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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 40 brought Zuffa their most monetarily successful event up to that point, bringing in what was then a record gate of $1,540,000 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. After taking a huge step back in their return to pay-per-view at UFC 33, this show was a sign of the potential direction this sport could be going in, bringing in 150,000 buys.
The reason for such success was two names: Shamrock and Ortiz. Tito Ortiz fought, and lost, to Frank Shamrock at UFC 22 in what was hyped up as Frank representing the Lion's Den, his foster brother Ken's training team, against the brash Ortiz who had openly mocked Lion's Den fighters Guy Mezger and Jerry Bohlander in past fights, drawing the ire of Ken. Frank had in actuality been split from the team for some time, and was not defending the honor of teammates, just trying to stay Champion.
At UFC 40, however, Ken Shamrock would finally get his hands on Ortiz after years away from the UFC in stints in the WWE and PRIDE. The bout was hyped more than perhaps any previous UFC show to date, with Shamrock and Ortiz appearing on "The Best Damn Sports Show Period," the fight being talked about on ESPN and also getting featured in major news outlets as a big deal.
Shamrock came into this fight with a torn ACL, though that didn't stop him from lasting longer than in the two remaining bouts they'd have a few years down the road. Tito Ortiz would take this one with a TKO due to a doctor's stoppage after the third round was finished. It was clear a shift in MMA fighters was in the midst of this bout as Shamrock's early years style was no match for the brutal overall game that Ortiz was bringing at the time. This would also the record breaking fifth title defense for Ortiz.
Also on this card, Matt Hughes defended his Welterweight Title against Gil Castillo, and Chuck Liddell set himself up as a contender in the light heavyweight division with a vicious first round head kick KO over current Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Renato "Babalu" Sobral.
This bout served to put the UFC on notice that they could do something with this brand and this sport if they could get the right fights to set up to grab the public interest the way this one did. The Ortiz-Shamrock rivalry was only getting started in the UFC pantheon, but truly this was an important event in showing the UFC could not only still be a draw, but that they could bring in large numbers in both attendance and pay-per-view for the Las Vegas event. This show helped to cement their status as a fixture in Las Vegas for years to come.
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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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