The History of the UFC: UFC XI: The Proving Ground
Posted by Matt McEwen on 06.25.2007
They have a new star in Mark Coleman and are coming off one of the their best events yet. So what could possibly go wrong with UFC XI? Well....
The first three quarters of 1996 had been up and down for the UFC. An entertaining David vs Goliath tournament had been followed with the awful Motor City Madness, which featured the worst SuperFight yet as Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn cured insomnia in the Octagon for 36 minutes. On the heels of their worst show ever, they came back with UFC X: The Tournament, which not only marked the return of the tournament to the event, but also the return of entertainment to it as well. Mark Coleman debuted and handed Don Frye his first defeat, in the process making him the best fighter in the world at this point.
It was with this background that the UFC returned to PPV on September 20th 1996, live from Augusta, Georgia with UFC XI: The Proving Ground. No SuperFight tonight, just the tournament. Mark Coleman returned to defend his new status, and Tank Abbott would return from a seven month suspension to try and win his first tournament.
Of course, this being the UFC and late 1996, the whole story is not just taking place in the Octagon. As we approached the end of 1996, the political pressures against the UFC were working overtime. Main UFC opponent John McCain made his infamous - and massively over quoted - "human cockfighting" line around this time, and was putting pressure on the governors of all 50 states to ban the UFC, as well as pressuring PPV providers to drop the event from their schedules.
In this climate, it became even more important than ever to deliver a great event in order to keep the slowly dwindling fan base happy and thus keep profits high for the PPV companies, and thus ensure continued distribution. The question was though, with all the ups and downs we had seen IN the Octagon throughout 1996 so far, was could they deliver?
UFC XI: The Proving Ground
Of course the big story that the UFC wants to push with the opening is the return of Tank Abbott from his suspension, along with his potential match up with newly crowned king of the UFC, former Olympic wrestler Mark Coleman. The bracket is set up to almost make this a foregone conclusion in the finals, but of course anything can happen when two men step into the Octagon.
The show is emanating from the Civic Center in Augusta, Georgia, as the UFC continues it's politically dictated Deep South tour. The building looks good on TV though, and a big crowd of 4500 people are on hand.
Bruce Beck welcomes us as usual, and hypes up the potential Abbott/Coleman final, while making only passing mention of any other competitors. Jeff Blatnick is in the locker room of Mark Coleman, who is more confident entering his second competition. Since the ground and pound worked so well last time, he has no intention of changing his game plan this time around. A good though, but also a harbinger of his issues that would arise in 1997. On the topic of Tank, he does not believe the big man has the skills to hang with him on the ground, which is where they will end up if the fight happens.
For his part, Tank is chit chatting with the returning Don Wilson, but is not his usual gregarious self. He does say that he will no longer be listed as a "pit fighter" which he says was a made up discipline. Honestly, I'm a bit shocked that of the two, Coleman was the more interesting interview.
As usual, before the PPV there were two prelim fights to determine substitutes in case a fighter in the main draw gets injured. In those fights, big Scott Ferrozzo (0-1) got his first win in the Octagon, defeating Sam Fulton (0-0). Brazilian Roberto Traven (0-0) had a successful debut against Dave Berry (0-0) with a quick win.
1st Round
Mark Coleman (3-0) vs Julian Sanchez (0-0)
Sanchez is the bigger man here, standing 6'3 and weighing 300lbs, and they say he will be looking for submissions. Blatnick makes a great crack about his size, saying that judging by the look of him, he hasn't been training very long, which is a nice way of saying he is fat. I am willing to be more blunt about it - Sanchez is one of the most out of shape competitors we have seen in a while. He is fighting in a t shirt, so I can not give an accurate breast size, but I would say we are at least dealing with a large B cup.
Coleman, as usual, is anything but fat. The same could be said about Kevin Randleman, who is working Coleman's corner and will become a player in the UFC heavyweight division in about after this event.
Rich "G-Man" Goins is back, much to my chagrin. Buffer did such a good job in his debut, and they go back to this annoying bugger. While he is announcing, you can see Ken Shamrock over his shoulder at ringside. I had thought that given his awful fights and the growing financial issues the UFC was facing that his loss to Severn would have been his last, but I guess not. Also during the announcements, we find out that Kevin Randleman may have given himself whiplash checking out the ring card girl.
As for the fight, Coleman comes out, throws a jab, shoots for a double leg and gets the takedown, mounts, lands a few punches, transitions to a head crank and gets the tap out victory. It took 44 seconds and was even more one sided than I made it sound.
Sanchez did not belong in there at all.
Reza Nasari (0-0) vs Brian Johnston (1-1)
Nasari is an Iranian Greco-Roman wrestler who looks strong but a little small at only 5'11, 205. Blatnick says that he is a very strong wrestler, so I will take his word on that.
