History of the UFC 09.01.08: UFC L: The War of '04
Posted by Matt McEwen on 09.01.2008
What do you want to see when you watch the UFC? Brutal KO's? Sweet submissions? Good brawls? New champions? Great rivalries? Well, in that case UFC L just might be the show for you.
It’s October 22nd 2004, the Octagon is back in Jersey for the first time in a while, and it’s time for the UFC to put on the War of ‘04. Not the most inspired title in history, but it’s a solid card, if not the one originally envisioned.
Tito Ortiz is the main draw on the card, as he tries to return from two straight losses and get back on track. He was originally going to fight Guy Mezger, the Ken Shamrock trained fighter who was the first man to defeat Ortiz. A little pro wrestling going on there as there was little doubt that they were hoping to fan the fires between Ortiz and Shamrock again, but Mezger suffered “stroke-like” symptoms about two weeks prior to the fight and thus could not take part.
Enter Patrick Cote. He was planning to make his UFC debut against Marvin Eastman in one of the night’s prelims, but stepped up and took the opportunity to face Ortiz in the main event. He’s either a confident opportunist, or a hopeful one. Either way, he gets a chance to make a big splash in his Octagon debut.
Elsewhere on the card, we’ve got a title fight that would start a rivalry that would be the focal point of the welterweight division for the next 3+years as Matt Hughes takes on Georges St. Pierre for the vacant title. We get two known fighters making their middleweight debuts, as former welterweight Robbie Lawler moves up a class and former light heavyweight Rich Franklin moves down a class.
Light Heavyweights
Marvin Eastman (5’9, 204lbs, 6-3, 0-1)
Vs
Travis Lutter (5’11, 199lbs, 4-1)
The Set Up: Eastman is returning to the UFC for the first time since Vitor Belfort left him looking like a murder victim in a horror movie, opening up a gash above his eye that only be described as looking like an axe wound. He won a fight outside the UFC in January of 2004, and now he’s back in the big show. This is Lutter’s debut for the organization, and is a late replacement for Cote. At 199lbs, it’s clear he’s probably better suited as a middleweight, but since Eastman is very short for his musculature, he has a reach advantage. That might not matter though, as he almost certainly wants the fight on the ground.
The Fight: Eastman won touch gloves to start the fight, and that’s the most exciting thing in the round. They don’t throw a punch for nearly a minute, and it’s a minute and a half before even a jab lands. Lutter finally tries a shoot with about 1:20 left, but Eastman avoids it easily. Here’s a question I’m asking myself (and fill in commentator Frank Mir is asking on air): if Eastman can stuff the shot that easily, and has an obvious striking advantage, why not open up a bit? Instead, they snooze their way to the end of the round. I’d score it 10-9 Eastman if I had to, but I’d rather not watch it ever again.
The second opens up with Eastman opening up. His corner must have given him a talking to. He lands a nice leg kick, and pushes Lutter up against the fence. They come off the cage and Eastman drops his right hand going for another kick, and a hook by Lutter touches the button and turns Eastman’s lights out in one of the nice KO’s you’ll ever see. Unexpected and beautiful end to what was an AWFUL fight.
The Aftermath: Eastman is sent back to the smaller shows to build himself back up, and won’t make a return to the Octagon for 3 years, when he’s the inaugural opponent for some guy named Rampage. As for Lutter, he will make the drop to middleweight for his next fight and gets a shot at one of the top fighters in the world in Matt Lindland.
One thing I do have to ask though…Who the hell is Kerri Kasem? She’s doing the post fight interviews here, and is really nowhere near hot enough to be as obnoxious as she is. Her big question to every winner is, “So, did you expect to win like that?” She’s AWFUL.
Middleweights
Tony Fryklund (6’, 180lbs, 11-3, 2-1)
Vs
Ivan Salaverry (6’, 184lbs, 9-3, 1-1)
The Set Up: The buildup of the middleweights continues. Salaverry had two good showings in the UFC in 2002, but then left to fight for K1, but now he’s back. He’s a solid all around fighter, but it’s his submission game that gets him noticed most often. As for Fryklund, he made an infamous debut at UFC XIV when he won his prelim fight by choke, but kicked his opponent after the fight. He’s since gone on to work with MFS and build up a respectable record, and now makes his first UFC showing since UFC 37.5.
