Reading a great book about the history of MMA / UFC (mostly UFC)...Just thought I'd point out some cool things I've never knew about old school UFC:
-Originally, there was suppose to be a movie about the Gracie family after UFC 4. They got 15 million dollars to put into it and it was going to be about the japanese mafia kidnapping Heilo Gracie because they were worried about Jiu Jitsu spreading outside of Japan. The Gracie Brothers never always got along, but have to band together to rescue Heilo.
-UFC 4 quarter final, SEG wanted Royce to fight Steven Jennum to erase that horrible UFC 3 final out of everyone's memory. Kind of like what Dana did about GSP / Serra problem. Get GSP the rematch to erase UFC 69.
-Pat Smith got beaten so badly by Tank Abbott and Paul Huerra in a hotel after UFC 6, he needed to be rushed into the hospital. Pat Smith attacked Tank's father at UFC 6, then Tank's crew was hitting on Pat Smith's sister by accident. So they jumped him near an elevator.
-Dan Severn trained for UFC 4 with Al Snow and two other pro wrestlers by a game of "HIT DAN", here they just tried to punch him, while he figured out how to fight...
-Bob Shamrock was furious that Ken quit UFC 3, that he was on no speaking terms for a while.
-Oleg Taktarov fought Pedro Sauer when he first arrived to America. He did extremely well even with a knee injury. Art Davie was impressed with Oleg, but Rorion told Art Davie that Oleg Taktarov sucked and he insisted he should not be allowed in the UFC at the time. It was Ken Shamrock who took Oleg in and helped him out with food and shelter to prepare him for UFC.
-Tank Abbott was at UFC 5, but he lost his tickets given to him by UFC. So he had to buy tickets and was in the nose bleed section.
-There was an 18 year old competitor in UFC 2 Prelims.
-Fighters who attacked UFC in magazine and in print after they had their time in UFC were Bill Wallace, Rorion Graice and Jon Hess...
-Jon Hess was in tears backstage when he couldn't continue UFC 5 tournament.
-Anthony Macias was threatened by his manager that he would not fight in UFC again if he didn't agree to throw the Taktarov fight. He threw the fight and still never fought in UFC ever again....
Interesting... what is the name of this book?
lol
Dark days indeed.
Source?
lionsoul - what is the name of this book?
There was an 18 year old competitor in UFC 2 Prelims.
he was submitted by scott ninja morris in seconds by a guillotine from mount
Thanks for that, I've never seen those before.
More on the Oleg vs Pedro Sauer fight
if you post Pedro Sauer beat or did any damage to Oleg I'll find it hard to believe
The PPVs used to be on Friday nights....
My source is a book I picked up "No Holds Barred" written by Clyde Gentry.
Seriously, you learn about some crazy stuff in it! real interesting stuff!
HuntingtonPUNKÂ -Â More on the Oleg vs Pedro Sauer fight
if you post Pedro Sauer beat or did any damage to Oleg I'll find it hard to believe
According to the book, Sauer did win, but it took him forever...But Oleg held his own.
Art Davie was matchmaker for the early UFCs
but Rorian highly “suggested” that only 1 fighter from Brazil would be allowed to compete in each event, thus saving Royce from completing against fighters skilled in NHB
Most don’t remember that the clock would start at zero and go forward
Big John quit his LAPD job because UFC was paying him more to referee
I remember reading that book.
About Pedro Sauer, he was the one who got Mark Schultz into BJJ/MMA originally because he was in the same area as BYU where Mark was the head wrestling coach. Then because of that connection, he was training with Dave Beneteau and Tank Abbott, and when Beneteau got medically disqualified before UFC 9, Mark took his place after negotiating 50k to fight Gary Goodridge on 8 hours notice.
I remember buying tapes from jjmatrat who trained at Sauer’s. He said the Pedro had his back the majority of the session but never came close to submitting him. Kinda a stalemate.
Good thread.