced to remove them as they were not cleared beforehand by John McCarthy.
43. Dan Severn had no professional fighting record to speak of prior to entering the UFC. He filled out an application from a magazine he saw in order to apply. There was no wrestling category in the application so he checked "other". Because Dan Severn had no prior fighting experience, the UFC made him sign a contract stating that "In case of your accidental death, we are not liable". Severn trained for the UFC with pro wrestler Al Snow (who also cornered Severn for a few of his fights).
Pics of Pro wrestler Al Snow cornering Dan Severn in the UFC, etc.
44. At 52 years old, Ron Van Clief couldn't persuade the UFC to allow him to fight because of his age. In order to convince them, Van Clief agreed to enter the New York marathon to prove his athleticism. The UFC said if he was able to, he would be allowed to fight in the UFC. Van Clief went on to complete the marathon and fight in the UFC as a result.
45. Andy Anderson, who is best known for his fight against John Hess at UFC 5, was a millionaire who owned several businesses, including the totally nude steak house in Longview, Texas. The city paid Andy money to shut the very popular business down.
46. In 2001, Brian Johnston collapsed from a stroke while preparing a training partner for a pro wrestling match. He was given a 50% chance of survival. In addition, doctors said that even if he did survive, he would have been in a vegetative state. Today, with his nickname "Miracle", he is able to move around unassisted.
47. Vitor Belfort burst onto the scene as a 19-year-old using the ring name of Victor Gracie and billed as the adopted son of Vale Tudo legend Carlson Gracie ." This made the other Gracies furious because Vitor was not a real Gracie. In a later interview, Vitor stated that out of respect to his father, he stuck with his real name although he told Carlson that he was honored that he wanted to have Vitor carry the Gracie name. It is believed though that he stopped using the Gracie name due to pressure from the rest of the Gracie family.
48. Gary Goodridge was offered the status of 4th degree black belt in kuk sool won (along with a free gi) if he was willing to represent their school in the UFC. He accepted. His only true credentials coming into the UFC were arm wrestling and some boxing.
49. During UFC Ultimate Japan, John McCarthy halted the bout between Conan Silveira and Kazushi Sakuraba, believing Sakuraba was hurt while on the ground and covering, though Sakuraba was fine. McCarthy admitted his mistake, but the decision was made. Sakuraba was so upset after the loss that he refused to leave the octagon for more than 45 minutes during the show. The japanese crowd was irate, and later on in the show, the UFC decided to make it a no contest and have them come back and fight again later on in the show. Sakuraba won the second contest by armbar.
50. Although Todd Duffee and Chan Sung Jung officially hold the record for fastest UFC KO (7 seconds), Duane Ludwig ko'ed Johnathan Goulet in even less time. The record was not recorded because the timekeeper made an error and recorded the official time of stoppage at 11 seconds. "Dana White did a little time keeping of his own in one of his UFC 141 video blogs and concluded that Ludwig was indeed the rightful owner of the UFC's fastest knock out, which he timed at 6.26 seconds. Though the NSAC won't alter the record books in favor of Ludwig, "Bang" says that as long as Dana White and the UFC brass acknowledge it, that's all that matters to him."
51. The new quickest mma ko is 1.13 seconds in a fight between Mike Garrot and Sam Herron at WCMMA 14 (warrior challenge). Only thing is that it was a semi pro/ amateur fight and the organization stopped the clock after the kick ko instead of when the ref stopped it and waved the fight off which was after 2 seconds. so take this fact however you want. you can watch the videos below for more info and your opinion.
52. During a fight between Kazushi Sakuraba and Yoshihiro Akiyama , Sakuraba complained throughout the fight that Akiyama was slippery and protested to the referee the entire fight claiming that Akiyama was cheating. Following the fight the referee inspected Aikiyama to discover that he was indeed slippery. It was later found that Akiyama did indeed cheat by rubbing his entire body with lotion which he would let dry so that it would be left unnoticed coming into the ring. Once Akiyama began to sweat though, it would be almost impossible to grab a hold of him. Akiyama later apologized and claimed that he did not know that applying lotion was against the rules. The fight was changed to a no contest.
53. John Williams holds three mma records which consist of oldest mma fighter debut, oldest active mma fighter, and oldest mma fighter to win a fight. He fought at the age of 70. There have been many accusations that the fight was staged and that the oldest mma fighter title should go to Skip Hall who had fought at the age of 63.
54. With 299 fights under his belt, Travis Fulton holds the record for most mma fights, earning himself the nickname "The Iron Man". Travis also holds the record for most ko's (92) and most submissions (151) in mma.