The Fight: Salavarry starts out throwing kicks, then tries to shoot in behind them. Fryklund is able to avoid the takedown, and we get a bit of a brawl. Fryklund grabs a high kick and tries to through Salavarry off balance, but ends up getting dropped by a nice combo. He gives up his back as Salavarry pounces and eats a few decent shots as the Canadian rides a bit high. He locks on a body triangle to maintain his balance and ……Fryklund taps to the body triangle? Never seen that, but post fight it looks like he wrenched his back and put it into spasms.
The Aftermath: This is the last UFC hurrah for Fryklund, but he has fought as recently as June 2007, when he lost to Cung Le in Strikeforce, which dropped his record to 14-9. Salavarry stamped his name on the middleweight division here, and as a high level submission artist, could very well be a threat in the title picture.
Middleweights
Evan Tanner (6’, 184lbs, 29-4, 8-2)
Vs
Robbie Lawler (5’11, 185lbs, 10-2, 4-2)
The Set Up: More middleweights. Tanner dropped down from 205lbs after his loss to Rich Franklin and has two wins over Phil Baroni to show for it. He’s considered a top title contender. Lawler was the golden boy of the welterweights, but an injury loss to Pete Spratt and then an unexpected KO at the hands of Nick Diaz took the bloom off his rose. He moves up a class here and is hoping the power he showed at 170 moves up with him.
The Fight: I would describe the start of the fight as aggressively feeling each other out. After about two minutes of dancing around with bad intentions (that sounds funny, but it describes it well), they clinch and Lawler takes Tanner down with a HUGE slam. That answers some strength questions. On his back, Tanner throws up a triangle, tries an arm bar, gives up on that and locks up the triangle and Lawler has to tap. That was surprising. Lawler lets out the loudest, most frustrated “FUCK!!!” I’ve heard in a while, but not before being classy and helping Tanner up and congratulating him.
The Aftermath: That was a good, exciting, quick fight. Tanner looked calm, collected and skilled in winning. He earns himself a shot at the vacant middleweight title against David Terrell in his next fight, and deservedly so. Lawler isn’t so lucky though. It’s bye bye Robbie after this one, but he’s one of the few fighters who has done well for himself outside of the UFC. You may have seen him on CBS in some of the most watched fights in MMA history. He’d make an interesting addition to the current middleweight division in the UFC, which may happen if EXC goes under.
Welterweights
Frank Trigg (5’9, 169lbs, 11-2, 1-1)
Vs
Renato Verrisimo (6’1, 169lbs, 4-1, 1-1)
The Set Up: This is a #1 contender’s fight in the welterweight division. Trigg debuted in a losing effort to take the title from Matt Hughes, but gave the champ all he could handle for as long as it lasted. Then he beat Hughes’ kryptonite – aka Dennis Hallman – for a second time to earn this fight. Verissimo is He Who Shall Not Be Named – aka BJ Penn – jiu jitsu coach, and debuted by beating Carlos Newton, then gave Hughes fits for three rounds before coming out on the wrong end of a tight decision.
The Fight: They clinch to start, and Trigg shows he’s the stronger fighter as he controls the position and avoid the judo trip attempts by Verissimo. They break eventually, and throw some punches, but once Trigg gets the worst of the exchange he shoots and takes Verissimo down against the fence. The jiu jitsu master tries for a leg lock but leaves his face open and eats more than a few punches. He rolls around and tries a triangle, but Trigg is able to avoid and gets some more ground and pound in before they stand back up. Verissimo uses a whizzer to score a takedown, but he tries for another leg lock and Trigg is able to avoid and get on top. He gets caught in another triangle though, and this one is DEEP. Trigg holds on though, and is able to power his head out in an impressive display, as I really thought he was done there. The round ends with Trigg on top but looking tired. Trigg landed some shots on the ground, Verissimo looked better on their feet, both guys had a takedown, but Verissimo nearly finished the fight with his triangle, so I give him the round 10-9.
