Black Tiger MMA Review: UFC 7: The Brawl In Buffalo - 9.8.95

Posted by Mike Campbell on 02.18.2010

Shamrock and Taktarov disappoint, but there's good stuff too!

UFC 7: THE BRAWL IN BUFFALO
September 8, 1995

It’s been one year since UFC 3, but a lot has gone down in the world of Ultimate Fighting since then, so let’s recap.

- Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock finally had their long awaited rematch, which ended in a draw. The fight itself was one of the first major disappointments in the UFC in regards to a fight living up to the hype. Had that fight happened today (assuming that the UFC agreed to one round fight) it’d have been an easy 10-9 Shamrock. But since this was before judges were introduced they fought for about thirty minutes and it was ruled a draw.

- The UFC introduced it’s first title so to speak, The UFC Superfight Title. At UFC 6, Ken Shamrock fought UFC 5 winner Dan Severn in a Superfight and came out the winner. Now that they had a title, the UFC had something to base the tournament off other than prize money, the policy became that the tournament winner would challenge for the title at the following event.

- Royce Gracie left the UFC after the Shamrock fight. If anyone reading this hasn’t done so, I’d highly recommend picking up the great book “Brawl.” There are some great stories about the early days of the UFC, when the Gracie family were part owners, that talk about how they tried to fix things a bit to make it easier on Royce to win.

- UFC was picking up a lot of steam and popularity, several other UFC fighters, such as Tank Abbott, Dan Severn, Oleg Taktarov, and Keith Hackney had become quite popular, so the UFC was no longer being carried on Royce’s back. Don “The Dragon” Wilson was now part of the announce team and Michael Buffer was the ring announcer (or is that Octagon announcer?).

PAUL VARELANS vs. GERRY HARRIS
Varelans was last seen in UFC 6 getting beaten stupid by Tank Abbott. Varelans pushes Harris into the fence and then takes him to the mat, Varelans works his way into a back mount and starts throwing punches to the back of the head. Harris won’t give it up, so Varelans switches to elbows and Harris taps out.

MARK HALL vs. HAROLD HOWARD
They start off on their feet trading shots and then go to the mat. Howard gets the top position, but Hall still manages to hit a couple of good shots to Howard’s face, one of which bloodies him up really good. Hall also makes no bones about going after Howard’s hair. Hall gets the top position and continues to throw fists, and after trying several times to mount any kind of defense, Howard gives it up. I’m probably going to date myself horribly with this reference, but Hall’s small stature, his speed and considerable skills remind me of Fei Long from Street Fighter.

REMCO PARDOEL vs. RYAN PARKER
Remco was last seen at UFC 2 utterly destroying Orlando Weit with one of the most vicious knockouts that you’ll find anywhere. Remco tries to take down Parker, but Parker shows some good defense, and Remco uses a judo hip throw to take him down. Remco is able to get a crucifix position and hit some unprotected punches, which that would have probably ended the fight today, but Parker sucks it up and frees his arm. Remco uses his weight and lays on Parker to tire him out and then slips his hand over for an over/under choke and Parker taps.

MARCO RUAS vs. LARRY CURETON
Ruas picks up Cureton and slams him straight away, Cureton tries to roll over to get top position, but Ruas blocks it. Cureton does eventually roll over, but Ruas puts him right into an arm triangle and makes sure to keep the gap closed to prevent Cureton from striking him. Cureton breaks the arm triangle with a couple of shots to the ribs. Cureton tries to get to his feet, but Ruas traps his leg, takes him down, and submits him with a heel hook.

PAUL VARELANS vs. MARK HALL
Varelans tries to charge in at all, but runs into a shot to the face. Varelans takes Hall to the mat with a headlock and segues into the top position. Varelans uses his weight advantage to keep Hall pinned down. Varelans gets Hall in a keylock for the submission. The David vs. Goliath aspect of the fight was cool, although Varelans was able to finish Hall off before he could do any real damage. Koji Kitao, a former Sumo Yokozuna, wouldn’t be so lucky when he fought Hall.

