History of the UFC 09.15.08: UFC LI: Super Saturday
Posted by Matt McEwen on 09.15.2008
What better way to remember Evan Tanner than by looking at his biggest win ever.
Twas the night before the Super Bowl, and the UFC continued what was becoming one of their better traditions by putting on UFC LI: Super Saturday on February 5th 2005. Hard to believe that just 3 ½ years ago, the UFC was still far from being a monthly event, and instead this wasn’t just the first show of the year, but the first show in almost 5 months. Could you imagine the UFC going 5 WEEKS without a show nowadays?
Either way, we’re back in Vegas, and we’ve got a fairly stacked card: Evan Tanner against David Terrell to be the first Middleweight champion in almost 3 years, Andrei Arlovski finally getting in the cage against Tim Sylvia for the interim heavyweight title, and a main event which could be the last UFC contest for Tito Ortiz (stop me if you’ve heard that one before). So, without further ado, it’s Super Saturday…
Welterweights
Drew Fickett (5’10, 170lbs, 24-2)
Vs.
Nick Diaz (6’, 170lbs, 9-3, 2-1)
The Set Up: Pretty straightforward opener here – Diaz is looking to get back on track after losing a great fight to Karo Parisyan, while Fickett has a lot of experience and wants to prove he belongs in the UFC here.
The Fight: They box at each other a bit, then clinch, then Diaz pulls guard. Once he’s on the ground, he’s actually the more active fighter with punches, which you don’t see every day. He starts looking for an armbar, but Fickett hangs tight and is able to roll free in a good showing of his defensive skills. Diaz stays on his back, and lands an upkick that knocks Fickett’s mouthpiece out. Once Diaz scrambles up, Fickett tries for a guillotine but Diaz is able to pull his head free. He ends up on top in Fickett’s guard, and lands some really nice looking body shots. They scramble up again, and the ref pauses the fight to give Fickett his mouthpiece back. On the restart Diaz gets kind of cute and tries a jumping roundhouse, but Fickett is able to avoid that and lock in another, tighter guillotine. Diaz is still able to pull free though, and this time starts to land some nasty punches on the fatigued Fickett, leaving Big John no choice but to step in and call the fight.
The Aftermath: Diaz serves notice that he’s not going anywhere and should be a factor in the welterweight division for the foreseeable future. Fickett will make a UFC return later in 2005, and he’ll be hoping for a better showing than this as he was pretty easily handled by Diaz.
Welterweights
Karo Parisyan (5’10, 170lbs, 12-3, 2-1)
Vs.
Chris Lytle (5’11, 170lbs, 18-10-5, 1-2)
The Set Up: Parisyan wants to keep the momentum going after his thrilling split decision win over Diaz, and wants to get into contention for a title shot. Lytle is coming in off his first UFC win and wants to prove the he too can be a factor in the division. This marks easily his most talented UFC opponent so far.
The Fight: Parisyan comes in throwing clean, crisp, technical strikes. Just joking. He comes in behind haymakers and scores the takedown. They try trading leg locks, but Lytle avoids any serious damage. They stay on the ground with Parisyan on top not doing much until they’re restarted with 2 minutes left. Parisyan lands a really nice knee to the body and Lytle pulls guard. Parisyan controls the rest of the round with a few nice short elbows and you have to score it 10-9 Karo.
The second round starts with Lytle trying to draw Parisyan into a boxing match. He ends up in the clinch though, and ends up Karo’s Highlight Reel Of Nasty Judo Head Drops. Parisyan rides in ½ guard until we get a restart with 3 minutes left. Parisyan ducks under a punch on the restart and goes for the takedown, but gets caught in the lethal Lytle guillotine. He can’t finish it though, so he uses it as a sweep to gain side control. Parisyan is able to maneuver back to his feet and scores a takedown. He grinds on top for a while, they get restarted, Parisyan takes it right back down and grinds out the round, which again, I would score 10-9 for Karo.
Parisyan bulrushes to start the third, grabs a body clinch, scores the takedown and that’s the round. 10-9 for Karo again in a fight that wasn’t great, but wasn’t horrible either, but does start Karo on his “King of Drawn out Decisions” road.
The Aftermath: Parisyan wins a unanimous decision here and moves himself one or two fights away from a title shot. For Lytle, dropping to 1-3 in the Octagon means he needs to head to the WEC and other smaller shows to get a few wins before he comes back.