The second round opens with Verissimo shooting, which surprises me. Trigg sprawls and they end up body locked with each in over/under position. They break off and Trigg unloads with some big punches that drop Verissimo to all fours. Trigg throws some elbows – some of which Mir say are illegal for being downward AND to the back of the head – and ends up in side control. He pounds with some punches, but once he lands a couple of nasty, brutal elbows the ref has no chance but to stop the fight.
The Aftermath: Unlike the recent Florian/Huerta fight, this really was a #1 contenders fight, and they stuck to it. Trigg’s next fight is for the title against the winner of the Hughes/St. Pierre fight tonight. Verissimo is gone after this, a victim of two things – firstly, being associated with the ex-communicated Penn and secondly, being someone tough to fight while at the same time not being exciting. That’s a bad combo. He’s fought mostly in Hawaii since, for Rumble on the Rock/Icon Sport, but he did lose to Jake Shields at EXC: Uprising, and was featured on an episode of TapouT last year.
Welterweight Championship
Matt Hughes (5’9, 170lbs, 35-4, 9-2)
Vs
Georges St. Pierre (5’10, 169lbs, 7-0, 2-0)
The Set Up: In one way, it’s pretty straight forward – the two top welterweights in the UFC fight for the vacant title. On the other hand, it’s pretty complicated – BJ Penn signed to fight for K1 after beating Hughes for the title, and the UFC stripped him of the belt and never mentioned his name. Penn sued to prevent the UFC from awarding a new welterweight title, but the case was thrown out, and this is what we get. As for the fight itself, we’ve got the legend versus the upstart. Hughes has looked imminently beatable in his last three fights – a hard fought win over Frank Trigg, the loss against Penn and a close decision over Verissimo. GSP, on the other hand, has looked extremely strong in beating both Karo Parisyan and Jay Heiron.
The Fight: While getting the ref’s instructions prior to the fight, St. Pierre won’t look at Hughes at all, instead staring up to the ceiling. Hmmmhmmm.
Once the fight starts, St. Pierre’s boxing looks nice and crisp as he snaps Hughes’ head back a few times. Then he shocks everyone by taking Hughes down. They get back up, but that had to surprise Hughes there. St. Pierre’s jab lands a lot, and you have to wonder if they’re stunning Hughes since he’s not trying to block them at all. Hughes tries a takedown, but St. Pierre sprawls against the fence for a bit before Hughes succeeds. St. Pierre looks for a kimura off his back, and uses that to be able to get to his feet. St. Pierre lands one of the prettiest spinning back kicks you’ll ever see, and Hughes bounces of the fence and comes forward for a desperation takedown and looks really hurt. St. Pierre doesn’t capitalize though, and Hughes has time to recover. He shoots and takes St. Pierre down again, and gains side control for a second before St. Pierre gains guard. GSP tries for the kimura again, but Hughes blocks it, steps over, spins and drops and GSP has to tap to the resulting arm bar with just a second left in the round. Beautiful, textbook reversal by Hughes wins a fight in which St. Pierre looked to be dominating for the most part.
The Aftermath: Hughes is the king of the division again, and winning the title a second time cements his status as a legend. Next up for him is a rematch with Trigg. For St. Pierre, this is his first loss and we’ll see if he lets it weigh on him or if he learns from it and comes back stronger.
Middleweights
Rich Franklin (6’1, 185lbs, 14-1, 2-0)
Vs
Jorge Rivera (6’1, 184lbs, 8-2, 1-1)
The Set Up: The middleweights get stronger. Rivera has had two fights in the division so far – a surprising win over David Loiseau and an equally surprising submission loss to Lee Murray. He has the power to be a factor against anyone in the division right now, but his ground game has been suspect. The big story in this fight is Franklin making his middleweight debut. He was considered a top level prospect at 205lbs, and even beat Evan Tanner at that weight. Outside of the UFC, he lost his first fight as a pro when he took on Lyoto Machida in Japan and was KO’d. He had tune up fights for Superbrawl and one in Alaska, and now it’s time to give the UFC’s middleweight division a try. The drop in weight takes him from being a mid-sized light heavyweight to being a HUGE middleweight.