55. Mixed martial artist Jason David Frank was formerly the green ranger (Tommy) on the tv show "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers".
56. At Vale Tudo Japan '95, 154 pound Japanese Fighter Yuki Nakai took on UFC 1 finalist Gerard Gordeau in the first round. Gordeau gouged Nakai's eyes so bad that he suffered permanent blindness in one of his eyes. He still won this fight by heelhook and his next fight by armbar before losing to Rickson Gracie by armbar in the finals. After the fight, Rickson said that he purposely did not hit Yuki in the face out of respect. Yuki avoided interviews for years out of fear that it would make a negative impact on mma.
57. In an attempt to promote the UFC, UFC fighters Tim Sylvia, Wes Sims, Pete Spratt, Ricco Rodriguez, Tiki Ghosn, and Josh Thompson were on an episode of Blind Date. According to Urijah Faber, Nick Diaz was asked to be one of the fighters to do the show but he refused. "Nick had a girlfriend at the time and they wanted him to go on there for publicity and he wouldn't do it."
Some of the videos:
Tim Sylvia
Tiki Ghosn
Josh Thompson
Pete Spratt
58. Frank Hamaker (who fought in a UFC 2 dark match)was a porn theater owner. He won his fight and was set to be on the pay per view, but he chose not to continue.
59. brad ferro, who punched snooki on the first season of the jersey shore, is an amateur mma fighter.
60. Joe Son starred as the character "Random Task" in the film "Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery"
61. Douglas Dedge is the first fighter to die as a result of injuries sustained in a mma fight. Dedge was unable to obtain medical clearance to fight in the U.S. so he went abroad to fight. The organization he fought for was unsanctioned. After the fight, Dedge died 2 days later from severe brain injuries at the Kiev Institute of Neurosurgery. It is said that in 1981, Alfredo Castro Herrera, a 15 year old, died in an unsanctioned fight which was described as "boxing mixed with karate and judo" . Many do not consider this to have been a mma match.
62. The man in the sex tape with Kendra Wilkinson from the tv show "the Girls Next Door" is a mma fighter named Justin Frye.
63. In 1994, SEG, who owned the UFC, took a chance on David Hasselhoff's singing career and made a pay per view for it. The event could never be measured for success as it was cut short by OJ Simpson driving his Bronco on the same evening.
64. Lee Murray was involved in the biggest bank heist in the history of the U.K.. As a result, Murray was sentenced to 10 years in a Moroccan prison. This sentence was then extended to 25 years in 2010.
65. On May of 2007, Roger Huerta was the first mma fighter to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine to showcase SI's first story of the rising popularity of mixed martial arts.
66. At a charity event, Bas Rutten accidently stepped on football player Brian Urlacher's foot. Bas apologized but Urlacher refused to accept his apology. Bas tried to make peace but Urlacher instead told Bas if he wanted to "take this outside". Bas laughed and replied yes. The bouncers diffused the situation by informing Urlacher who Bas was. Urlacher quickly apologized.
67. UFC ring announcer Bruce Buffer has a black belt in Tang Soo Do and has fought as a kickboxer.
68. Although Rickson Gracie claims to be undefeated in all competitions, he has at least one loss from the 1993 Sambo championships in Norman, Oklahoma. Rickson was defeated by american Ron Tripp with an uchi-mata in 45 seconds. Rickson disputed this loss, claiming he was misinformed of the rules of the event.
69. Following Renzo Gracie and Ben Spijkers fight at WCC 1, Renzo stepped on Spijker's neck to teach him a lesson for prank calling / taunting / insulting him prior to their fight.
70. Following Charles Crazy horse Bennett's win over Ken Kaneko, whom was trained by Chute Boxe, there was an altercation between Bennett and Chute Boxe fighter Cristiano Marcello backstage. The end result was Marcello choking Bennett out. Bennett has claimed in interviews that when he woke up he saw Wanderlai Silva standing on top of him and that he knocked Silva out. There is no video proof of the latter although there is edited video proof of Bennett getting choked out by Cristiano.
71. One of Andre Arlovski's infamous quotes in response to Tim Sylvia dating his ex girlfriend was actually "How tastes my beep beep beep", not "How tastes my pee pee".
72. Tony Halme who faced Randy Couture at UFC 13 was Ludvig Borga of the World Wrestling Federation. Halme committed suicide in 2010.
73. The song "feiticeira" by the deftones was actually written about a character played by Joana Prado, who is VItor Belfort's wife. Nick DIaz walked out to this song against Carlos Condit.
74. Mike Rowe, who is best known for the Tv show "Dirty Jobs", was the narrator for the show "Ultimate Fighter" between 2005 and 2010.
