History of the UFC 06.16.08: UFC XLIII: Meltdown

Posted by Matt McEwen on 06.16.2008

The biggest trilogy in the history of the UFC gets under way as Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell do battle for the Light Heavyweight Title. Hey...what happened to that Ortiz fella?

So it' essentially exactly five years ago - June 6th 2003 - and the Octagon steps into the the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas to present UFC XLIII: Meltdown. We'll see if that will be prophetic for the main even, as Chuck Liddell goes head to head with former two time heavyweight champion Randy Couture for the interim light heavyweight title. I'll get into that more in a bit.

Good, strong undercard that features a mix of good potential action fights and a little nostalgia at the same time.

I've found that these reviews have been getting a bit long winded lately, so I'm going to try something a bit different this time. Let me know what you think if you like.

Mike Goldberg is back on commentary with Joe Rogan, which mercifully stops Phil Baroni from being inflicted on us again. Eddie Bravo has taken over the post fight interviews from the quasi hot blond chick who doesn't know anything about fighting, who now has moved over to interviewing people in the crowd.

OK....onto the fights....

Heavyweights

Tra Telligman
(6'2, 218lbs, 6-1, 1-1)

vs.

Pedro Rizzo
(6'2, 231lbs, 12-5, 7-5)

Rizzo comes into the fight as a loser of 4 of his last 5 fights. He's gone from being one of the top stars of the UFC to one of the most aggravating and enigmatic figures in the sport. His inability to show any life at all except for in counter punching. He's apparently been seeing a sports psychologist to fix that issue.

It shouldn't be an issue with Telligman, who comes forward all the time in his fights. These two originally met at UFC XX, and Telligman feels he has something to prove this time. With that in mind, we should be in store for a good slugfest.

The Fight

Here's my change up....no more blow by blow, round by round recaps. I'm just going to give you an idea of how the fight went.

In this case, the basics of it that Telligman went head hunting looking for the KO, which gave the counter punching Rizzo a reason to get his punches off. Telligman rocked him early, but Rizzo responded with some nice leg kicks that welted up Telligman's leg and really took the spring out of his step. The shocking part was when Rizzo actually took Telligman down in the second round and pounded on him with some elbows. On of those opened up a bad cut on Telligman's face, which eventually caused the fight to be stopped.

Rizzo wins, and gets another shot inside the Octagon, but remains on the "Lose and you're gone" precipice.

Winner: Pedro Rizzo, TKO (cuts)

Middleweights

Matt Lindland
(6', 185, 9-1, 6-1)

vs.

Falaniko Vitale
(5'10, 185lbs, 13-2)

So Lindland has been reduced to prelim fights as he is being considered as less than exciting at this point. He is being given the debuting Vitale as an opponent, who is 13-2 but stepping up his level of competition BIG time here.

The Fight

This one can be summed in one move. After having problems getting Vitale to the ground and ending up clinched against the fence, Lindland attempted a belly to belly throw, only he kind of forgot the throw part. Vitale adjusted his weight and came down on top of Lindland, who cracked his head falling straight back and knocked himself out. Considering he's one of the top guys in the world at this point, that's kind of disappointing.

Winner: Vitale, KO, Round 1

Lightweights

Yves Edwards
(5'10, 155lbs, 22-7, 2-2)

vs.

Eddie Ruiz
(5'7, 154lbs, 7-0)

Edwards started out 0-2 in the UFC, but is on one of the many upswings his career has had, winning his last two. He's got great stand up, helped by the reach advantage he has at this weight class, and his jiu jitsu is just as good. We'll see how 5 years have changed him against KJ Noons (I'm writing this on Saturday, and my money is on Edwards. GO BAHAMAS!). Here he's taking on the debuting Eddie Ruiz, who is a wrestler who trains with Tank Abbott. Trains with Tank Abbott? I was unaware that Tank Abbott trained. Go figure....

