Let’s Get It On! (33 page)

Sakuraba and the crowd were thrilled for a second chance, though Silveira wasn’t. I think he’d gotten a good look at Sakuraba earlier and realized he was fighting a much sharper opponent than he or anyone else had anticipated. It took his head out of the game, allowing the swift Japanese pro wrestler to snag the armbar finish three minutes and forty-five seconds into their rematch.

As for the other bouts, after two overtime rounds, Randy Couture earned a hard-fought majority decision, meaning two of the judges gave him the victory and one scored it a tie, over Maurice Smith. This would be his first of many UFC heavyweight titles during his career.

In the first ever under-200-pound title bout, Frank Shamrock, the adopted younger brother of Ken Shamrock, tapped out 1992 Olympic wrestling gold medalist Kevin Jackson with an armbar in sixteen seconds. Shamrock had gotten a shot at the title out of the gate because he’d beaten Enson Inoue in a Vale Tudo Japan bout nearly three weeks prior. Shamrock had made a name for himself with almost twenty appearances in Pancrase, which had slightly different rules from the UFC’s and required knee-to-ankle shin protectors and wrestling shoes.

A story floated around that Frank, who’d recently left his brother’s famous Lion’s Den squad to form his own team called The Alliance with Maurice Smith, had somehow intercepted the UFC contract meant for teammate Jerry Bohlander to fight Jackson. I don’t know if that story holds any water, but I was there when SEG discussed the winner of Shamrock-Inoue getting the title shot, with the reasoning that the winner would attract more Japanese viewers.

Between stops in Louisiana and Alabama for UFC 17 and 18, SEG took the show to São Paulo, Brazil, home to a number of fighters on the card.

I trained and helped with the starts of two new referees, brothers Mario and Fernando Yamasaki. Both spoke English and Portuguese, a definite plus given our surroundings. Mario and I would end up being good friends, and he stayed with the promotion, later to be added to the regular referee rotation.

The highlights of Ultimate Brazil, which took place nearly five months to the day following UFC 17, included Belfort’s steam-rolling of striker Wanderlei Silva in forty-four harsh seconds. Another unforgettable moment was Pedro Rizzo’s rousing knockout of Tank Abbott at the eight-minute mark of their heavyweight tug-of-war. Rizzo, a quiet, likable guy, was the protégé of UFC 7 winner Marco Ruas, who’d tutored his pupil in the art of muay Thai. His potential seemed endless.

SEG added another rule to the list following UFC lightweight champion Pat Miletich’s first title defense against Lion’s Den scrapper Mikey Burnett. Burnett had been scheduled to meet Miletich in the finals of the lightweight tournament seven months before at UFC 16, so SEG was really anxious to make the match happen here. But Miletich grabbed Burnett’s shorts to control his hips to prevent himself from being taken down. I told Meyrowitz afterward that this wasn’t a jiu-jitsu match; fighters shouldn’t be able to use their opponents’ uniforms to control or to create advantageous positioning. Soon SEG added the rule.

Another vivid memory of Ultimate Brazil was Tito Ortiz showing up to the small arena with his manager at the time to pass out little trading cards he’d made of himself. It was the first time I’d seen a fighter make a concerted effort to market himself, and I was impressed by Ortiz’s ingenuity and marketing savvy. He’d learned a thing or two from Tank Abbott in terms of self-promotion, but Ortiz had some legitimate fighting talent as well.

On the plane ride home, I stood in the back and talked to Ortiz for hours, brainstorming ways he could get himself out there more. I was surprised to learn Ortiz and Abbott had had a falling out and Ortiz believed this was the reason he hadn’t been invited back to the UFC in a while.

I didn’t know if Abbott was keeping Ortiz out of the show or what, but he definitely wasn’t helping his former student get back in. I told Ortiz I would ask John Perretti, the new matchmaker, about him.

In the Octagon with my friend and fellow referee Mario Yamasaki at UFC 20 “Battle for the Gold” (May 1999

Ortiz would return to the next show, UFC 18, in New Orleans and defeat Jerry Bohlander.

I liked Ortiz and could see he was a good person who was willing to work hard to make it. Well ahead of his contemporaries, he had a keen understanding of the fans and treated them like gold, making time for anybody who approached him. I thought Ortiz could do something special in the sport.

The question was whether the UFC would survive long enough for that to happen.

The UFC crew in Japan: Elaine, me, James Werme, Maria Eveicheria, David Isaacs, and UFC owner Bob Meyrowitz

Me, Bob Meyrowitz, and Jeff Blatnick in Japan

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.