Throwback Recommend good UFC events from approximately 2002-2007

[jeff7b9]

I am rewatching* events from the era when I fell in love with MMA to pass time while I am dealing with an injury. The service I'm watching on has the PPV portions of the card only.

let me know if you have favorite cards from that era. If you went to any events and have stories feel free to share.

I am unabashed in my love for finishes, knockouts, blood and violence. I also enjoy controversy or elements of "MMA history"

I'm watching UFC 50 right now, AKA the "War of 04"
Yesterday I watched ufc 34 "High Voltage"

........................
Observations:

It is weird seeing familiar faces looking so much younger. Goldie and Buffer in particular, weird to see Buffer with dark hair, Goldie has blond spiked tips for ufc 50 which look pretty stupid but I do remember that fad.

Kerri Kasem was pretty cute.

Card # 20s-30s
A lot of these fighters are clearly taking their vitamins and eating their vegetables.

Some seriously terrible cardio and ugly ugly striking technique in some fights.

Fights sometimes stall in positions you never see anymore because everyone knows how to counter.

UFC 22 Steve Judson entire pre fight segment is about how much he has trained striking defense. 30 seconds into his fight Judson stands with his hands low while Brad Kohler hits him with an overhand right Haymaker with absolutely no setup at all. Judson does not even attempt to slip or parry, he just gets KOed stiff. Amazing.


UFC22 main event promo video refers to Tito as : Teet Toe Ort tizz
(over and over)
...........

-----------
* starting around UFC 50 I watched every event "live" and at that time, 2004-2005 my wife (then GF) was working at Blockbuster video so I watched most of the recent events at that time. I'm sure there are fights in this era I missed or events where maybe I saw 1-2 fights on YouTube or MMAcore.com but didn't see the rest of the card. Specifically I know there are some HW title fights prior to Tim Sylvia's time as champ.


"Freakshow" fights welcome.

Mismatches and violent one way traffic welcome.

Some of my favorite fighters from that era:

Robbie Lawler (plus MFS guys like Jens, Hughes, Jeremy Horn)
Evan Tanner
Rich Franklin
Nick Diaz
Frank Murr
Trigg
GSP
Cabbage (and any other meathead kill or be killed types)


Guys I could use to watch more of and learn about:

Ricco Rodriguez
Pedro Rizzo

 

[Corrado Soprano]

Pride 33

 

[TCE]

Only one off the top of my head. UFC 85, I think it was 2008 though.

I was there live, absolutely banging card top to bottom. Submissions, KO's, and epic back and forth wars.

I've been to 3 UFC events, this was by far the best one I ever attended.

 

[The Don]

Not events, but fights in that timeframe I really enjoy are:

Randy Couture vs Big Nog is such a good fight I watch again from time to time. Couture vs Gonzaga as well. Couture vs Liddell 1 and 2 are great fights as well.

A little further along the timeline but Marcus Davis vs Dan Hardy is a good one.

 

[HavokHarmon]

UFC 79 is one of my favorite events, lots of great fights and stories associated with the fighters at the time

 

[Deleted member 110072]

Pride 33

The ironic thing is that UFC events during the Pride era were some of the best ever as well, the relatively small amount of cards they had and trying to build the business up ment some very stacked events.

Starting in 02 I'd recommend UFC 36.

 

[AmericanMMA]

UFC 52 was awesome!

great finishes. Main card started with GSP vs Mayhem as young pups… Matt Hughes nut shot come back is one of the best ever…. Chuck vs Randy… I usually rewatch Pride fights from that era, but ufc 52 was just as good.

UFC 47 is another fun one

 

[Cptn1NSAN0]

Outside of your criteria but UFC 84 was the GOAT event IMO

 

[jeff7b9]

UFC 52 was awesome!

great finishes. Main card started with GSP vs Mayhem as young pups… Matt Hughes nut shot come back is one of the best ever…. Chuck vs Randy… I usually rewatch Pride fights from that era, but ufc 52 was just as good.

UFC 47 is another fun one

If memory serves me correctly (it has been a few years) I believe that UFC 52 was the first event I watched as a party with other fight fans.

That was comain Hughes vs Trigg 2 and main event Chuck randy 2 where Chuck KOed randy, right?

And it was the same day or same weekend as the TUF 1 finale.


Epic weekend for UFC. Great card.

