Let's Get It On!_ The Making of MMA and Its Ultimate Referee - Big John Mccarthy [98]
Two years later, Elaine was contacted to coordinate a new event called “Battleship,” which was supposed to be held on a military carrier. It never got going, though, and Elaine wouldn’t return to behind-the-scenes work in the sport for nearly ten years.
Aside from not being around the people she adored, Elaine didn’t like the idea of being apart when I went to shows, especially when female fans were fairly open with their adoration. For the sake of our marriage and commitment to one another, we agreed that she would travel with me to every show. Elaine has sat cageside at most of the shows I’ve refereed since.
With the staff disappearing in the UFC’s darkest hours, the fighters stepped up to the plate. Their enthusiasm and passion to evolve into better fighters really kept the sport going. When the UFC lost most of its pay-per-view audience, the athletes kept the die-hard fans interested with their improvement and ingenuity in the cage.
Newspapers or TV programs wouldn’t even mention MMA, but websites like Martial Arts Worldwide Network, The Combat List, Sherdog, and The Underground began to pop up to cover the sport and its fighters. It was this interest that kept the UFC alive through those lean times.
UFC 22 “Only One Can Be Champion,” held on September 24, 1999, at the Lake Charles Civic Center in Lake Charles, Louisiana, promoted the most anticipated fight of its time: a middleweight championship bout between Frank Shamrock and Tito Ortiz.
Shamrock hadn’t fought in the UFC for eleven months following his neck crank submission victory over John Lober at Ultimate Brazil. In that time, Ortiz had been on a tear in the UFC, taking out Lion’s Den members Jerry Bohlander and Guy Mezger in their rematch. Shamrock-Ortiz, which featured the seasoned veteran versus the young rising threat, seemed to be the obvious matchup now.
Fights rarely live up to their hype, but this one delivered on so many levels. Both fighters had magnetic personalities, were in their physical primes, and were more well-rounded compared to the rest of the field. It was just the right combination for a blockbuster bout.
I had to stay on my toes because both fighters were so active. A diligent Ortiz had the edge on the champion in the first round, taking Shamrock down and pinning him against the cage to ground-and-pound him. Shamrock had an active guard, though, and responded with punches from his back.
In the second round, Shamrock kept his distance and fended off Ortiz with kicks until the wrestler slammed Shamrock to the mat.
Ortiz took Shamrock down again in the third round, but both fighters had great stamina and stayed busy. Shamrock managed to get to his feet and landed a kick and an uppercut before Ortiz took him down again. The time flew in the Octagon.
Shamrock’s game plan implementation was especially impressive. Near the end of each round, with about thirty seconds left, Shamrock’s cornerman Maurice Smith would alert him, and Shamrock would start attacking Ortiz with movement, punches, or anything to elevate Ortiz’s heart rate and make him expend energy. By the end of each round Ortiz was just about maxed out, and at the start of the next he was never fully recovered. It was brilliant. Shamrock ran Ortiz like a racehorse, pushing a pace that finally broke Ortiz and gave Shamrock the advantage.
Shamrock was especially impressive in the fourth round. He looked as fresh as when he’d started fifteen minutes earlier, peppering Ortiz with kicks and punches for two minutes before Ortiz dumped him to the mat again. Ortiz tried to pour on elbows from top position, but Shamrock reversed and got to his feet, where he trapped Ortiz on the fence with a flurry of punches. Ortiz shot and took Shamrock down again, but Shamrock reversed a second time and bludgeoned a turtled Ortiz until I saw Ortiz tap out and stepped in to stop it. It was a commendable performance by both fighters that earned a standing ovation.
As Shamrock and