75. Zuffa is an actual word that means "scuffle" in Italian.
76. During one of his podcasts, Joe Rogan said that he was once approached by Pride FC to be an announcer. Joe declined as he did not want to work in Japan.
77. The man behind the infamous "double rainbow" viral video, which has millions of views on youtube, is mixed martial artist Paul "Hungry Bear" Vasquez. Long before the double rainbow video, he was already known (although not by name) by the mma community after he was a victim of photoshoppers in the following picture:
78. Ricco Rodriguez mentioned in an interview that he believes that he would never be asked back to the UFC due to how he almost put the UFC out of business:
" Dana holds grudges pretty well, and he has his reasons. I don't blame him. The truth is that I almost single handedly tore down the UFC at one point of my career.
I wore a henna tattoo (that read GoldenPalace.com in big bold letters) in my fight against Randy Couture, and at that time, the UFC was literally just building itself, we were only at 60,000 pay-per-view purchases [per event]. The Mohegan Sun and the Indian tribe allowed that fight to go on, and the truth is, they almost stopped that fight from happening. If that would have been the case, then I would have single-handedly destroyed the UFC.
…First of all, Lorenzo Fertitta, they own casinos, so when you own a casino, you have certain laws that are very strict…If you remember this fight, Bernard Hopkins vs. Felix Trinidad, Bernard Hopkins just got out of jail, he was approached by GoldenPalace.com to wear a henna tattoo. He took the $100,000 that they gave him, and he bet it on himself. He was a 4-1 underdog and he won the fight, and he won $400,000 plus his regular purse. So when the opportunity presented itself to me, I did the same exact thing. I was a 5-1 underdog, so I gambled on myself and I won that fight. And I made more than the UFC would have ever paid me. The UFC paid me $30,000 to show and $30,000 to win, and I put all my money on myself and I won half a million.
So there’s a lot of things that people don’t understand. And this is why Dana White will never let me back in the UFC, and I totally understand. I respect that, and it is what it is. The truth of the matter is, is that Lorenzo Fertitta came and did a walk with me right before the fight, and you know how terrifying that was when Lorenzo Fertitta walked with me?…"
79. Nobuhiko Takada and his wife, japanese television personality Aki Mukai, had two twin boys through ivf in which an american woman gave birth to their twins. It was the third in vitro fertilization by Mukai (39 years of age at the time) who had her womb removed in 2000 due to cancer.
80. At Syrcuse University, Mark Kerr was the division 1 wrestling champion at 190 pounds in 1992. The man that he defeated for this title was Randy Couture.
81. In an interview, Aleksander Emelianko talked about how he would often hunt / kill bears with nothing more than a knife and a stick. He began doing this after watching it being done on tv.
82. Khabib "The Eagle" Nurmagomedov used to wrestle bears as a child:
Khabib recently re enacted this in a video after he admitted that it was indeed him in the video that was circulating on the internet wrestling a bear as a child :
83. In an interview, Chuck Liddell revealed the origin of his trademark mohawk. He explained that when he went to a Slayer concert with his friends, they all decided to shave their heads. Chuck was reluctant and decided on a mohawk instead. He also explained why he got the tattoos on his head. He explained that he wanted to show the tattoo off to people without having to take his shirt off. He also wanted to put it in a place where he could easily hide it since he was in accounting and he may have needed to go on job interviews later on. Chuck Liddell on the meaning of his tattoo : "It says Koei-Kan which is the martial arts style I started in first. It means a place of peace and prosperity.
84. This is random and not in the book, but former UFC ring girl Logan Stanton seems to have a deformed finger on her right hand. It is common for people who have broken their fingers although it is unknown if that is the reason. She tends to hide that hand in her modeling pictures. Below is a picture / gif. this is just a random post which most people know about.By the way, Logan Stanton, along with Natasha Wicks were fired from the UFC. According to rumors, they were let go because of their comments in interviews including how they believed Josh Koscheck was faking being poked in the eye when he faced Anthony Johnson. These are only rumors.
85. Among Gilbert Yvel's many tattoos is a tattoo of a ko list which tallies the number of people he has knocked out. He adds to the list with every new ko.
86. Jose Aldo also has a similar tattoo in which he adds a skull every time he defeats an opponent. Aldo : "Every time I win a fight, I get one more head tattooed on my shoulder. I'm going to get one more on Saturday, but don't write this, or it'll be too macabre. (laughs)."
