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By Root 1053 0

& Loaded” was the third in four events to take place at the Trump Taj Mahal and the first run solely by Zuffa. I was challenged as a referee in the main event, a heavyweight title bout between UFC champion Randy Couture and Brazilian striker Pedro Rizzo. I don’t like to throw the word “war” around, but there doesn’t seem to be a more appropriate one to describe this twenty-five-minute battle I saw firsthand. To this day, it’s one of the best fights I’ve ever officiated. It took a lot out of both fighters and presented multiple moments when I was on the verge of intervening.

In the first round, Couture took Rizzo down and stacked him on the fence. Couture unleashed punches and elbows into Rizzo’s guard, opening up the Brazilian’s face. Rizzo wasn’t hard to cut because he had a lot of scar tissue on his face. I didn’t stop it because Rizzo was fighting back; he was trying. I’d told the fighters that if they were at least attempting to move or slow their opponent, whether or not they were successful, I’d let it continue.

I could tell Rizzo knew where he was and his mind was still in it. He couldn’t get out from underneath Couture, but he was fending off a few of the punches and staying alive. Couture kept swinging away till he’d virtually punched himself out by the end of the round.

The next round was a complete turn of the tables, primarily because Couture had used up his gas tank in the first five minutes. Rizzo started connecting some big, damaging leg kicks, which made me wonder how Couture would walk afterward.

After the second round, I went to Couture’s corner and asked if he wanted to continue. I was concerned.

He and his corner said, “We’re good,” a few times, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d gotten his ass handed to him for an entire round. I was trying to give him a way out, but he didn’t take it. Certain fighters can pull it out when they have to, and Couture was that guy in this and a majority of his fights.

In the third round, Couture took Rizzo down again and managed to control positioning for a few crucial moments to get some strength back. It really was the third round that determined the outcome of that fight because Couture was able to get back into the game.

For rounds four and five, they traded uppercuts and hooks, shot and avoided takedowns, and pretty much made each other’s life miserable.

I knew the fight was close, but I thought the judges would give it to Rizzo because of the greater damage he’d inflicted over the course of the fight. However, when the scores were read, Couture was given the nod. I was fine with that and could see how the judges could have gone either way.

I think Couture might have been surprised by it, though. When I raised his hand, he looked confused.

As a small footnote, UFC 31 also marked the debut of a twenty-three-year-old Hawaiian named B. J. Penn on the undercard. Penn took down opponent Joey Gilbert and ground-and-pounded him into submission from back mount as if it were nothing. When the referee stepped in, Penn looked up with the most innocent of expressions. This was Penn’s first professional fight, but you could tell his skill far exceeded that of many of the veterans on the card. Talk about a prodigy.

By UFC 32, I felt optimistic. Some encouraging changes were already happening with both Zuffa and the UFC. Fertitta had opened offices in Las Vegas and had a staff coordinating upcoming UFC events and addressing questions and concerns. Medicals and necessary paperwork were being collected and handled well ahead of the event, leaving less chance for last-minute issues.

Schedules, flights, and hotel rooms were organized and disseminated promptly. Zuffa’s in-house publicity department distributed press releases with updates on each upcoming event and reached out to local and national newspapers and other media outlets to get press covering the shows. The UFC asked me to speak with too many reporters to count, but I never minded. It was an important educational process, and we all had to do our part.

Suddenly the UFC wasn’t a fly-by-night operation anymore.