After last nights Versus my buddy and I decided to watch one of my older vhs videos UFC 36 when Worlds Collide.
Besides being an awesome fight card, it was so awesome to watch something I haven't seen in years compared to what UFC is now.
They had awesome entertainment pride style introduction to the show, they had fighter entrances with pyro(cheap), lazer light shows....(it was a small venue very small organization look/feel however they treated it like it was the biggest thing ever)
The commentator was someone who I can't figure out but he was really good. He was with Goldburg(young).
What I thought was super cool and something UFC would NEVER do today, is advertise other fighters.
When Matt Hughes was going to face Hayoto Sakurai UFC put up a top 5 WW list and #5 was Anderson Silva. Interesting Anderson was close to signing with UFC after Pancrase but decided to stay in Japan and go to Pride.
Carlos Newton on the mic is as equally bad as Tito Ortiz commentating for Affliction. You just feel sorry for them when they speak.
During the main event between Randy Couture(he wasn't the natural yet) and Josh 'Baby Face' Assassain Barnett they put up a top 5 hw list and it read Randy, Nogueira, Pedro, Coleman, Barnett. Coleman was in Pride at that time as well as #2 Nog. UFC was just being honest and putting up the top fighters and UFC even back then had a fair share.
Anyways early UFC with Zuffa vs current Zuffa I prefer the old but with the new next gen fighters. Funny how money and fame changes things
Fyi Randy was 7-0 in UFC at that time and Josh Barnett was the first to beat Randy in the Octagon.
A young in shape Ricco Rodriguez stepped in to help commentate. No sign of Rogan.
By the way the fightcard kicked ass and looked like this:
Evan Tanner ground n pounds Elvis Sinosaic and gives him a bad cut in rd 1
Andre Arvloski makes his UFC debut at the ripe age of 23yrs old sporting a fairly nice neck hair necklace.(hair on the back connecting over the shoulders with the chest hair oh yeah)
AA fought a 3 round fight with some GREAT stand up with Pedro Rizzo who only had losses to Couture in the octagon. Pedro ended up hitting AA with a great 1-2 and AA was out with his nose smashed. My friend and I conversed about how you can go so long without being knocked out(chuck liddell, wanderlei), but after you get knocked out clean enough times you become more succeptable. This conversation came about when he said he wonders how good AA would be if he had a chin. Perhaps knockouts such as Rizzo at an early age lead to his weak chin?
Hayoto Sakurai fights a fairly boring fight with a prime Matt Hughes. 4 rd fight that ends with ground n pound justified stoppage.
Frank Mir surprises the hardcore fans(who thought Pete Williams might be the next big thing after knocking out Coleman) by armlocking Pete with a nice rarely seen submission. Frank looked very hungry then.(now he seems more focused which is similar)
Pat Militech fights Matt Lindland. Lindland takes him down, humps him a little, then pounds him for a ref stoppage. Pat is interviewed and contemplates retiring and says he'd really like to focus on training his fighters more(well he sure did do that)
Randy Couture vs Josh Barnett(with incredibly california blonde hair)
This was a GREAT fight overshadowed by the controversy of steroids/Barnett.
Rd 1 Couture dominates and uses his superior wrestling to take Barnett down early and pound on him from guard/half guard.
Rd 2 is more of the same until Couture tries to get better position and gets a little overzealous and overcommitts. Josh even back then had great instinct and capitolized and got top position. From there he reigned down blows and didn't want to give Randy another chance. Josh wins in surprising fashion. Randy was 7-0 and becoming the peoples champ. Randy SHOWING 100% CLASS, takes the UFC Belt, and he himself wraps it around Josh.(Would we see Brock Lesnar ever doing that?)
Oh yeah after the Randy/Josh fight interviewer says to Randy
How do you assess your career right now?
Randy'"Well I will sit back with my family and figure things out, see if there's anything left I can offer to this sport and go from there". Randy was 38yrs old. How crazy would it be to know back then he'd be fighting for the hw belt 8 yrs later?!