 

[Legendary]

UFC 92 was 2008 but was one of the first cards I bought on PPV and it was all stoppages. My grandparents were in town visiting and after Kongo split open Al Turk with elbows, they ran away and went to bed. Still will never forget

 

[Elvis.]

Ufc 58 is pretty good

Stout Vs Fisher
Hominick Vs Edwards
Gsp Vs Bj part 1
Ace Vs the Crow

 

[jeff7b9]

UFC 92 was 2008 but was one of the first cards I bought on PPV and it was all stoppages. My grandparents were in town visiting and after Kongo split open Al Turk with elbows, they ran away and went to bed. Still will never forget

Kongo vs Al Turk was violent as shit in the most beautiful way.

Poor AL Turk, gets 2 UFC fights and draws Kongo and CroCop. Late stoppage as I recall against Kongo and AlTurk got broken bones in his face for his troubles.

UFC 92... got it, yeah I would be happy to give that fight another watch, it has been a while.

-------
More observations:

Watching UFC 39:

Baroni looks like an over inflated balloon. His muscles look like he is going to burst out of his skin.

This card is awesome just watched Gan McGee stop Pedro Rizzo. Gan relocated Pedro's nose for him in the closing seconds of round one and Rizzo was kind enough to donate a horror film worth of blood to the Octagon floor and Gan's back.

Caol Uno vs Din Thomas

Bj Penn vs Matt Serra

Tim Sylvia vs Wesley 'Cabbage' Correira
Wow!! Cabbage has got a ridiculous chin!!

Tim most definitely ate all of his vegetables for that fight.



Late #30s UFC really hit stride imo. There is a distinct step up in the skill level as compared to the fighters in the events numbered in the 20s.

 

[sabretitan]

Ufc 49 from top to bottom was a great card

 

[Fergelmince]

I am rewatching* events from the era when I fell in love with MMA to pass time while I am dealing with an injury. The service I'm watching on has the PPV portions of the card only.

let me know if you have favorite cards from that era. If you went to any events and have stories feel free to share.

I am unabashed in my love for finishes, knockouts, blood and violence. I also enjoy controversy or elements of "MMA history"

I'm watching UFC 50 right now, AKA the "War of 04"
Yesterday I watched ufc 34 "High Voltage"

........................
Observations:

It is weird seeing familiar faces looking so much younger. Goldie and Buffer in particular, weird to see Buffer with dark hair, Goldie has blond spiked tips for ufc 50 which look pretty stupid but I do remember that fad.

Kerri Kasem was pretty cute.

Card # 20s-30s
A lot of these fighters are clearly taking their vitamins and eating their vegetables.

Some seriously terrible cardio and ugly ugly striking technique in some fights.

Fights sometimes stall in positions you never see anymore because everyone knows how to counter.

UFC 22 Steve Judson entire pre fight segment is about how much he has trained striking defense. 30 seconds into his fight Judson stands with his hands low while Brad Kohler hits him with an overhand right Haymaker with absolutely no setup at all. Judson does not even attempt to slip or parry, he just gets KOed stiff. Amazing.


UFC22 main event promo video refers to Tito as : Teet Toe Ort tizz
(over and over)
...........

-----------
* starting around UFC 50 I watched every event "live" and at that time, 2004-2005 my wife (then GF) was working at Blockbuster video so I watched most of the recent events at that time. I'm sure there are fights in this era I missed or events where maybe I saw 1-2 fights on YouTube or MMAcore.com but didn't see the rest of the card. Specifically I know there are some HW title fights prior to Tim Sylvia's time as champ.


"Freakshow" fights welcome.

Mismatches and violent one way traffic welcome.

Some of my favorite fighters from that era:

Robbie Lawler (plus MFS guys like Jens, Hughes, Jeremy Horn)
Evan Tanner
Rich Franklin
Nick Diaz
Frank Murr
Trigg
GSP
Cabbage (and any other meathead kill or be killed types)


Guys I could use to watch more of and learn about:

Ricco Rodriguez
Pedro Rizzo

Jeff, you're like the 2000's version of Georgie and Mandy

 

[jeff7b9]

Jeff, you're like the 2000's version of Georgie and Mandy

pretty accurate take.

When I was 25 me and the old lady moved to LA. She was pursuing a career in acting, I'm a musician.