MARCO RUAS vs. REMCO PARDOEL
They dance for a second and Ruas seems to charge right into a guillotine choke, but doesn’t give it up nor is he choked out. After a couple of minutes, it’s revealed that Ruas managed to slip his arm under his neck to protect himself. Ruas is unable to break the grip, so he starts stomping at Remco’s feet to take him off balance. On the mat, Ruas gets Remco’s foot for an apparent ankle lock, but isn’t able to put it on. They sit there, throwing a few strikes at each other, and then Remco escapes Ruas’ grip, but Ruas quickly gets a side mount and throws a few knees into his body. Ruas transitions into a top mount and Remco taps out before Ruas can unload on him. Fights like this are why I’m such a big fan of MMA. No, there isn’t always a ton of action, but watching Ruas and Remco technique was a real treat in itself.

An amusing little side note to the fight was that it was ruled that if they went the distance (twenty-minute time limit) then they’d both be eliminated and Varelans would fight an alternate in the finals, so the UFC hadn’t quite learned their lesson from the Steve Jenum fiasco.

KEN SHAMROCK © vs. OLEG TAKTAROV (UFC Superfight Title)
This is the second of the three legendarily bad Superfights that involve Ken Shamrock (the other two being the Gracie fight from UFC 5 and the Severn fight from UFC 9). Honestly, I don’t think it’s as bad as the Severn fight, but it’s not pretty by any stretch. This seems to have the makings to be a good fight, Shamrock’s mat skills at the time were very well known as Taktarov was a Sambo champion, so this had potential be a great exhibition of ground skills. Instead what we get is a case of getting what you put in, and neither of them wanting to be the first to make a deposit. They go to the mat and Taktarov gets Shamrock in his guard and they trade punches, that’s the whole fight in a nutshell. Taktarov gets opened up on his eye a bit, and Big John stands them up several times, but it’s mostly just them in the guard throwing punches. There’s finally some action in the three minute overtime (supposed to be a five-minute OT, but I don’t think anyone complained too loudly about being shorted two minutes), when Shamrock attempts to actually win the fight on the mat, but time runs out.

This fight is a case where having read “Brawl” helps put some things into perspective. First off, this fight was marred by politics because Shamrock was booked for Pancrase during this time, and UFC and Pancrase reached a deal where Shamrock could work UFC and Taktarov would work for Pancrase. Then, UFC tried to weasel out of the deal by saying that Taktarov was exclusive to UFC and wouldn’t go to Pancrase. So, Pancrase told UFC where to stick it and pulled Shamrock, and then they kissed and made up. Shamrock has also admitted that he didn’t think he could take Oleg on the ground, so his goal was to win by KO.

Does it make this fight any less boring? No, but it does put some things into perspective about it. Thankfully, this mess resulted in the UFC using judges to decide the outcome in the event of a draw.

MARCO RUAS vs. PAUL VARELANS
This is like the Ruas/Pardoel fight, in that it’s not all action, but it’s a good fight to watch and see how complete a fighter that Ruas really is. Unlike Pardoel, Varelans isn’t very adept on the ground, and while that means Ruas would quickly be able to win if they go to the ground, he’s not going to get there quickly like he did with Remco. So this fight is Ruas chopping down the big Polar Bear so he can finish him on the ground. Ruas starts with leg kicks and lands some really nasty ones. To his credit, Varelans tries to surprise him with a guillotine choke (and a great visual when the big man picks Ruas right up off the ground with it) but Ruas is too skills to be caught out that way, and he easily blocks the choke. Realizing that he’s pretty much SOL, Varelans only defense to keep on his feet is to grab the cage to stay on his feet, and Ruas neutralizes that with the same foot stomps that worked so well against Pardoel, and, like the leg kicks, he does manage to land a few especially brutal stomps. Big John separates them and restarts the fight when it’s clear that this isn’t going anywhere and Ruas goes right back to the leg kicks and finally takes Varelans down, he mounts and starts punching and Big John stops it.

The 411: The Superfight debacle leaves a decidedly bad taste, but, aside from that, this is quite the solid show. There are several good fights both an action standpoint and also a technical standpoint. Easy thumbs up for this show.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]