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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief The UFC has been through many ups and downs throughout it's 16 year history. From the beginnings of the sport as "anything goes, which style is better" contests, to the dark ages with little pay-per-view coverage to this booming mega sport garnering millions of dollars in live gates and pay-per-view buys, it's been a long road getting to UFC 100 on July 11th. With this series we will highlight many of the key numbered events, in chronological order, that have led to this historic pay-per-view card. New events will be covered daily as we come up on the July 11th event.
UFC 33 was a big event for newly established owners in Zuffa, as it marked the return to major pay-per-view providers on cable as well as the UFC's first ever event in what is now it's main home base, Las Vegas. The mecca of boxing events for years, the UFC brought what they thought would be an unbelievable card with three title fights to kick off this new pay-per-view era.
However, this event was major for the UFC for as many negative reasons as positive, as the event served to set the new ownership group years in UFC President Dana White's eyes, with all three title fights going to a decision and the show running over the allotted pay-per-view time, causing the show to be cut off and the finish to be missed.
Only two bouts on the entire card finished before reaching the judges scorecards, as Ricardo Almeida submitted Eugene Jackson late in the first round while Jutaro Nakano knocked out Tony DeSouza at the outset of the second round.
The three title fights were painfully uninteresting fights that saw the establishment of the first Middleweight Title at 185 lbs (The "under 200 lb" weight class was considered "middleweight" until the Unified Rules weight classes were implemented at UFC 31), Jens Pulver defend his Lightweight Title and Tito Ortiz take on a last minute replacement to defend his Light Heavyweight Championship.
On the undercard before those title matches, two future UFC Champions would take decision victories, as Matt Serra defeated Yves Edwards and Chuck Liddell defeated Murilo Bustamante.
In the first title match of the night, Dave Menne became the first 185 lb. Champion in UFC history by out-pointing Gil Castillo, and then Jens Pulver did the same against Dennis Hallman.
In the main event, Tito Ortiz had been set to face Vitor Belfort up until a week before the event when Belfort came up with an arm injury. In stepped Vladimir Matyushenko on very short notice to take step up to the plate. He took Ortiz the distance, but no one saw the end of the fight to find out. The pay-per-view time ran out during the fight due to all of the other decisions on the card and the feed cut off. It was one of the worst things that could have happened for the show, and for as big a step as it was for the UFC to get to Vegas and back on pay-per-view, having the event go over on time pushed them back a few more.
It would not be the anywhere near the end, however, just an unfortunate setback. It was a learning experience as well, as the UFC has never scheduled three title fights on a card to date. And now they're set to run yet another show back in Las Vegas at UFC 100, one that will almost assuredly be a much bigger success.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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