Middleweights
David Loiseau (6’, 184lbs, 11-4, 1-1)
Vs.
Gideon Ray (5’9, 180lbs, 7-1-1)
The Set Up: Loiseau was supposed to make his return appearance against Joe Riggs in what would have been an entertaining fight, but Riggs suffered a nasty cut in training and Ray took the fight on 4 days notice. So, Loiseau gets a chance to make a statement about belonging at the top end of the 185 division if he can score an impressive win, while Ray gets the chance to make a name for himself in one night.
The Fight: Loiseau throws a high kick that looks really nice but gets blocked. After that, we get some really good MMA standup fighting for a while – good punching, kicking, clinching. Good to watch. Loiseau lands a big knee out of the clinch that drops Ray, and he pounces. Ray recovers enough to gain guard amid the barrage, but Loiseau takes his back. He tries to choke, but can’t get it quite under the chin and rolls back to mount. Ray very surprisingly manages to shrug him off and get his feet, and even drives through for a double leg takedown. Loiseau is able to hop back up though and land another big knee, then drops Ray with another one. He gets on top and lands some nasty elbows as the round ends.
Easily a 10-9 round for Loiseau, but it doesn’t matter since those elbows opened up a big gash on Ray’s head that stopped the fight between rounds.
The Aftermath: Loiseau looked good and showed a lot of skills, including his nasty elbows. He’ll get a chance to continue moving up the division on coming shows. Ray would get another shot on the first Ultimate Fight Night on Spike TV, but would be KO’d in 22 seconds by Mike Swick. After that, it was onto TUF 4: The Comeback, a loss in the Finale of that show, then he was off to the IFL.
Heavyweights
James Irvin (6’2, 224lbs, 7-0)
Vs.
Mike Kyle (6’4, 242lbs, 7-4, 1-1)
The Set Up: Irvin is debuting, while Kyle wants to reestablish himself after getting KO’d in his last outing. It goes a bit deeper than that though, as Irvin claims Kyle ducked him in the WEC and that he is a “complete prick.” That’s trash talk. Kyle thinks that’s funny, and since Irvin should be fighting at 205lbs, he’ll KO him and be happy about it.
The Fight: Irvin throws an opening body kick, but leaves his hands low and eats a right hand for his trouble, then gets taken down before he can recover his balance. Kyle lands some good lefts in ½ guard, but we get a ref who wants excitement, and we get a good, quick stand up. Back up, Irvin still keeps dropping his hands, but that doesn’t stop him from landing a good right of his own. That leads to a clinch against the fence, where a big right hand by Kyle finishes the fight in a hurry.
The Aftermath: Kyle was right – Irvin does belong at 205lbs, and after this fight that is where he went. He’ll regroup a bit in the WEC and make his UFC return in a little while. Kyle, despite winning, has not returned to the UFC after this one. He fought in Japan, for the WEC and Strikeforce, and just returned this past March after a 2 year layoff.
Heavyweights
Paul Buentello (6’2, 247lbs, 17-7)
Vs.
Justin Eilers (6’2, 225lbs, 9-2-1, 1-0)
The Set Up: I sound like a broken record, but here goes: Buentello, an AKA member, wants to make a splash in his debut while Eilers wants to continue the momentum his big KO over Kyle gave him. A good win here and with the state of the division at the time, he’s close to a title shot.
The Fight: Buentello lands two inadvertent kicks to the groin which irritate Eilers, but doesn’t prompt the ref to even pause the bout. They end up in a clinch against the fence after a pretty good stand up exchange before breaking off. They repeat that sequence, then Buentello starts finding his range and landing big shots. A big right hand ends up making Eilers the first human in history to legitimately do the “Flair flop” as, after he got hit, he took a step back, his legs turned to jelly and he dropped flat on his face.
The Aftermath: Both guys stick around the division, but Eilers is on his way down after this nasty defeat, while Buentello serves notice that he wants a title shot, and has the power to be a threat to anyone in the division.
Middleweight Title
David Terrell (6’, 185lbs, 5-1, 1-0)
Vs.
