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I told Meyrowitz afterward that the fight had been fake, but Meyrowitz asked me how I could think that.

UFC 11

“The Proving Ground”

September 20, 1996

Augusta-Richmond County

Civic Center

Augusta, Georgia

Bouts I Reffed:

Mark Coleman vs. Julian Sanchez

Brian Johnston vs. Reza Nasri

David “Tank” Abbott vs. Sam Adkins

Jerry Bohlander vs. Fabio Gurgel

Mark Coleman vs. Brian Johnston

Scott Ferrozzo vs. David “Tank” Abbott

I hit my forearm against Brian Johnston’s nose while leaping in to stop his bout against Reza Nasri, and everyone thought I broke it, but that isn’t true. “John, you hit my nose,” Johnston said, and burst out yelling at the grounded Nasri because they’d exchanged words before the fight. An ill-timed camera cutaway on the pay-per-view made everyone think Johnston was having it out with me.

The main event never happened after Ferrozzo was too gassed from his first fight with Abbott to enter the finals against Coleman. With no alternates left standing, 5,000 fans were treated to Coleman suplexing protégé Kevin Randleman onto his head in an unaired wrestling exhibition. It wasn’t fighting, however, and the hotheaded Randleman cursed the hostile crowd quietly, daring them to get in the cage themselves.

Rumors that Hall had thrown the fight circulated for months, until he came out and openly admitted it. Hall said Frye had offered to pay him, with the mutual manager’s consent, to ensure that Frye made it to the finals as strong as he could be. Hall said he came forward only after Frye didn’t settle up, though Frye denied it ever happened.

I don’t know what kind of deal was struck, and I don’t care what anybody says. I know what I saw.

8

Between Ultimate Ultimate 96 and UFC 12, I finally convinced Meyrowitz and the rest of SEG to add weight divisions. Over the last few shows, I’d told them there were many great 170- to 185-pound fighters who could shine for the promotion, but no matter how talented they were they just wouldn’t be able to overcome the bigger fighters.

I suggested they take a first step by splitting the UFC into two tournament divisions: heavyweight for fighters 200 pounds and over, and lightweight for those under 200. To keep the number of fights down, a preliminary round would decide the two finalists in the four-man tournament, which meant the fighters would compete in two bouts that night instead of three.

SEG decided to give it a try, though the UFC almost didn’t get the chance to test out weight classes.

UFC 12 “Judgment Day” was scheduled to take place on February 7, 1997, in Niagara Falls, New York, but a day before the promotion was forced to move the entire event—fighters, cage, and all—to the Dothan Civic Center in Dothan, Alabama.

The UFC’s New York story had actually begun a few months earlier, when Meyrowitz had hired a lobbyist named James D. Featherstonhaugh shortly after UFC 8 to get mixed martial arts legalized in the state. SEG’s offices were located in New York, and being the center of the universe as well as the haven for boxing for many years, it seemed like a smart progression.

In less than a year, Featherstonhaugh had managed to get a bill introduced and eventually signed by Governor George Pataki that made Ultimate Fighting legal in New York for a short time. However, Meyrowitz had to make an agreement with the politicians involved with the bill to not bring the UFC to New York City and especially not to the famous Madison Square Garden, until there had been multiple events held in the state and everyone felt comfortable with it. SEG booked the upstate arena and got to work promoting the event.

In the meantime, Battlecade: Extreme Fighting, another promotion owned by New York—based movie producer Donald Zuckerman, decided it would swoop in on Madison Square Garden first. Zuckerman hadn’t been part of the UFC’s lobbyist movement and hadn’t made any agreement to keep his show away from New York City, but when Zuckerman announced his show, it affected us all. The news attracted the