History of the UFC: UFC II - No Way Out
Posted by Matt McEwen on 04.09.2007
It's four months after the first UFC and Royce Gracie is back to defend his title. Will he do it? Will his competiton be any better? Will the announcing still be horrendous? Matt McEwen continues his look back at UFC's past with UFC II.
Welcome back for week two of The History of the UFC as we continue to take a look back at how the UFC grew into the behemoth it is today.
Before we get onto UFC II though, some people have been nice enough to fill in some remaining blanks from UFC I.
Joe Burtner filled me in on several things. Firstly, that Pat Smith won the Sabaki, not Savake, Challenge, which is a full contact karate event which allows all kicks, but punches only to the body. Secondly, that Zane Frazier suffered an asthma attack in his fight with Kevin Rosier, which explains the seemingly quick turn of events in that fight. And finally, he let me know that if Bill Wallace ever reads what I said about his announcing, he is more than capable of making me very sorry for it. Wallace was the top middleweight full contact karate fighter in the 1970's, earning the nickname Thunderfoot for his 60 mph leg kick. He's still a horrible announcer though.
Also, the commercial copy of UFC I which I used for the review skips one of the funniest parts of the whole show. Esteemed martial arts author/journalist John Corcoran emailed to tell me:
"You forgot to cite one other important highlight: the riot that broke out in the audience during the fights. Chairs and bodies were flying everywhere, and the obviously inexperienced TV director even ordered one camera shot where Wallace and Brown were cringing in fear of being hit by a flying chair from behind them."
He also let me know that the main impetus behind the Gracie's creation of the UFC was that they had more or less run out of takers on their private challenge matches, and used this as a more lucrative way to call out the best they could get.
Thanks to everyone who's helping out filling in the UFC's back story.
UFC II: No Way Out
It's March 11th, 1994 and we are once again live from Denver, Colorado. If anyone knows why the first two events were held in Denver, I'd love to know. I'm assuming that it's because it's one of the few states that would allow the event, but if anyone knows different, let me know. Back to the show. The event is not taking place at the McNichol's Sports Arena this time, but rather the smaller Mammoth Gardens. I guess drawing 2800 people to a 16, 000 or 17,000 capacity arena made them think down sizing was a good idea. As far a production point of view, it makes almost no difference really. They never really did any wide angle shots last time - I guess have an arena 75% empty will do that.
We open with a voice over from ring announce Rich Goins, telling us that once again, there are no rules. Just to be different this time, they don't contradict that at all throughout the show like they did last time, which is nice. After running through the events of November- which was the greatest event ever according to Rich - we get updated on what we'll see different tonight.
There are three major changes. There will be no rounds this time. Since no fights went longer than five minutes or so last time, I would guess they saw no reason to add needless details to the proceedings. No rounds means no judges, but I'm pretty sure that was the same last time, so I guess it's really only two changes. The biggest difference is that it has gone from an eight man tournament to a sixteen man tournament. The winner will have to fight four times instead of three, adding further importance to the conditioning factor.
Our announce crew is up next and - THANK GOD - Bill Wallace has been replaced as the play by play man by Brian Kilmeade, who did the post fight interviews last time. Jim Brown is along for the ride once again. Brown seems to be getting the hang of the sport pretty quick: "If you don't know how to fight on the floor, don't come out here." Thirteen years later, and that still holds true - just ask Antoni Hardonk. Kilmeade says that Brown was up at 4 AM for Good Morning America promoting the event. I'd love to see how that interview went as I can just imagine how horrified the mainstream media was at this point.
The third man in the booth tonight is Ben Perry, a Hollywood stunt man with some impressively bad hair. I know it's thirteen years ago, but I can not imagine that ever being a good look. Perry shows that he loves the underdog by picking Royce Gracie to win the tournament tonight.
Finally, our in ring interviewer is Herb Perez, the 1992 Olympic Tae Kwon Do gold medalist. Perez is the first to coin the term "The Octagon", as it was never referred to as such at UFC I. As best as I can tell, this is Perez's only useful moment of the night.
Next up are the brackets, and seven fights have already taken place prior to the broadcast.
1st Round Matches
Scott Morris (0-0 in UFC competition) vs Sean Daugherty (0-0)
This was a quick twenty second win for Morris, as he caught Daugherty in a guillotine. Talking about this fight leads to one of the funniest lines ever spoken by Perry: "Morris is a ninja. We don't know a lot about him, because he is a ninja."
Pat Smith (0-1) vs Terry Johnson (0-0)
Smith shows that he's been training a few new strategies over the past four months by taking out Johnson in under a minute with a guillotine.