Evan Tanner (6’, 185lbs, 30-4, 9-2)
The Set Up: Finally….a set up with a decent story to it! Murillo Bustamante beat Dave Menne for the middleweight title, defended it against Matt Lindland and then left the UFC. That was in 2002. After three years of wandering aimlessly through the wilds of the UFC, the middleweight division is finally going to get a new champ. Terrell debuted amid some hype by blitzing Lindland in under a minute with a brutal KO. The funny thing is his fists are his strong point – he’s a Cesar Gracie black belt. That big win over Lindland actually made him the big favourite coming into this one. Tanner gets his second shot at a title in the UFC, having been KO’d be a slam in a shot at Tito Ortiz a few years prior. He dropped down to 185lbs after a loss to Rich Franklin, and has been unbeaten in the division, with two wins over Baroni and one over Robbie Lawler.
The Fight: Terrell gets Tanner’s attention right off the bat with a high kick that just barely gets blocked. They dance around each other a bit before Terrell shoots in for the takedown and we’re finally going to get to see his jiu jitsu. Or not. Tanner bounces right back up. Terrell tries another high kick and this one lands, scores a takedown, but Tanner bounces back up again. He tries a guillotine with Tanner standing, his own back against the cage and his legs wrapped around Tanner’s waist. He eventually pulls him down to the ground, and the choke is DEEP, but Tanner holds on and is able to pull his head free. He ends up in Terrell’s ½ guard, where he proceeds to land decent punches and really good elbows. All Terrell is doing is covering up, and the ref tells him to do something or he’ll stop it. A few more punches and that’s exactly what he does. Tanner absolutely dominated as soon as he pulled his head out of that choke.
The Aftermath: Your winner and new champ, Evan Tanner! Kind of ironic that the week he passed away, I get to cover his biggest win ever. This is the kind of fight he was best known for too – come in the underdog, be on the verge of defeat, and shockingly pull out the win.
As for Terrell, he was injured after this fight, and wouldn’t step back into the cage until April of 2006.
Heavyweight Interim Title
Andrei Arlovski (6’3, 238lbs, 7-3, 5-2)
Vs.
Tim Sylvia (6’8, 263lbs, 19-2, 3-1)
The Set Up: These two should have fought twice before, but it never happened. Instead, Sylvia ended up fighting Frank Mir for the vacant championship and got his arm broken in an armbar. Now, he’s recovered from the injury and comes in off a tune up victory over Wes Sims outside of the Octagon.
Arlovski has come into his own after going 1-2 in his first UFC fights, having won 3 in row over guys who are not usually KO victims.
Now, what about Mir? The champ likes motorcycles, but cars don’t like him on motorcycles. He had a nasty, nasty accident, nearly had a leg amputated and is on the shelf for a while.
The Fight: They come and look to be feeling each other out, except Arlovski lands a huge right hand that drops Sylvia. He pounces to try and finish, and while Big Tim tries to kick him off from the ground, Arlovski grabs an ankle, drops down and forces Sylvia to tap to the heel hook. All this in about 45 seconds.
The Aftermath: Sylvia’s now lost two straight – albeit in title fights – inside the Octagon and needs to go on a streak to get back in contention now. On a sad note, I’d say this is the fight that RUINED Sylvia as I’ve never felt he was quite the same afterwards.
As for Arlovski, welcome to the really big time. He’s now the man in the division until Mir shows up, and the big money fight is a title unification match up if Mir gets healthy. And he beat Sylvia in under a minute. Thank you sir, thank you.
Middleweights
Phil Baroni (5’9, 185lbs, 5-4, 3-4)
Vs.
Pete Sell (5’11, 183lbs, 5-0)
The Set Up: Baroni was the man…for about a month. He has a huge mouth, personality and right hand, but he keeps running out of gas and now he’s lost 3 in a row and needs a win to stay in the UFC. He was supposed to be taking on an equally desperate Robbie Lawler in what would have been a great brawl, but Lawler pulled out with two weeks notice and Pete Sell stepped in. There’s a little built in story here as well, as both guys are from Long Island and they just plain don’t like each other. So, Baroni needs a big win to keep his job, while Sell gets the chance to make a big splash.
The Fight: Sell clinches immediately, knowing he needs to avoid Baroni’s right hand. He scores a takedown and cuts Baroni over the right eye. He grinds away until Baroni gets up with a minute left in the round and lands a big uppercut, but Sell is able to push him up against the fence and ride out the round. 10-9 for Sell as he controlle about 3:30 on top.
Sell comes out swinging in the second, which probably isn’t the best idea in history, except this turns into a bizarre fight, and Baroni starts taking Sell down. He’s not able to do much damage, but he stay on top until the ref stands them up with 1:45 to go. The boxing is pretty equal, so Baroni shoots in for the takedown and ends up in ½ guard for the last 30 seconds, and shores up a 10-9 round to equal things out in my book.
