Sak fought the same guy twice. Their first fight lasted 90 seconds and ended due to the ref's error. It was really no better than an alternate showing up to win the final tournament match. I like Sak but I'm hard pressed to say this is the same thing as beating 3 guys in a one night or beating a champ to win a belt.
That was after they created weight class belts. Before then, there were belts, and trophies at times. Here is a pic of Coleman with 2 tourney belts and the UFC HW, which was quasi-morphed from the old superfight belt.
Yeah, by that point they were trying a hybrid model with a mini-tourney and individual matches with HW and LHW champs. The tourneys weren't the same.
No, otherwise Fedor would be considered as ALREADY signed to the UFC, and was a UFC champion.
IDK if I would go that far without qualification, but it would not be incorrect to refer to them as former UFC champions. However, I think it would be weird to say that Dan Severn, for example, was the UFC 5 title belt winner. It is just better to say he was the winner of the UFC 5 tourney, etc.
You are absolutely correct. I think part of the issues is a lack of belt, which people get to hung up on.It's not up for anyone's consideration. Sakuraba won a tournament. He was the tournament champion. He was a UFC champion. The language and logic shouldn't be confusing. In time, the UFC would drop the tournaments and go solely with boxing-style weight classes and divisional champions, but that doesn't make the tournament champions not champions. The word is right there: Tournament champion. The end.
It's not up for anyone's consideration. Sakuraba won a tournament. He was the tournament champion. He was a UFC champion. The language and logic shouldn't be confusing. In time, the UFC would drop the tournaments and go solely with boxing-style weight classes and divisional champions, but that doesn't make the tournament champions not champions. The word is right there: Tournament champion. The end.
Randy Couture was the HW belt holder that night. See the screenshot I grabbed from the video after the fight at the same event (Ultimate Japan).
The question I was responding too, was he a champion? Not that he was the linear HW champion as was Couture. My background is wrestling, if you win a tournament, you are the champion of that tournament. That was why in the early UFC they were calling Severn a multi-time champion in freestyle, Greco-Roman, and Sambo (I think that was the wording). With that reasoning, Saku was the winner of the UFC Japan HW Tourney, and thus the champion of that event (the tourney). It is separate from Couture.
Good analysis, except Kimo fucked that up.
Which is silly. Tournament champions and divisional champions aren't the same thing and no one is saying that they are. But in what universe is a tournament champion not a champion? There's no getting around that word, so what's to consider? It's silly.
How is this baffling people? Tournaments were held, people won them, they became tournament champions, they were champions. The end. Winning a tournament wasn't the same as winning a divisional title, but no one is saying that it is. Originally, the tournaments were all that there were. Then they created the Superfight title, at which point the tournaments became the pool from which Superfight title contenders would emerge, from Dan Severn winning the UFC 5 tournament and then challenging for the Superfight title at UFC 6 to Oleg Taktarov winning the UFC 6 tournament and then challenging for the Superfight title at UFC 7, etc. But Ken Shamrock winning the Superfight title at UFC 6 had no bearing on Oleg Taktarov winning the UFC 6 tournament and becoming the tournament champion. They both won different things and became different champions. But they were both champions. Likewise, Shogun won the PRIDE MWGP in 2005 while Wanderlei Silva was the PRIDE MW champion. They didn't win/hold the same titles, but they were both champions. Same thing with Cro Cop winning the PRIDE 2006 OWGP. And on and on down the very simple list of tournament champions and divisional champions that MMA orgs have had through the years.
I personally don't consider it a champion once there were official, belt-holding champs in different divisions. It was a carryover from the earliest UFCs, to keep the "one night tournament" energy going, but nothing more than that.