Johnny Rhodes (0-0) vs David Levicki (0-0)
Rhodes wins the longest fight in UFC history at this point, by making Levicki submit to strikes in just over twelve minutes.
Frank Hamaker (0-0) vs Thaddeus Luster (0-0)
Hamaker wins by submission in about five minutes.
Orlando Weit (0-0)vs Robert Lucarelli (0-0)
Weit wins when Lucarelli's corner throws in the towel near the three minute mark. This is the only match that they later show highlights of, and it is BRUTAL. The end begins when Weit nails Lucarelli with a knee to the face while Lucarelli is on his knees, a move now illegal in UFC competition. Weit thinks it's over and starts to walk away, but Lucarelli isn't totally out of it yet, so Weit comes back and lands four devastating elbows to the back of Lucarelli's head - also now illegal - before the corner throws in the towel.
Remco Parddel (0-0) vs Alberta Cerra Leon (0-0)
This one goes about ten minutes, with Parddel winning by submission to an arm bar.
Jason Delucia (1-0) vs Scot Baker (0-0)
Delucia won an opening preliminary fight at UFC I, so he actually won the first ever UFC match up. Here, he takes about six minute to dispatch Baker by submission to strikes.
This leaves only one first round match to be shown as the opening fight of the PPV, and it features our defending champion.
Royce Gracie (3-0) vs Minoki Ichihara (0-0)
They hype this up as being potentially the best fight of the night, and what many had hoped would be the finals. The first round was drawn at random, and this fight got a lot of "oooohs" and "ahhhhhs" when it was announced.
Ichihara is out first, and he's actually a bit smaller than Gracie, which is a rare occurrence. He is also wearing a full gui, which has got to be the worst idea possible against Gracie. We get a video intro to Ichihara, and we learn he is a second degree black belt in karate and has won over sixty bare knuckle fights, making him a local legend in Tokyo. He tells us, through non-intimidating voice over interpreter, that he may be small of body, but is big of spirit, so he can win. He came to this event for the chance to fight Royce.
Royce is out, led to the ring by his entire family. There's even small children around this time. Perry tells us that Royce is routinely training with 600lbs & 700lbs guys. OK, if you say so.
Royce's intro video starts with a lot of guys tapping. A man of few words, Royce is here to defend his title.
Rich "G-Man" Goins - their nickname, not mine - does the in ring intro's and we're about to get under way. In the background, unannounced, is the UFC debut of the iconic "Big" John McCarthy.
The fight starts with Royce taking the center of the octagon. He gets a quick takedown, and I think we all know it's just a matter of time for Ichihara at this point. Throughout the fight, Perry shows that he is pretty knowledgeable about Royce's game plan, as he is apparently a student of his. One of Perry's tidbits is that Royce only wants to win by choke out as arm bars just are not as exciting. Under modern day rules, this fight would have been stood up fairly quickly, but Royce is content to ride on top of Ichihara for a while until he is able to isolate an arm and rolls into a textbook arm bar for the tap out victory. The crow actually thought Ichihara had reversed Royce, and cheered wildly. I guess Perry would have to say he settled for the arm, but he actually seems convinced it was a choke. I will go out on a limb and guess he was not Royce's top student. Once they do figure out it was an arm bar, they are certain that it's broken. Let's just say it's unlikely.
Before the start of the second round, we're told the Hamaker is out due to injury, and he will be replaced in the tournament by Fred Ettish. Kilmeade shows how much research he's done by being utterly confused by how to say "Shorin-Ryu", which is Ettish's discipline of karate. In a stroke of genius that will not fully reveal it's glaring problems for another event or two, Ettish did not have a fight before entering the tournament as an alternate, instead coming in fresh against Johnny Rhodes, who had fought a twelve minute fight in the first round.
After the highlights of the Weit fight, we get a simplified breakdown of the "Five Families" of fighting. There is Karate, Kickboxing, Kung Fu, Grappling (which encompasses wrestling - there has not been much of that yet - jiu jitsu and sambo) and Exotics such as ninjitsu. I can imagine how great these explanations would go over today.
Second Round
Scott Morris (1-0) vs Pat Smith (1-1)
Morris is decked out in a fashionable black jogging pants ensemble, while Smith is wearing shorts that wouldn't be out of place on a fighter today. I guess he was embarrassed by his loss to Shamrock, as "Redemption '94" is written on his shorts. Both are bigger guys (6'0, 208lbs for Morris and 6'2, 220lbs for Smith) and will be looking to throw a bit. Before that though, we have to see the ever present video packages.
