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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 65 was the event that changed Georges St. Pierre from a promising fighter into a Champion many felt would reign for a long period of time. He'd have a speed bump after this event against Matt Serra, but on Nov. 18, 2006, at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, CA, St. Pierre looked every bit the part of a Superstar.
Matt Hughes had just avenged a loss to B.J. Penn at UFC 63 seven weeks prior to this event, and was had won an incredible 19 of 20 fights dating back to 2001. He had defeated Georges the first time the two met, as the then 23-year-old was star-struck coming into the fight and fought a bit tentative on his way to getting tapped out just before the buzzer in the first round, and Hughes was now a more dominant Champion two years later. He wouldn't like like it in this one.
The first round saw St. Pierre using lots of low kicks to halt the movement of Hughes and to set up something down the line. Twice in that round, however, he caught Hughes low twice and had the fight momentarily halted to give Hughes time to recover. Neither shot was intentional, as the kicks were aimed at the thighs and his toes did the damage. Once the fight was restarted a second time, St. Pierre set out to finish it in the first, and nearly succeeded. He dropped Hughes with a big right hand near the end of the round and tried to finish it off on the ground, but the round came to an end before the ref could stop it.
For the second round St. Pierre looked even more in control from the outset. It would take just over a minute for him to pounce as Hughes shot in for a takedown and ate a kick to the face for his troubles, sending him to the canvas. St. Pierre would then attack and unleash a barrage of punches and short elbows to Hughes, forcing the referee stoppage.
The emotional post-fight reaction and celebration from St. Pierre was like something out of a movie, and the Sacramento crowd was along for the ride. The place exploded as St. Pierre was pushed off of Hughes and then went to his knees, overcome by the moment. His team filled the Octagon and piled onto him in excitement. It was supposed to be the dawning of the St. Pierre era, but that was shortlived. More on that later.
Whereas St. Pierre's legacy was beginning to blossom, Frank Mir's took a turn for the worse on this card. It was on this night that he was steamrolled by undersized heavyweight Brandon Vera and subsequently contemplated retirement. It was the third straight underwhelming at best performance since returning from a severely broken leg suffered in a motorcycle accident two years earlier.
Also on this card, Tim Sylvia cemented himself as a hated Champion with a lackluster, and boring, decision victory over Jeff Monson. It was in watching this fight that Randy Couture felt he could match up against Sylvia and it was then he made his decision to come out of retirement to return to the heavyweight division.
So it was here, at UFC 65 in Sacramento, that the ground work was laid for a few of the stars heading up UFC 100. Couture would capture the belt from Sylvia that Lesnar currently wears, Frank Mir was crushed and finally snapped out of his funk after this fight and GSP was made a star on that night against Hughes. It was a turning point night for many fighters, and the UFC was still only getting started.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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