She had a day job at Blockbuster, during approximately a year that she worked there Blockbuster was phasing out VHS to switch to DVD only, so we could "rent" anything free and I think it was less than $1 to buy VHS with her employee discount.

Ironically, I was also recovering from shoulder injury/surgery at that time, and during that significant amount of down time watched a shit ton of MMA, as I am doing once again to pass time whilst dealing with shoulder injury.

Cheers to Sharon Stone's "hoo-ha"




I wasn't aware that the blond chick from Hannah Montana was in the cast for Young Sheldon. She is a cutie and a decent actress from what I have seen.

 

[Lost_Cause]

Came to say PRIDE Grand Prix.

 

[Jibsta69]

I know you said up to 2007 but 2008 had a lot of great cards for nostalgia vibes. Was a very good year for fighting and when Brock made his debut.

You could tell the sport was full booming during this year. It was still the era of guys like BJ Penn, GSP, A.Silva. The LHW division was exciting during this time as well.

 

[ferrisjso]

2007 as a year is very good. So much shit going on.

 

[justdangerous]

ufc 43 was a fun one

 

[Bullitt68]

These are the types of threads that I live for.

As an old school fan, I'm just going to stick to UFCs 35-39 because I doubt that many other people here are either old school enough or hardcore enough to be able to offer any thoughts on these older events. And this is because you said that you'd already seen UFC 34, so I'm assuming that means that you've also already rewatched UFCs 30-34. In which case...

UFC 35: Excellent event from the era when they'd have a fighter sit in the booth as guest commentator. For this event, Randy Couture put the headphones on for the first time. The main event is one of the GOAT LW title matches, Jens Pulver showing for the first time that the way to beat BJ Penn was to survive the initial burst and then beat him down mentally and physically. It's also always a treat to watch Randleman's wrestling - arguably the best double in the history of the sport - although this is the infamous fight where Randleman said that he shit his shorts during the fight. Bustamante versus Dave Menne is a forgotten gem of a title match. And then Ricco Rodriguez continues his ascent up the HW ladder by putting it on Jeff Monson. Chuck Liddell also beats up Amar Suloev in a tactical striking match that has a great between-rounds moment where Chuck gets pissed at what looked like a late shot but cools immediately when he realizes it was an accident. Great card top to bottom.

UFC 36: One of my favorite events from this early Zuffa era. Sean Sherk puts on a wrestling clinic against the always game Jutaro Nakao (who boasted a submission victory over Pat Miletich back when Miletich was king of the hill) and then Matt Serra and Frank Mir show what top level submission skills look like with slick quick finishes. Matt Hughes mauls the Shooto king Hayato Sakurai (and even lands a monster Superman punch just because he could), who was a replacement opponent. Who was Hughes originally supposed to fight, you ask? Oh, nobody, just future MW champ Anderson Silva. But Silva signed with PRIDE where his Chute Boxe boys were fighting instead of with the UFC. At that time, Hughes would've destroyed Silva, and for the history books, it would've been amazing. But Sakurai was also a dominant Shooto force...just not as dominant as prime Hughes. Pedro Rizzo shows that he's still a dangerous striker by taking out the young up-and-coming Andrei Arlovski, and Josh Barnett shocks the world by taking the HW title from Randy Couture in a grueling match where Barnett used great elbows from the bottom and knees in the clinch, constantly making Randy work until he was finally able to turn the tables. It's also cool having Ricco Rodriguez in the booth commentating, because he knew that he'd likely be fighting the winner for the belt soon enough. More on that later...

UFC 37: Not as much of a banger as the previous two events, but still a great card full of A-listers. The first fight of the night is future champ Robbie Lawler throwing down with Aaron Riley for all three rounds. Then there's the overlooked early LW crew, with Caol Uno taking a decision over Yves Edwards. Then there's Phil Baroni and BJ Penn putting the hurting on their opponents. My favorite of all, there's Ricco Rodriguez solidifying his status as the #1 contender at HW with a thorough trouncing of the tough and durable Tsuyoshi Kosaka. And then the main event is the infamous - and awesome - MW title fight with Bustamante defending against Matt Lindland in the fight where Big John makes a rare mistake at a key moment.