Johnston looked strong in his debut at UFC X, and has added 10lbs of muscle to his already ripped physique. They mention that he now works full time as an instructor at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, and trains under Javier Mendez. That makes Johnston the first of many AKA competitors in the UFC, as AKA is of course still one of the most successful MMA schools in the world.
Once the fight begins, Nasari closes immediately and wants to shoot for a takedown. He eats a knee on his first attempt and ends up in the clinch with the larger Johnston. A pretty judo throw later, and Johnston is mounted and raining down blows until Big John McCarthy jumps in and stops the fight. McCarthy may have jumped in a little vigorously however, as he shoulders Johnston in the nose and busts it open. He apologizes for cracking him, but Johnston is none too happy. When the only damage done to you in a fight comes from the ref, though, you know you just had a pretty successful fight.
Blatnick makes the interesting observation of what Coleman would be thinking seeing Johnston handle a good wrestler so easily, as they will meet in what could be a very good second round fight.
Tank Abbott (3-2) vs Sam Adkins (2-1)
Tank comes in at his heaviest ever, weighing nearly 300lbs. That is a lot of extra beer in that belly of his. If anyone out there is a Trailer Park Boys fan, lets just say that Tank could probably take out Randy in a cheeseburger eating contest at this point. In contrast, Adkins looks much better than he did when he debuted in Puerto Rico, having firmed up and added some muscle to his frame.
Interesting note as this seems to be a night of soon to be famous corner men, as Tito Ortiz comes out with Tank.
In his pre fight interview, Tank said he would not stand with the former pro boxer, and he was not lying as he gets a takedown right off the bat. He moves into side control with Adkins up against the fence. He has Tank's head caught for a while, but it eventually gets free. Tank patiently waits until he is able to get some space to throw punches and does land a few. Wilson mention how Tank made Steve Jennum tap out by cranking his head against the fence, and before Blatnick can disagree with him, Adkins does the same. He was aided by a forearm over his throat, but it was still an ugly way to end the fight.
This also ends Adkins UFC career, but not his MMA career, as he has taken fights as recently as 2006. His record now stands at 7-18-2, with losses to Ken Shamrock, Edwin Dewees, Gan McGee, Dan Severn, Bobby Hoffman and Ricco Rodriguez.
Fabiano Gurgel (0-0) vs Jerry Bohlander (1-1)
From two big heavyweights, we move on to a fight featuring the two smallest men in the competition, as both guys are weighing 200lbs here and look like they could easily make 185 or 170 if weight divisions existed.
Gurgel is a BJJ fighter who comes into the fight in good shape. He is trained by Roberto Traven, who won a prelim fight earlier in the night. They say he is not much of a striker, and will be looking to take the fight to the ground quickly.
Bohlander will not mind having the fight there either, as he is skilled at submissions.
They get into the clinch almost immediately, with Gurgel working Bohlander against the fence. Bohlander grabs hold of the fence as that is still legal at this point in order to stay on his feet. Gurgel ends up taking his back, but Bohlander spins and ends up using a whizzer for the takedown. Gurgel gains guard quickly, but Bohlander pulls away and lands a big punch to Gurgel's head. He kicks at the downed Gurgel, which he gets warned for from McCarthy. That means it is either illegal to kick a downed opponent - a rule they did not tell us about - or illegal to kick with wrestling shoes on - which they also did not tell us about. You've got to love early UFC, as not even they know what their rules are.
Back on their feet after the foul, they exchange punches and Bohlander gets a cut opened up on his forehead. They clinch again and this time Gurgel is able to get the takedown and works out of the half guard. He eventually mounts, but Bohlander immediately reverses and gains the top position. Very nice move by Bohlander against an experienced BJJ competitor.
They stay in this position for the rest of the fight. Bohlander is somewhat active on the top, but Gurgel's defense does not allow anything to land for the most part. By today's standard this would be restarted, but not in 1996. With the exception of a single armbar attempt by Gurgel, the last 7 minutes of the fight or so are in this position.
Bohlander wins a unanimous decision in and easy fight to score, even if it was bit boring.
2nd Round
Mark Coleman (4-0) vs Brian Johnston (2-1)
It should be interesting to see if McCarthy busting up Johnston's nose plays any factor in this fight.
He comes straight out in a very good defensive posture against the shoot as he squats down a bit. He also uses leg kicks to keep Coleman away from him. There is a rudimentary blueprint on how to beat Coleman here, but I don't think Johnston has the kickboxing and grappling skills to completely follow through on it.
After eating a couple of those leg kicks, Coleman shoots and ends up on top in Johnston's 1/2 guard. Coleman begins to pound now that he is on the ground, moving Johnston against the fence and using headbutts and big right hands to beat on him. Johnston rolls after taking a couple of shots and taps before he could take too much damage.
