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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 46 is one of those events that you look back on paper in amazement at just what was on the card. With two title bouts included, all of the undercard bouts save for one featured at least one former or future MMA Champion. In fact, two of the fighters in Championship bouts at UFC 100 were on this card in Frank Mir and the debuting Georges "Rush" St. Pierre.
The opening bout featured future Welterweight Champion Matt Serra taking a decision over current WEC Bantamweight Jeff Curran in Curran's only UFC appearance. After that, current Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Josh Thomson handed Hermes Franca his only loss to that point.
The next bout on the undercard was the debut of a seemingly unassuming French Canadian named Georges St. Pierre. He was fighting Karo Parisyan, and at the time even though this bout was on the untelevised undercard Parisyan was being seen as a future star based on his previous performances. Instead, the live crowd would get their first taste of at the future of the sport in the debut of Georges St. Pierre. GSP worked his way to a unanimous decision to begin his UFC career with a win.
Next up was the only fight not featuring a former or future Champion, though it did feature one of the most infamous figures today in MMA. Lee Murray fought in his only Octagon appearance on this event in a successful venture against Jorge Rivera. He caught Rivera in a triangle choke in the first round. Of course, now Murray is being held in a Morocco prison as he awaits a trial on the $92 million dollar bank robbery of which he was allegedly the leader.
Former Welterweight Champion Carlos Newton lost a decision and then Frank Mir, current Interim Heavyweight Champion, knocked out Wes Sims in the second round in a rematch from a previous bout.
The two Championship fights saw both titles change hands, though that happened in two completely different ways.
B.J. Penn fought one of the best fights of his career in taking the Welterweight Title off of Matt Hughes. A natural lightweight, Penn was 100% ready for this fight against the larger Hughes, as he took him down immediately and worked his control on the ground in the first round. It wouldn't make it out of that frame. Penn got Hughes' back and choked him out with just over twenty seconds in the round.
Finally, one of the flukiest moments in UFC history happened in the main event. Less than a minute into the first round of the Light Heavyweight Title bout between Randy Couture and the challenger Vitor Belfort, Couture was caught on the eye with the seam of one of Belfort's gloves. What resulted was a laceration to his eyelid that left it hanging and caused a stoppage to the fight. There was concern that it may be a career threatening issue, but Couture was rushed to the hospital for surgery and made a full recovery. Because of the way this one ended, Couture would get an immediate rematch upon his return.
This card just had a lot of everything here at the beginning of 2004. It would be another year before the UFC really began to blow up, but the seeds were planted for those who would carry it into this unheard of level of success that reaches it's next plateau at UFC 100.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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