"He's a big guy and ended up on top of me and I couldn't get out from under him and have a few pot knots to show for it.
I didn't underestimate him I've always felt that Josh is underrated. People judge him from his appearance and at times he appears soft but if you evaluate him on his performance he's very technical and it showed tonight"
Josh Barnet t"Randy is Great, I don't know if I can be the kind of champion Randy was but I'll do my best for you guys".
"If any of you top ranked boxers want to come in here as well we're all game. Lennox, Tyson, we'll play my game".
Josh Barnett was only 24yrs old and 9yrs ago weighed 10 lbs less than what he weighed against Mighty Mo
I also didn't know Barnett dated a black girl who accompanied him post fight. She was about eye level too real tall.
Barnett was cornered/trained by Matt Hume who back then was considered what Greg Jackson is today.
Matt Hughes in prefight said that he thinks a true champion needs to defend his belt at least 1 time and he plans on doing that.(Boy did he ever greatest ww of all time thus far)
...
....
Uh, that's it.
Here,
In summary, it was very nostalgic watching one of the earliest Zuffa UFC's after watching a current Zuffa UFC.
CDO - You cannot defeat your TUF noob status by watching old DVDs.
-CDO
VHS homie.
I'm old school.
Still have 'mix tapes'. You know, b4 they had CD's.
Perhaps if I could convert my 'homemade' videos to dvd I wouldn't have a vhs still ;)
In summary most of that information is wrong.
butcher4 - In summary most of that information is wrong.
Do tell.
JimmersonzGlove - Commentator was probably either Bennett or Blatnik. I packed all my VHS's away in my attic so I can't double check.
Bennett was there he did the post fight interviews. Blatnik was not.
It's killing me not knowing who did the commentating.
UG will find out I know their are numerous gurus here.
I was at that event. It was my first Vegas UFC(i went to UFC 9 in Detroit).
Great card and i won good money on Hughes and Barnett so it made it that much better.
I met lots of fighters. Matt Serra stood on his tippy toes in a picture with me and i played blackjack with Mikey Burnett all night at the San Remo which is now Hooters Casino.
I also had a good convo with Carlos Newton while we waited in line for the MGM buffet.
Jeff Osborne of Hook N Shoot commentated some of the UFC's during that era.
Might have been him.
nice post, thanks.
Fugazi-you had me until you said you had a good conversation with Carlos.
Any idea who commentated with Goldberg?
Good write up
The commentator was Jeff Osborn. I was there live it was a great show. That was when the card had top notch fights form top to bottem. ahh the good old days.
Massa-I googled him to find pictures and the only one I could find is one on sherdog which isn't clear. It kind of looks like him but the age difference makes it hard to tell.
Back then this guy was young, sounded like he had mma training and did a really great job commentating.
They should've kept him and dumped goldberg imo. Somehow though Goldberg was better back then and has become dorky now
Great post. Thanks for sharing that.
butcher4 - In summary most of that information is wrong.
Are you just trying to be a deush or think I'm fabricating?
I don't get it.
I wanted to share with you guys my experience and some things I've noticed. I know that there are so many long time mma fans here majority that know more, have more actual experience, love it more than myself.
I'm not trying to come off as some know it all.
Please just try to find something amusing from my post that may have been overlooked back then or not interesting then but is now in retrospect. All I was trying to do was get some good mma convo going that's all don't hate.
D241 -
Fugazi-you had me until you said you had a good conversation with Carlos.
Any idea who commentated with Goldberg?
My wife was doing some good commenting.
The prelims were held in a small bar inside MGM,btw. Nowhere near as crowded as they are now.
What else would you like to know?
edited because i meant weigh ins at the bar
How much were tickets then?
Any cool stories or tidbits from your experience I would like to read.
caposa -
Wow talk about on point. Anderson was actually listed at like 167 or 169 crazy.
Also Tanner/Sinosaic fight was lhw and they weighed like 196 and 198 something you'd never see at lhw today.
Now do the screenshot of the HW division Randy, Nog, Barnett, Coleman, Rizzo....