The dominance of the ground and pound style continues, as Coleman gets his second quick win of the night.
They show Coleman's mother in the crowd....it looks like she kept her eyes covered the entire fight.
There is a long delay before the next fight, first because Bohlander had very little time after the end of his fight. After a bit though, they announce that Bohlander has pulled out of the event, and that he will be replaced by Scott Ferrozzo, who ironically lost to Bohlander in his UFC debut. Big change in opponents for Abbott, who goes from fighting the smallest man in the tournament to having to deal with the only man bigger than him.
Overall, there is about 20 or 25 minutes before the next fight, during which we get to listen to Don Wilson talk about how he will step into the Octagon if the fans want to see it. It never happens, so I guess that they did not want to. Can not blame them on that one either.
Tank Abbott (4-2) vs Scott Ferrozzo (1-1)
Ferrozzo is led out by Don Frye, who is his manager and co-trainer at this point. As I mentioned, he is even bigger than Tank, weighing in at 350lbs, so conditioning could be a factor with these two in the Octagon.
They come out swinging right off the bat, but end up clinched against the cage. They get loose, and more wild swinging, with Ferrozzo surprisingly getting the best of it, though he does get a cut opened up over his right eye. Up against the fence, Tank lands a couple of shots to which Ferrozzo replies "Fuck you." Classy.
Ferrozzo has his back to the fence with Tank holding the cage to keep him there, and starts to land some knees to the body which are hurting Tank. They work of the cage finally, and Ferrozzo gets the best of the exchanges again, using dirty boxing to nail Tank with a few shots. McCarthy stops the fight to look at Ferrozzo's cut, but they let it go.
They start swinging off the restart, and yet again Ferrozzo gets the best of it. Tank wants to clinch again, and puts Ferrozzo up against the fence. The crowd is not happy about it. They stay in this position - Tank doing nothing but holding Ferrozzo in place, Ferrozzo landing knees and rabbit punches - for about 8 minutes or so, until McCarthy finally restarts them with a bit more than 2 minutes remaining.
This time, Ferrozzo pushes Tank against the fence, but Tanks spins, and we spend the rest of regulation in the customary position.
Onto the OT period, and you will be shocked how it goes. The both throws bombs to start, then Tank clinches and holds Ferrozzo against the fence until time runs out. Trust me, it is not as exciting as it sounds.
Ferrozzo is the easy choice as winner of the fight, being the aggressor in all positions and doing the most damage. Tank looked very tired and out of shape. He would later say that he had been planning on fighting the smaller Bohlander and had not trained to fight someone as big as Ferrozzo and was just not able to do much against him. For his part, Ferrozzo says that Tank built a reputation fighting nobodies and could not do much against him, since he is a somebody.
So, now they go into time killer mode, as there is no buffer fight before the finals. Another joy of these early UFC events - disorganization. Even if both semi finals only took 3 minutes or so, you would still have a considerable wait for them to be ready for the finals. Here, we get an interview bonanza.
First up is Don Frye. He says he had a bad night against Coleman, and looks forward to a rematch at the next event, the second Ultimate Ultimate. They are scheduled to be on the same side of the bracket, so a rematch would have to happen in the semi finals. I say scheduled, because Coleman ends up out of the tournament and in a SuperFight against Dan Severn. Frye also says he would love to take on Mike Tyson. I get the feeling the UFC brass was desperate to get Tyson into the Octagon. In his only smart career move, Tyson thought better of it.
Next up is Ken Shamrock, who is really excited. Read that with sarcasm. I've heard more excited dead people. He will be fighting at the Ultimate Ultimate in the tournament. That has worked so well for him before.....I'll say he has one fight and pulls out if he wins. At least he knows that the fight he had with Severn was awful. He finally gets a bit animated when talking about Tank Abbott, who will be on his side of the draw.
At this point, they announce that Ferrozzo is out due to exhaustion, and that Roberto Traven will take his place in the finals. The only problem with that is that a few minutes later, they announce that Traven broke his hand and can not fight, so Mark Coleman wins the tournament by forfeit. Pretty anti-climatic to say the least.
The 411: This is a hard show to give an overall opinion on. Several quick, easy fights, two longer fights which are not the most exciting in history, lots of time killing and no finals. If I had paid the money for the PPV back in 1996, I would have been very upset. I can only imagine how upset the PPV companies were, given the climate and the amount of dissatisfied customers there must have been.
I almost want to give the show an incomplete, but the disorganization really makes this show hard to watch, as it almost becomes a UFC talk show at times instead of an actual event. Definitely not what they needed here as the political heat only continued to grow against them. Angry fans not buying PPV's would make it easy for the providers to give into the political pressures themselves, which in the end would make the next event - The Ultimate Ultimate 1996 - the last UFC available to a wide audience for five years. Would they go to the underground with a bang or a whimper?