The deciding third round goes a lot like the second, with Sell looking to throw and Baroni slamming him . This time the stand up comes with 3 minutes left, and both guys look really tired. Baroni scores another takedown, but gets caught in a guillotine. While Rogan is say that Phil is just taking a breather, Sell locks it up tight, rolls over on top of Baroni and forces him to tap for the huge upset victory.
The Aftermath: Dana White told Baroni to retire after this fight, and he’s not been back in the UFC since. He hasn’t done much about his stamina issues either, but we’ll see how his recent drop down to 170 helps his career.
Sell would follow up this huge win with a controversial loss to Nate Quarry at the first Ultimate Fight Night, and then make his way to TUF 4: The Comeback.
Light Heavyweights
Tito Ortiz (6’2, 204lbs, 11-4, 10-4)
Vs.
Vitor Belfort (6’, 205lbs, 12-4, 8-3)
The Set Up: These guys were lined up to fight in 2002 for Ortiz’s title, but the fight fell through due to injury to Belfort. What a difference three years makes.
Now both guys are former 205lb champions, who have recently been destroyed by Randy Couture. Belfort’s looking to recover directly from that loss, while Ortiz got back on the winning track with his decision win over Patrick Cote at the last event. Now these guys will fight for the right to stay relevant in the division, though this is the last fight on Ortiz’s contract, and the rumor mill is that he’ll not be resigning. Never heard that one before.
The Fight: They clinch against the fence with Ortiz controlling the position a bit more, but they break off and Belfort shrugs off a trademark telegraphed Tito takedown attempt. Belfort starts to feel it a bit and tees off. He lands some nice shots and looks to have Ortiz in trouble, but Tito eats all those shots and lands a big left of his own and is able to recover in the body clinch. The ref restarts them for boringness, and Ortiz tries to shoot again, but Belfort end up on top of a turtelling Tito, landing a bunch of punches before Ortiz finally pulls him down. Ortiz gets his nose bloodied for his troubles, but gets to unleash some mauling ground n’ pound for the last minute of the round. That last minute of control gives Tito the round 10-9 in my book.
The second starts out with Ortiz clinching againt the fence. He breaks off and shoots, but Belfort stuffs a takedown attempt and tries a guillotine. He can’t quite secure it, but does use it to sweep into side control, where he lands some good elbows. Ortiz is able to gain guard and tries throwing up an armbar, but Belfort pounds away, looking to finish it. He can’t quite land enough to get it done though, and ends up resting in Ortiz’s guard. They get stood up with 1:20 left, and Belfort looks TIRED. He might have blown his load trying to finish right there. Ortiz scores a takedown and rides out the round on top, but even still it’s 10-9 Belfort. I just don’t know how much he has left for the third.
The answer is nothing. Ortiz takes him down and mauls him for 4 minutes. Belfort gets to his feet with a minute left, but he’s exhausted and Ortiz pulls him right back down to finish the fight. I’d give him the round 10-8, and the fight.
The Aftermath: A split decision win for Ortiz, with all scores being 29-28. Tighter scoring than I felt it should have been, but at least the right guy won.
Ortiz took off to the wonderful world of TNA wrestling for a while, and won’t make another Octagon appearance until April of 2006. That’s unfortunate because after this fight, he almost starts brawls with a somewhat drunken Chuck Liddell and a very angry Ken Shamrock. It’s mentioned that Tito was offered a rematch with Shamrock as the main event of the first Ultimate Finale. Not to be though, unfortunately. If you get a chance to check out all the BS after this fight, it’s well worth it. From Ortiz running into the crowd and to the top of the arena, to Shamrock telling Ortiz he’s too dumb to get an education, it’s well worth it.
As for Belfort, this was his UFC swan song. He’s still a name though, and scored a win on the initial (and possibly final?) Affliction card.
The 411: Pretty good show all around. Two new champs and one of the better Ortiz fights, you can't really go wrong here.
Of course, the highlight is Tanner becoming a champion as even in 2005, he was kind of beloved figure in MMA just for taking a beating and keeping on ticking. He seemed to "deserve" a title win by this point, and the crowd was pretty happy about. And this isn't all retrospective either....there's a reason why Dana White said last year that Tanner had a spot in the UFC as long as he wanted it.
