While MMA is nearing mainstream acceptance in our society the origins of this sport are recent - and a little dark compared with the refined sport that we see today complete with weight classes, time limits and rules. The first UFC events had none of these. Going back and re-watching these events leaves a bad taste in your mouth from both the production values as well as the lawless and confusing approach to fighting "rules".
The sport today is working very hard to shed the blood sport image that many people regard MMA as. The early days of the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993 the event was promoted like a gladiatorial fight to the death so it is little wonder that this image still exists in the minds of some people today. The truth is that early MMA looked much closer to a street fight than a sporting competition. Even today there is talk of room for changes to the rules such as dropping the current 10 point must scoring system borrowed from boxing or changing weigh ins to fight day to eliminate weight cutting. In the days of the first UFC when they attempted to have as few
rules as possible there was ample opportunity for problem to develop.
1) Gerard Gordeau vs. Teila Tuli
In the very first fight in the very first UFC event ever the reigning Savate World World Champion Gerard Gordeau, 6'5" 215lbs faced off against Teila Tuli who was a 440lb former sumo wrestler. The world watched as in less than 30 seconds the striking skill of Gordeau had defended Tuli's charge and after knocking Tuli to the ground, Gordeau landed a roundhouse kick to the side of his face that sent teeth flying into the crowd. Less than 30 seconds into the first event ever. Kicking a downed opponent in the face is no longer allowed in most MMA including the UFC. Teila was not knocked unconscious from the kick and Gerard had two of Tuli's teeth embedded in his foot for the rest of the evening.
2) Remco Pardoel vs. Orlando Wiet
This UFC 2 bout was significant for two important reasons. First of all Wiet weighed in at 5'10" and 170lbs where Remco tipped the scales at 6'4" 260lbs. If it were not for the fact that Orlando Wiet looked like he was genetically engineered in a laboratory fitness experiment perhaps the fight might not have happened at all so big was the size difference in these fighters.
The real story of this fight was the ending. Despite Wiet trying to explode out of bad positions, Remco controlled the fight on the ground with good positioning utilizing his bodyweight advantage and grappling skill. When Remco realized that he could throw an elbow to the side of the head of Weit the fight was over. The first elbow was probing and connected cleanly. The second elbow, with more force behind it, made Wiet go limp. Remco then landed 5 more elbows to the cadaver, er...Wiet, before slowing down and then stopping before looking up to the referee Big John McCarthy with an "Uh oh I killed him" look on his face. In current day MMA the referee has the power to end the fight which is something Big John did not have the authority to do at the time. Good thing Remco decided to stop on his own.
3) Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock
The first ever "superfight" featured Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie fight for the second time at UFC 5. Ken lost the initial meeting of the two at UFC 1 where he tapped due to a choke shortly into the fight. In this fight Ken took a much more cautious game plan and spent most of his energy on not getting submitted and not losing position to Gracie.
After a very slow 31 minutes the fight was declared to have a 5 more minutes of overtime. No winner was determined and there were no judges in place so the fight was scored a draw. This caused two changes in the UFC. The first was that in the following UFC events the referee could, at their discretion, stand the fight up from the ground if there was not enough action. This fight also was the first of many that prompted spectators of the sport to realize that not every fight can be settled in 20 minutes or 30 minutes and that some sort of scoring or judging system might be prudent for the sport.
An honorable mention for the 3 fights that changed the face of current MMA would be the first 3 fights that Royce Gracie had in the UFC. Not that each fight was so spectacular, more the impact and result of the three, in that a slight 176 lb young man could fight and win with supposed martial art world champions much larger than himself. It is hard to imagine MMA today if Royce had not competed in the origins of the UFC.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6669149
No comments:
Post a Comment