87. After many years of bad blood, Tito Ortiz and Dana White were going to have a 3 round boxing match which was a condition in Tito's new contract to return to the UFC. Dana obliged as he was a one time amateur boxer. Dana trained for various months for the boxing match and even posted video blogs of himself training for the fight. Surprisingly, the fight never happened as Tito Ortiz was a no show at the weigh ins. Although many believe that Tito chickened out, Tito claimed that he did not show up because he was not getting any big money for the boxing fight (despite the fact that he was the one that wanted this boxing match to be added to his contract in order to come back to the UFC).
88. According to a recent interview by Ken shamrock, back when War Machine first started mma, he trained at the lion's den. War machine apparently ran away with Ken Shamrock's 18 year old daughter to mexico and left her stranded there. Ken has been trying to get his hands on War Machine ever since.
89. Speaking of Ken Shamrock, early on in his career, Ken was knocked out by pro wrestlers "the nasty boys" . Below are videos of ken shamrock and the nasty boy's versions of the incident.
The Nasty Boy's version :
Ken Shamrock's version:
90. Remco Pardoel stated that at UFC 2, Ryan Parker was telling Gerard Gordeau back in the locker room what he was going to do to his opponent and how he was going to finish the fight. Following his fight vs Pardoel, Gerard asked Parker calmly, "and did it work with the pressure point techniques?".
91. Along with other personal problems, Fred Ettish stated in interviews that the fight result vs Johnny Rhodes made him suicidal due to how people made jokes about him due to how badly he was beaten during the fight. Ettish redeemed himself in 2009 with a win over mma fighter Kyle Fletcher. An interesting documentary of Fred Ettish can be found below. Very much worth watching as it displays a different side of Fred Ettish than the one many remember him as:
History Of MMA: Fred Ettish from History of MMA on Vimeo.
92. Speaking of Remco Pardoel, when I asked him if there was any fight that he wanted that would have him come out of retirement, he said that he wanted a rematch with Marco Ruas. He has been trying to get a rematch with Ruas ever since their first fight as he believed that Ruas cheated due to greasing his entire body. Greasing was a common way of cheating in the early mma days where fighters would rub oil or lotion on their bodies, let it dry, and then become almost impossible to grab once they begin to sweat.
93. Keith Hackney applied to the UFC after seeing an ad in magazine. Event Organizers told him that the roster was full but that they would keep him in mind if a slot opens up. Hackney was called 1 week prior to his fight against Emmanuel Yarborough. Hackney told them that he would come to fight because he was afraid that if he said no, they would never call him back again.
“We had a press conference Friday. I was kinda sent to the dogs. They had a punch bowl and envelopes with our names in them in a circle,” Hackney said. “Jim Brown was picking them out of the punch bowl at random. The first guy they picked was the sumo guy, and the second was me.. Yarborough’s manager told my kids to break out their piggy banks and bet on him and [jokingly] suggested I take a dive,” Hackney says. “That was funny.” “He (Yarborough) was curling 315 pounds 20 times in a row on camera.” “The announcer was yelling, ‘He has no chokes!’ I’m thinking, ‘You idiot. This guy’s head is bigger than a basketball. Do you know how big his neck is?’ I tried to pound on his head like nails on a roof,” Hackney says. “I put two knuckles into an eye socket. If it was a normal guy, I’d have crushed his skull.”
Hackney was unable to continue due to a broken hand. He was paid 1000 for the fight and was disappointed to learn that if he went into the next match and threw in the towel like Royce Gracie did against Harold Howard, he could have gotten another 5000 dollars.
94. Interesting tidbit on the next UFC event Keith Hackney fought in.
Keith Hackney : "“The lottery bowl -- they bring it out and it’s going in slow motion,” Hackney says. “Apparently, there were some problems with it. They had Royce’s ball in the thing, and it’s like: What is this bulls--t? It’s barely moving, the ball lifts up, and he gets Ron van Clief [for his first opponent]. After that, the machine is working fantastic. I got Joe Son.”
95. According to an interview by Royce, the hardest he's ever been hit was by Keith Hackney. Hackney : "The one time I caught Royce, I thought I’d knocked him out. He was down on the ground and I dropped a bomb on his head, and it had no place to go. I have a picture of him with knuckle marks on his forehead afterward, and he signed it for me. He’s a good guy. Every time he came in, he fought his heart out.”“You have to look at it. I was [grossing] about two million dollars [annually] in the heating business. I could break my hand, leg or back versus that sumo guy. You made $1,000, and there was no insurance, I think, until UFC 6,” he says. “You had to sign a half-inch thick contract, so even if you died, your family couldn’t sue. Basically, they owned you.”
