This post is inspired by Chuck Mindenhall's 20-years of the UFC article which can be found here. Ten years ago today the MMA scene was building towards something great. Both in America and Japan the sport was taking-off. The UFC was celebrating their 10th anniversary with a pay-per-view show (UFC 45) in glamorous Uncasville, Connecticut. The event at the Mohegan Sun Arena was attended by 9,200 fans with another 40,000 watching on PPV. In the main event, Matt Hughes defeated Frank Trigg, overcoming an unnoticed groin shot by hoisting Trigg into the air and carrying him across the ring for a slam. After Hughes choked out Trigg in the first round, UFC President Dana White said (and still says) it was his favourite fighting moment. The event also saw Tank Abbott compete in the UFC for the last time, losing to Wesley "Cabbage" Correira due to a cut. In Japan, Pride was putting the UFC to shame with Final Conflict 2003 at the Tokyo Dome. Nearly 70,000 people showed up to watch the semi-finals and finals of the Middleweight Grand Prix, an interim heavyweight title fight between Big Nog and Cro Cop, and Japanese legend Sakuraba face American wrestler Kevin Randleman. Quinton Jackson pummelled burgeoning UFC star Chuck Liddell in the first semi-final bout, leading Liddell's corner to throw in the towel in the second round. In the other semi-final bout Wanderlei Silva powered through Japanese Judoka Hidehiko Yoshida to advance to the finals against Jackson. Silva would go on to win the tournament, blasting Jackson out with knees in the first round, solidifying his superstar status in MMA. At heavyweight, Nogueira was able to submit Cro Cop via armbar in the second round of their bout, claiming Pride's interim heavyweight championship. Likewise, Saku armbarred his way to victory over Randleman in the second round of their fight. After the event a famous confrontation between Jackson and Team Hammer House and Silva with Chute Boxe occured backstage, video of which is included at the end of the post. Ten years ago today the heavyweight champion of the UFC was Ricco Rodriguez, who had defeated Randy Couture at UFC 39 via submission due to elbow strikes in the fifth round. At the time Rodriguez was falling into a plethora of personal problems including alcohol abuse, rampant gambling, and so forth. He'd go on to lose his next three fights and never fight in the UFC again. Coincidentally, the light heavyweight champion a decade ago was Randy Couture. Immediately after losing to Rodriguez, Couture dropped to 205-lbs. and beat Chuck Liddell for the interim title. Couture became the undisputed champion with a win over Tito Ortiz at UFC 44, spending the waning moments of the five-round fight spanking and hammer-fisting Ortiz's ass. That fight with Couture led to the wheels coming off Ortiz's career. In his next fight the UFC was finally able to wrangle him into fighting Chuck Liddell, who knocked him out with relative ease. Under controversial circumstances Ortiz was able to work his way back to a title rematch with Liddell in 2006 but was knocked out for a second time. The welterweight champion was, of course, Matt Hughes. His incredible four-year run with the title began in 2001 at UFC 34 when he defeated Carlos Newton after a controversial mistake by referee Big John McCarthy. Newton blacked out Hughes with a standing triangle choke. McCarthy confused Hughes collapsing with slamming Newton. When he found Newton unconscious from the drop, he roused a blurry-eyed Hughes and awarded him the win. Hughes would go on to defend the title seven times but his reign was briefly interrupted by a loss to BJ Penn in 2004. Penn left the UFC in May of that year to join K-1 and Hughes won the interim championship against Georges St-Pierre. Long-time Hughes coach Pat Miletich remarked after the bout that St-Pierre was the future of the sport. Across the pond, the new heavyweight champion was Fedor Emelianenko, having beaten Big Nog at Pride 25. Oddly, Emelianenko's next four fights would be non-title contests. The Russian defeated Egidijus Valavicius, Ironhead Fujita, Gary Goodridge, and Yuji Nagata before getting back to more meaningful fights at the Pride Heavyweight Grand Prix. Emelianenko would rematch Nogueira two more times, both in 2004, with one bout ending in a no-contest due to an accidental headbutt, and the second ending in another decision win for Emelianenko, who found the Brazilian impossible to finish. In 2003-04, Emelianenko fought an incredible ten times, winning all of his bouts aside from the no-contest. In the ensuing years Emelianenko's esteem and momentum started to waver as his management put him into increasingly ridiculous bouts with unworthy or freak show opponents. If only he had jumped to the UFC in 2005... Pride's middleweight champion was Wanderlei Silva. After defeating Saku at Pride 17 in 2001, Silva defended his title twice against Japanese opponents Kiyoshi Tamura and Hiromitsu Kanehara. He also won the aforementioned Middleweight Grand Prix by defeating Quinton Jackson, capping a fifteen-fight undefeated streak that began after his loss to Tito Ortiz at UFC 25. During that stretch Pride mercilessly matched Silva up with Sakuraba three times with all three bouts resulting in Saku being brutally knocked out. The wins built up Silva's reputation as the most feared fighter on the planet. Silva would knock out Jackson again in a rematch in 2004 and kept his middleweight title until 2007 before succumbing to Dan Henderson's H-Bomb at Pride 33 in Las Vegas. [video=youtube;omPqywk18gA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omPqywk18gA[/video] [video=youtube;Ub3-Rs3qkf0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub3-Rs3qkf0[/video]
