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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.
While we've been counting down the numbered events here for this journey to 100, it would have been impossible to get here if it weren't for the Ultimate Fighter's first season finale live on Spike TV.
On April 9th, 2005, one of the most important fights in UFC history happened when Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin squared off to determine the first season's light heavyweight Ultimate Fighter. This card was billed as the first live non-pay-per-view mixed martial arts event on North American network television, and the UFC brought out one of the biggest names in the organization's history, Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock, to headline what the UFC was hoping would be a successful event.
Was it ever.
The UFC launched several new stars on this event, with Diego Sanchez defeating Kenny Florian to officially become the very first "Ultimate Fighter." Rich Franklin instantly became a name fighter by defeating the aforementioned Shamrock to cap off the event with a first round TKO, but it was the light heavyweight showdown that has people still talking to this day.
For three rounds Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar laid everything they had in themselves on the line, bloodying and battering each other in a non-stop battle to the final bell.
The first round was one of the most exciting round of action that have ever taken place inside of the Octagon, with both fighters trading punches, kicks and everything else they could throw at each other. The last minute of the round saw them take the fight to the ground and a would also see a submission attempt from Griffin. He won the round but the war was far from over.
They went right back to trading shots to begin the second round, and Bonnar opened up a nice cut on the bridge of Griffin's nose. Griffin took him down and landed shots before standing back up and letting Bonnar back to his feet. Bonnar would get the nod for this round with the final minutes, getting the better of the exchanges as Griffin looked to be tiring, but there was still one more round to go.
Amazingly, it was now Griffin looking like the fresher fighter in the third. This round again consisted largely of both men trading and connecting on most of what they threw at one another, but here it was Griffin landing more as well as more often and with both guys trading until the end Griffin edged out the decision.
This fight had people calling their friends and telling them to turn their TVs to Spike to watch what was going down. With so many people watching this free event, they set up an extra promotional tool for the next pay-per-view featuring the coaches from the first season, Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture. It wasn't singularly responsible for the coming surge in popularity for the sport, but it definitely set the wheels in motion. The official UFC magazine also listed this fight as the number one fight in UFC history. We'll see how the fans voted during the UFC's Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights program, but you can rest assured it will likely be in the top 10.
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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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