Let's Get It On!_ The Making of MMA and Its Ultimate Referee - Big John Mccarthy [80]
We landed about four and a half hours later, and SEG’s crew scattered to set up the Octagon, hang the lights, and in a few hours tend to details they usually had a few days to accomplish.
Not only would SEG have to refund the money from the tickets sold in Niagara Falls, which was substantial because it was a sell-out, but they would also have to give away all of the Dothan tickets.
I was sent to a local Dothan radio station that had been alerted to our arrival in their fair city. I invited fans to come pick up free tickets, and the station was even kind enough to whip up some T-shirts for the fans that said, “Why is the UFC in Dothan, Alabama? Because New York only allows street gangs to whip your ass.”
That night, 6,000 Dothan fans were treated to a decent free show. Mark Coleman continued his reign by neck-cranking Dan Severn into submission in the night’s superfight.
10 In the UFC’s first lightweight tournament, Jerry Bohlander, a protégé of Ken Shamrock’s Lion’s Den team, defeated alternate Nick Sanzo with a crucifix neck crank. However, the night really belonged to a nineteen-year-old Brazilian named Vitor Belfort, who stunned Tra Telligman, also a Lion’s Den fighter, in their heavyweight preliminary bout with the fastest hands I’d seen in the Octagon.
The UFC went to Dothan, Alabama, and all I got was this damn T-shirt. Still, it’s one of my favorites.
In the finals, Belfort faced Scott Ferrozzo, who outweighed him by more than 100 pounds. Belfort stopped the flabby Ferrozzo in his tracks with his incredibly accurate fists to win the heavyweight tournament. In total, Belfort had spent two minutes, ten seconds in the cage that night. I took one look at this young, muscular athlete and knew he’d be a star.
Shaken by the drama that was UFC 12, SEG returned to safer territory at the Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center in Augusta, Georgia, for UFC 13 “The Ultimate Force” on May 30, 1997, one of the few places left where the promotion wouldn’t be hassled.
UFC 13 would turn out to be a landmark event because it produced two future superstars of the sport. One was a young protégé of Abbott, Tito Ortiz, and the other was a four-time Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling alternate named Randy Couture.
Quiet and composed, the thirty-three-year-old Couture entered the heavyweight tournament on two weeks’ notice and won both of his fights that evening to become the heavyweight tournament champion.
It was hard to tell what Couture would be able to do as a fighter from his initial two bouts because although both opponents had been bigger than him, neither had been particularly technical. Couture’s wrestling had allowed him to control and dominate, which I’d expected. But Couture would really come into his own as a fighter in his next appearance.
That night, it was easy to recognize another fighter’s potential. The tournament’s one lightweight alternate, Ortiz, walked through opponent Wes Albritton in thirty-one seconds. The rest of the tournament also played out in Ortiz’s favor.
In the first bracket, Lion’s Den fighter Guy Mezger earned a unanimous decision against Chris Leininger to secure his spot in the final match. In the other preliminary bracket, Enson Inoue submitted Royce Alger with an armbar but took a big hit during the bout. Afterward, Inoue’s eye socket swelled up when he blew his nose; he had a small crack in his orbital bone. Dr. Istrico took one look at Inoue and told him he couldn’t fight the next match.
The bleached-blond Ortiz would be called to the finals, but because he was a wrestler in the NCAA collegiate system at California State University Bakersfield at the time, he wasn’t allowed to accept any money for the bout, including the final prize. Ortiz had