96. The reason why Art Jimmerson wore only one glove according to Campbell McLaren, the first executive producer of UFC.
"He was nervous. He didn't want to do it," McLaren said, explaining how he was able to sign Jimmerson for UFC 1. "I flew out to St. Louis and I met with him. We had a conversation and we went back-and-forth, and finally he goes -- he's a really nice man, he's a really good guy -- and he goes, ‘I'm buying a house and I need a $15,000 down payment.' I said, ‘I'll give you $15,000 to do the UFC.' He said, ‘Okay, I'll do it.' Just like that."
"I really wanted a boxer," McLaren continued. "I was so naive, I thought Jimmerson was going to kill Royce. I don't mean beat him, I mean actually he might really injure him. If Royce weighed 165 pounds, he had four rolls of quarters in the gi pockets," McLaren continued sarcastically. "He didn't weigh 165 pounds. Maybe with the gi wet and someone else putting their toe was on the scale. I thought he was going to get knocked out. That's how wrong I was. That's how much I knew about it."
The St. Louis, Mo.,-based fighter had won 15 fights in a row prior to UFC 1 and McLaren was adamant in pointing out that Jimmerson was, "the highest-ranked, current, contemporary boxer to enter UFC. I think he was the eighth-ranked in the IBF at Cruiserweight. He was a real, real boxer."
Prior to the beginning of the fight, the telecast showed a promo video of a very confident Jimmerson. "I'm a pro boxer and that's how I'm going to win," he boasted. "Being a fighter, I punch hard, I'm fast and I'm quick. You can't hit what you can't see."
McLaren noticed Jimmerson, "was a different man walking out that night." What he didn't know, until referee "Big" John McCarthy gave up the ghost -- while the two were talking about the good ‘ole days at Invcita FC 6 over the summer -- was the fact that a conversation took place prior to the now famous quarterfinal matchup between Gracie and Jimmerson.
McCarthy was not yet a referee at the inaugural UFC event -- he was there because he was a training partner of Gracie. Jimmerson was "pumping him for information," McLaren said, before dishing on the details of the backstage tete-a-tete.
"Big John said, 'you know what he's going to do to you right?'" McLaren said, re-telling the story he only recently became privy to. "Jimmerson said, ‘what's he going to do?' and he was dancing around and doing boxing moves. Big John said, ‘You ever get in a clinch in a boxing match?' Jimmerson said, ‘yeah, the ref breaks it up.' Big John goes," In this they're not going to break it up when he grabs you. He's going to have his arms on you. They're not going to break that up. The ref doesn't break that up in this fight.' Jimmerson goes, ‘what?' Big John said, "He's going to shoot in. He's going to grab you. You are going to get one chance to hit him, and if you miss, he's going to be all over you.' Jimmerson said, ‘He's going to break my arm isn't he?' Big John said, ‘Yeah, he's going to break your arm.'
"That's when he decided to wear the one glove," McLaren revealed. "To make sure we could see him tapping with the other hand. Walking with him to the Octagon, he said, 'If I tap with my glove hand, is it a still a tap?' That's when I knew it wasn't going to work out."
97. Rorion Gracie concerning the beginning of the Ultimate Fighting Championship : "We thought of a moat with alligators. We thought of an arena with sharks around. We seriously thought about an electric fence. But we couldn't in case one guy pushed the other into the moat and he'd get chewed up. We laughed at it, but in Hollywood your mind travels and we just thought of every different possibility... Eventually I settled on the Octagon."
98. Scott Ferrozzo and Tank Abott had a backyard rematch fight which Tank won. A year after this fight, Ferrozzo nearly lost his leg due to a staph infection that he contracted while mowing his grass (which nearly killed him and left him immobilized in a hospital bed for more than a month).
Ferrozzo : "“I spent about 40 days in the hospital, and they amputated most of my foot,” Ferrozzo said. “My foot was just shredded. It looked like a shark had come by and bit it; that’s how bad it was. They were going to amputate my leg but did a good enough job that they [only] took most of my foot. It took about a five- or six-month recovery before I was really able to walk again and resume my life.”
Ferrozzo is currently involved in litigation with the hospital over the ordeal.
“They said that I had gout, but I really had a staph infection,” Ferrozzo said. “It could’ve all been avoided if they would have just done their job.”
“The hospital was responsible for what they did to my foot,” he said.
99. Art Jimmerson on why he wore one boxing glove : "You don't want to hurt your hand because you can make a lot of money off it and you could get a shot at the title. So lets just put on one glove, that way we could just tap him with your left hand and sucker him in with your right hand,’"
There you have it! 99 interesting MMA Facts! Props again to ix3623 for sharing his hard work over the 20 years!
Part 2 is in the works, check back soon or subscribe via RSS or Email and you won't miss the post.