Morris is representing Robert Bussey's Warrior International and he came to win. Now, is that really a good name of a place that trains ninjas? This is also Morris' very first full contact event.
Smith is back for more and he has worked on his grappling since November. Nice to see it looks like he took a grammar class or two as well.
Morris rushes right at Smith to start the fight. Bad idea. Smith clinches, and as Morris tries a throw, he shifts his weight and lands on top in the mount position. He lands some brutal blows and Morris is out. His corner throws the towel in as Big John does not have the authority to stop the fight. It is over in about twenty seconds and Smith is on to the semi finals. Morris, on the other hand, looks to be on to the hospital as he falls three times just trying to stand up.
Perry gives some good, basic knowledge on what to do if an opponent has mounted position on you. Strange that an announcer would take the time to figure this out, while most of the competitors decided not to.
Johnny Rhodes (1-0) vs Fred Ettish (0-0)
Rhodes is 39 years old and is coming off a twelve minute first round match. Ettish is fresh as a daisy.
Ettish makes his way out and let's just say he is not a scary looking guy. Creepy looking, but definitely not scary looking.
This fight is just plain ugly. They square off to start - Rhodes in a boxing stance, Ettish in a karate stance. Ettish has his left hand held low, and sure enough Rhodes puts him down with two straight right hands. Ettish throws some feeble looking leg kicks from the ground as Perry perfectly explains how he should try and get up. Bad hair aside, I like Perry. Meanwhile, Rhodes lands a huge down punch and Ettish rolls to his stomach. Ettish is gushing blood and covering up ineffectually. Today, this would be an easy ref stoppage, but that is unfortunately not an option. Rhodes does not have good submission skills, but he does eventually lock in a weak choke that Ettish taps to.
On a funny note, there is an online petition to Zuffa to give Ettish another chance in the Octagon. He claims that up until ten minutes before the fight he was a backstage gopher and was not prepared to fight. I'd say he's a bit embarrassed in taking the most one sided, sustained beating in the UFC up to this point.
Orlando Weit (1-0) vs Remco Parddel (1-0)
Parddel, at 6'4 260lbs, is considerably larger than Weit, who is 5'10 and 170lbs. Weit is absolutely ripped though. Pardell is a judo and jiu jitsu expert who is trained by UFC I finalist Gerard Gourdeau, while Weit is a Muay Thai world champion.
Pardell, in full gui, controls the center of the octagon to start until Weit closes the distance and tries to hop on Pardell's back. A quick judo toss later and Weit is on his back, while Pardell is laying on top of him, making a crucifix position. Perry mentions that Weit is too quick and clever to stay in this position for very long. I get the feeling they had hopes of making Weit a star, but Pardell ends those plans with an elbow that stuns Weit, another one that knocks him out, and four more that probably gave him a concussion. I really hope they give the ref the ability to stop the fights soon, as some of these finishes are just plain ugly. I can see why some people were up in arms about these fights at the time.
Post fight, Parddel says he did not expect to win at all. He definitely gets honesty points.
Jason Delucia (2-0) vs Royce Gracie (4-0)
We're told this is the second time these two have met, as Delucia took up a Gracie family challenge and lasted all of five minutes two years ago.
Delucia cuts the distance to start the fight, but Royce calmly pulls guard, scoots out the right side and takes the mount and gets a nice head crank. Just like Ichihara, it looks like Delucia gets a reversal, and the crowd cheers until Delucia taps to the arm bar he got caught in while the announcers wonder what is going on. Big John is out of position and Delucia is tapping for about ten seconds before Royce is pulled off. Once again, the announcers are certain the arm is broken.
Semi-Finals
Pat Smith (2-1) vs Johnny Rhodes (2-0)
The announcers consensus is that this will be an easy victory for Smith. Let's see if they get this one right.
Both guys are hesitant to engage right off the bat, but eventually Smith muscles Rhodes up against the fence. After a head butt, he locks in a guillotine and the fight is over in about a minute or so. A quick, impressive win for Smith as he makes his way to the finals.
After the fight, they ask Smith why his fights have been short. "Easy opponents. It took the #1 shoot fighter in the world to beat me last time....No one can take me down." Nice to see his ego is in check. Kilmeade wonders when his confidence could become an issue. Brown: "When he meets Gracie."
Remco Parddel (2-0) vs Royce Gracie (5-0)
If Pardell didn't expect to beat Weit, he can't be hoping for too much here. As Royce makes his way out, Perry tells us that the "R" in his name is pronounced like an "H". I'm pretty sure most people picked up on that by now. For the second introduction in a row, "The G-Man" tells us that Royce is the defending "Ultimate Fighting Champion Champion."