The Fight

The story of the fight is Edwards being better on his feet, better on the ground, better with submissions, better with takedown defense, better in the clinch......just plain better. But Ruiz is one tough little bastard. He takes a few shots the would knock most people cold, not to mention escaping having Edwards on his back three times and a TIGHT triangle. That being said, Edwards controls the fight from the opening minute and never lets up. He wins the unanimous decision 30-27 on all three cards, and Ruiz is classy in congratulating him. If there were a 155lbs title at this point, Edwards would be in line for it. Ruiz retired after this fight.

Winner: Yves Edwards, Unanimous Decision

Heavyweights

Frank Mir
(6'3, 248lbs, 5-1, 3-1)

vs.

Wes Simms
(6'10, 244lbs, 6-1)

Sims, trained by Mark Coleman and Kevin Randleman, is making his debut here, and the man is very tall, but with only 244lbs packed onto a 6'10 frame, he's kinda skinny. They sell that he is super strong, and we'll have to see. In his pre match interview, he's quite confident that his size alone should be enough to handle Mir.

Mir, on the other hand, is looking to get in line for a title shot, and beating the 6'10 Sims might get him in line for a shot at the similarly sized champ, Tim Sylvia.

The Fight

Sims attempts James Thompson's patented "'tard charge" and gets taken down right off the bat. His jiu jitsu defense is pretty weak, and Mir mounts, takes his back, back to mount....all around controlling him totally. He gets impatient going for a choke though, and rolls for an armbar. Sims shows that he is pretty strong by lifting Mir off the ground and dropping him down to get free.

Then he gets stupid.

He grabs the fence and, with Mir on his back at his feet, proceeds to stomp the shit out of Mir's face. That's illegal in the UFC, and if you ever wondered why that is, find this fight. It's brutal looking, and Mir is too groggy to continue - and his left eye starts to swell shut - so they stop the fight and disqualify Sims, who for a while seemed to think he had won the fight.

Post fight, Mir actually apologizes for not blocking the stomps. Classy guy.

Winner: Frank Mir, DQ

Heavyweights

Ian Freeman
(5'11, 220lbs, 14-6, 3-2)

vs.

Vernon White
(6'1, 208lbs, 20-25)

Freeman was supposed to be going up against Ken Shamrock, but a knee injury led to him being replaced in the fight by one of his Lion's Den pupils in White. They announce him as having an 11-6 record in MMA, but the 20-25 record includes his Pancrase competition.

Both these guys should really be fighting at 205, but Freeman stayed at HW to get a shot at Shamrock, while White probably just beefed up a bit in order to take this fight.

One fun note is that Freeman trains one month before a fight with Militech, and comes into the fight with Jeremy Horn in his corner. That's funny because he just won a 25 minute decision over White three weeks prior to this fight.

The Fight

This show is worth watching for this fight alone. Neither guy is an elite level fighter, but when you match two fighters of equal skill levels together, you sometimes end up with really good, even fights, and this is one of those cases. No break down would really do this justice, as these guys just go after it for three full rounds and leave nothing in the cage. Personally, I thought that White eked out each of the three rounds, and I scored it 30-27 for him. Rogan, Goldberg and Bravo all agree with that, but two of the judges did not. One scores it 30-27 for White (oddly enough, that one judge was Cecil Peoples), while one scored it 29-28 for Freeman (no way) and the other scores it 29-29. We end up with technical draw because some fool scored a round 10-10. Is that even allowed? It's BS even if it is.

Draw
Light Heavyweights

Vitor Belfort
(6', 203lbs, 10-3, 6-2)

vs.

Marvin Eastman
(5'9, 203lbs, 5-2)

Eastman comes out first, and is built like a tank. His main problem is the fact that, at just 5'9, he's going to be giving up a lot of reach to the bigger strikers in the 205lb division....like Belfort. "The Phenom" is making his second trip into the Octagon since his return, and if he looks as good as he did in losing to Chuck Liddell at UFC 37.5, he should be OK here.