UFC 37.5: Lame card, but it's fun as historically (1) it was the first UFC event broadcast on a major sports network, with Robbie Lawler's victory over Steve Berger being broadcast on Fox Sports, and (2) the Fear Factor guy Joe Rogan sits in and does commentary. Lame card or not, it's all about the main event here, as Chuck Liddell solidifies his status as the #1 contender for Tito Ortiz' belt with a decision victory over Vitor Belfort. The end slugfest with Chuck sitting Vitor on his ass will always be an insane, adrenaline-pumping moment.

UFC 38: Not the best card, as the UFC made its way to the UK and the Royal Albert Hall - in fact, the highest-profile fighting wasn't even done in the cage, as old school fans will remember - but it's headlined by possibly my favorite Matt Hughes performance. Having defeated Carlos Newton to become the WW champ by powerbombing his way out of a triangle choke just in the nick of time, for their rematch, Hughes wanted to dominate Newton to where nobody could say anything, nobody could cry "Fluke," they'd just have to respect Hughes as the king of the division. And by this point, Hughes' grappling had been getting better and better, and he absolutely crushes Newton. One of the most impressive displays of top control and positional dominance capped off by a brutal display of GNP courtesy of the most impressive use of the crucifix position yet seen in MMA.

UFC 39: Another one of my all-time favorite events. Sean Sherk gets the night started with his persistent wrestling attack and his nasty elbows inside the guard, splitting the super game Benji Radach open and getting the TKO. Then Matt Lindland beats Ivan Salaverry in a less-than-exciting bout. But Phil Baroni gets the crowd back into it with his iconic KO of former champ Dave Menne, whose head he uses as a speed bag before proclaiming himself the best eva. This card also features two big HW bouts. Pedro Rizzo loses for the first time ever in a non-title fight, as Gan "The Giant" McGee times a perfect straight right with his tremendous reach and busts Rizzo's nose to force the stoppage. And then Tim Sylvia makes his UFC debut in his all-timer against Cabbage, who he uses as his human punching bag in a dominant display of power punching. Plus, there's also the mini LW tournament between Caol Uno and Din Thomas on one side and BJ Penn and Matt Serra on the other to determine who would compete for the LW championship at a later event. Uno/Thomas is an interesting fight, while Penn/Serra is a bit slow, but props to Serra for aggressively going at Penn. It's a real tough fight to score, and I would've loved it if Serra had gotten the nod, but Penn used his great TDD to shut down Serra's game. Most importantly, though, in one of the GOAT fights, Ricco Rodriguez finally got his shot at the HW title...but not against Barnett. Having been stripped of the HW title for pissing hot, Randy Couture was given the chance to get his belt back. But Ricco was too much for him. In an absolutely extraordinary battle, Randy starts off strong and takes the greener Ricco out of his comfort zone, but eventually, thanks to his coach and cornerman Tito Ortiz, Ricco settles into his game, starts to initiate the wrestling and starts beating Randy to the TD, and unleashes ferocious GNP that eventually leads to an orbital bone-breaking elbow in the final frame and allows Ricco to put the HW strap around his waist, capping off one of the most impressive runs through a division in the history of the sport.

Guys I could use to watch more of and learn about:

Ricco Rodriguez
Pedro Rizzo

To start with a joke: Definitely don't watch their fight

Seriously, though, I said it above and I meant it: Ricco's run through the UFC HW division is one of the most impressive runs in MMA history, and the Ricco Rodriguez that beat Randy Couture at UFC 39 is the only fighter next to the Cro Cop who annihilated Wand and Barnett in the OWGP finals who I might actually favor in a fight with Fedor. Ricco was big, he was strong, he developed phenomenal wrestling training with Mark Kerr and Tito Ortiz, he put together a decent striking game and had a wicked flying knee, and his submission skills were unsurpassed in the HW division. Much like BJ Penn, his problem was always mental. He was a party animal and lacked discipline, which led to lots of drinking and poor weight management. But when he was training with Tito at Team Punishment, he had the discipline and the structure that he needed, he looked (physically and technically) better each and every fight, and by UFC 39, he was in his top form. Then immediately thereafter he took his foot off the gas, got cocky, and started celebrating instead of training, and Tim Sylvia took the belt right from him. But Ricco back then was just an animal.

And Rizzo was always a disappointment since he'd so often shut down and fight passively, but when he was throwing, he was an unholy striking terror. Low kicks that were the stuff of nightmares and underrated boxing paired with a powerful sprawl. Don't sleep on his fights with Barnett and TK, and then both of his slugfests with Tra Telligman are a blast to watch.