Just like the first semi final, they're hesitant to engage at the start. Royce eventually shoots, and grabs the much larger Parddel around the waist. Parddel tries hard to stay up, but Royce eventually trips him down and takes his back. He grabs at Parddel's gui, and actually has it up under his chin, but can't see from his vantage point. Parddel defends well by grabbing the wrist of Royce's gui and controlling the wrist that way. This is pretty much a Brazilian jiu jitsu match at this point. Parddel taps when Royce finally cinches in the gui assisted choke. Royce is on to the finals to defend his championship. This fight was a bit of an eye opener as even though Royce had dominated the UFC to this point, this showed that he could be dominant against someone who actually also knew jiu jitsu.
Perry tells us a Gracie family motto - "Everyone is the same size in a swimming pool." I think I get his point, but that is one weird analogy.
Before the finals, we get a few words from the one man who has fought both Pat Smith and Royce Gracie - Ken Shamrock. It looks like he broke his hand and could not compete, but was in Denver taking in the event. He thinks the quality of competitors has gotten a lot better this time, and I really can't argue with him there. His money is on Royce in the finals, but thinks it could be a good fight. He still wants that rematch with Royce though. I can hardly wait myself.
The subject of Smith's ground game comes up, and they question Perry about whether he could have learned enough in four months to compete with Royce on the ground. Perry shows his intelligence by saying that the best way to teach a man nothing is to show him everything. If Smith has been learning solid basics, Perry believes he should have some defense against Royce's ground game. Immediately after making an intelligent comment like that, Perry makes me think he's a tool by going several steps to far and suggesting that Smith might actually be able to be dangerous to Royce on the ground. I'm certainly not as confident in Smith as Perry is, but it's a good point none the less.
Finals
Pat Smith (3-1) vs Royce Gracie (6-0)
We get another video of Royce during his entrance, where we learn that Gracie jiu jitsu has gone undefeated for 65 years. I could swear they announced Royce as having a 55-1 record last time, leading me to believer there might be some exaggeration going on here. We are also told that the prize money has been upped to $60,000 from $50,000 this time.
Big John gets them started, though I can't make out if he's using his trademarked "Let's get it on" or not. Smith is very cautious and slowly inches closer to Royce He tries for a kick and gets caught in a clinch with Royce, who quickly takes him down. Smith has a half guard, but Royce quickly passes and mounts. Smith taps VERY quickly to a few punches. Big John doesn't see it, so the towel gets thrown in.
The entire Gracie family is in to celebrate with Royce, but they also all go over to Smith to congratulate him on his performance. While it's common place now, it's really the first time I've seen that kind of appreciation shown. In a funny moment, Perry points out that if Smith hadn't tapped to the punches, Royce was about to choke him out. Knowledge aside, I'm starting to think Perry might have a bit of a choke out fetish.
Royce promises to be back at UFC III, where he's hoping for some better "tough" guys for competition. You know what they say - be careful what you wish for.......
The 411: This is definitely a step up in quality from UFC I. Better, more skilled competitors who actually seemed to have trained specifically for the UFC make for better fights and a more competitive feel, as opposed to the spectacle atmosphere that surrounded the original. That spectacle feeling is certainly still there, and will be for a few more years at least, but this at least a step in the right direction.
The debut of Big John and actually referring to the octagon as "The Octagon" makes it feel a little more "UFC-like" for lack of a better term. Even with McCarthy in the Octagon though, the refereeing - or more to the point, the rules - is a glaring weak point of the events. At least three of the finishes were just plain ugly, and under later rules would have ended quicker when the referee intervened. The two finishes involving Weit - one with him dishing out the punishment, and one with him taking it - stand out particularly brutal, though oddly enough the Smith KO of Morris seems to be stuck in people's memories more.
One important factor in MMA that began to grow out of this event stems from Smith making it to the finals. The need to cross train had become evident, and the success of those who did only reinforced the notion. While he couldn't hang on the ground with Royce, Smith the striker used a guillotine to win two fights and some basic grappling to win another, helping start a trend that continues even today.
Business-wise, the event was another PPV success for WOW and SEG. Also, given turn around times in the early 90's, VHS revenue from UFC I would likely be starting to pour in as well,giving the UFC a solid financial base to grow on. Rocky times were ahead, but at this point things were going well.
In a funny note, they were forced to delete the "No Way Out" subtitle from this event when the WWF trademarked it for an event of their own.
So Gracie's dominance continues as we roll into UFC III: The American Dream, which we'll take a look at next week.