The Fight: They clinch quickly, and Rivera knees Franklin in the junk. Ouch. He takes a few minutes to recover, and we restart. They clinch, and Franklin slams him down into ½ guard. He mounts, but ends up in side control. Rivera tries to sweep, and they end up back on their feet where Rivera lands a nice left that pushes Franklin off balance. They clinch again and Rivera lands shows some good close fighting, but eats a big knee in response. We get a lot of good dirty boxing, and I’ve got to say this is a really fun fight to watch. Rivera comes off the fence with some good right hands, but Franklin drops him with a right. He pounces and tries to finish him off, but Rivera is right back up. Franklin unloads, but he pauses to compose himself. He lands some knees to the body and a nice uppercut to close out the round. The round was close and both guys looked good, but the knockdown gives Franklin the round 10-9.
The clinch immediately again, this time with Franklin doing a number in close. We spend the first two minutes of the round here, but they are not resting at all. Rivera lands a knee to the body that really hurts Franklin, and comes off the fence with a few good shots. Franklin is able to answer with a kick, but that knee really took the starch out of him, and he now has a cut over his right eye. Franklin scores a takedown and throws some good punches, which opens up a chance at a mounted triangle, but they get back up. Franklin controls the rest of the round in the clinch. Second straight 10-9 round for Franklin, but the biggest shot of the round was the knee to the body by Rivera, while Franklin had the takedown and more control.
The third round starts with Franklin throwing, but this time Rivera gets in close for the clinch. He gets hit with a finger or shoulder to the eye, but keeps going. Lots of dirty boxing and nice body knees by both, but once they come off the fence Franklin scores a takedown into ½ guard. On top you can see Franklin is bleeding a lot from his eye and his left ear. Rivera shows a good defensive guard as he ties Franklin up and avoids much damage, but eventually he starts to eat some elbows. Franklin uses those to first get side control, then mount. Rivera gives up his back and when he tries to roll back Franklin grabs his arm and taps him out with a nice arm bar. Really nice technical submission finish to a great Muay Thai brawl.
The Aftermath: Rivera’s next 4 fights (including one against Anderson Silva) are outside of the UFC, but he will be back before he ends up on TUF 4: The Comeback. As for Franklin, this was a big win to make his mark as a middleweight, and he is decidedly in the title picture now. Next on tap for him is another fight for Superbrawl, then a star making return to 205lbs in the Octagon against Ken Shamrock.
Light Heavyweights
Tito Ortiz (6’2, 205lbs, 10-4, 9-4)
Vs
Patrick Cote (5’11, 204, 5-0)
The Set Up: I’ve got to stop covering the main events in the introduction, because there’s not much left to write here. It essentially comes down to Ortiz wanting/needing to get back on track and Cote wanting to make a bang in his debut.
Visually, Cote is MUCH smaller than Ortiz. I can see why he would eventually drop down to middleweight.
The Fight: They come out boxing to start, and Cote lands an overhand right that staggers Ortiz. He recovers quickly though, and takes Cote down and ground and pounds him for the remaining four minutes of the round. In the end, it’s a 10-9 round for Ortiz, and would have been 10-8 if not for the big right hand in the opening minute.
The second round is the same as the first, except this time Cote doesn’t land the early punch. He just gets put on his back and beat around. He spends the round eating nasty elbows. Easily 10-8 for Ortiz.
The third round actually opens up with Cote looking pretty dangerous on his feet, as his combos are still sharp and catching Ortiz pretty well. He even manages to sprawl off a takedown attempt. It’s all over about a minute and a half in, as Ortiz scores the takedown on his second attempt and that’s all she wrote. Another 10-9 round for Ortiz as he handily wins one of the most boring, one sided main events ever.
The Aftermath: Ortiz starts the long road back to a title shot here, but looked less than impressive in grinding out someone he probably should have been able to stop. Post fight, he says his cardio wasn’t what he’s used to, so we’ll see if he can improve that.
Cote was beat up here, but showed a lot of heart and did the UFC a big favour by stepping up to help out in the main event late. That wins you some brownie points, but he’s going to have to get a win if he wants to say in the big show.
The 411: Boring main events always take a bit of the shine off of a good show, but in this case it's still a good show. Some great finishes, the Franklin/Rivera brawl is just great and you get to see the birth of the GSP we know today. Can't ask for much more than that....well, we could have asked for a better main event, but you win some and lose some.