The Fight

They size each other up for a bit, and it's apparent that Eastman wants to shoot. Only thing is, it's apparent to Belfort too, and he shrugs the shot off, grabs the Thai clinch and delivers a brutal knee. A flurry of punches later and McCarthy stops the fight.

Post fight, there's a huge cut over Eastman's right eye that looks like someone took a hatchet to his head. That is not an exaggeration. It's easily the worst looking cut I have ever seen.

And Belfort thanks God several times for changing his life. Now, if Belfort is a man of god, and Eastman were also a man of god, would that mean that Belfort prayed harder before the fight?

On a more serious note, this could put the resurgent Belfort in line for a title shot.

Winner: Belfort, KO

Heavyweights

Tank Abbott
(6', 251lbs, 8-8)

vs.

Kimo
(6'1, 248lbs, 7-3-1, 1-3)

Here's the nostalgia part of the show. This is Tank's second fight on his three fight return contract, while this is Kimo's first trip to the Octagon in five years. He had one fight in between, but it only lasted two minute. Two minutes in five years....against anyone else but Tank I'd say that would be an issue, but if Kimo can avoid the opening flurry and get the fight to the ground, he should be OK.

The Fight

Kimo gets the immediate takedown, he mounts, locks in a head and arm choke, and just waits for Tank to get smothered and tap. Not a technical masterpiece, but a submission in under two minutes is always fun. Not sure if he could handle anyone actually competitive in the heavyweight division though.

Winner: Kimo, Submission

Light Heavyweight Title

Chuck Liddell
(6'2, 205lbs, 12-1, 8-1)

vs.

Randy Couture
(6'2, 205lbs, 10-5, 7-2)

So here's the deal. Chuck has been the #1 contender unofficially for over two years, and officially since he beat Belfort at UFC 37.5. However, he hasn't gotten his shot at champion Tito Ortiz. Ortiz has claimed that it's because he and Chuck are friends - Liddell did train with Team Punishment for a while - while Chuck says he likes a lot of people, but he's willing to fight them all. Ortiz claimed injury in April to not fight, and entertainment commitments, whatever that means, to avoid the fight tonight.

That leaves us in this position. Hopeful to get things straightened out with Ortiz, the UFC didn't want to strip him of the title, but not knowing if he'd ever fight again, they needed to have a 205lb champion. The solution? Drop two time heavyweight champion Randy Couture - who spent his competitive wrestling career at 198lbs and below - down to light heavyweight where he won't have to deal with the behemoths that were giving him problems, and send him into he cage against Liddell to decide the "interim" champion. The "interim" tag would be removed if Tito never came back.

So Liddell comes in riding a 8 fight win streak, while Couture lost his previous two fights and comes in as a 3-1 underdog.

The Fight

You know when everyone says "You can never bet against Couture"? This is where that really took form. The 39 year old veteran comes out and decides to box Liddell. That's just retarded and completely not what people expected to see. Not only that, but Couture becomes the first man to literally manhandle Liddell and slams him to the mat hard in each of the first two rounds. At the end of the first, Couture was in control and by the end of the second, Liddell was noticabley frustrated that Couture was not only taking him down, but tagging him on their feet as well. Utterly shocking at the time to be honest.

The third round continues the trend of the previous two, but this time when Couture slammed him down, Liddell was unable to pop back up. Sensing a chance to finish the fight, Couture started pounding away with some heavy blows and the fight was stopped half way through the round.

Couture becomes the first man to win titles in two weight classes, and in the process cements his legend. Coming into the fight, Couture winning would have been surprising, but Couture winning the way he did was shocking.

Never bet against Couture, and the new champ tells Tito that if he wants the title, he'll have to step into the cage and try and take it.

Winner: Randy Couture, TKO

The 411: Yeah, this is a good show. Some quick finsihes means that you get to see every fight on the card, and that's a good thing too. Not only that, but you get to see Couture make history. How can you go wrong with that?

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]