Let’s Get It On! (25 page)

As for Commissioner Van Clief, he began to talk to Meyrowitz about instituting additional rules. Banning throat attacks was a big one for him; he called them a killing technique. Van Clief gave his notes to Meyrowitz, and Meyrowitz came to me with them. We agreed the rule wasn’t necessary at the time, because none of the fighters were utilizing that type of attack. Van Clief lasted for two shows as well.

The UFC’s oldest competitor, Ron Van Clief, with commentator Jim Brown and his date

A rule we did add at this time came following the Abbott-Taktarov bout. I credit my dad with this one, because he’d taught me that what we were seeing was called fish-hooking. Years before, my dad had gotten into a fight at Dodger Stadium with a man who’d started attacking people with a box cutter. After he sliced my dad’s friend across the neck and back, my dad grabbed him, picked him up, and slammed him headfirst into the seats. Then he got ahold of his mouth and fish-hooked him, splitting his face all the way up to his eye. Describing this story to Meyrowitz proved an easy way to get “no fish-hooking” added to our growing rules list.

A bright spot for UFC 6 and 7—the latter of which was held on September 8, 1995, at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York—was the appearance of famed boxing announcer Michael Buffer as MC for the events. Buffer was a classy guy and the best announcer, and being the avid boxing fan that I was, I thought it was a big step up for the promotion. Michael Buffer shared the Octagon with me until WCW, a pro wrestling promotion that Buffer had already been announcing for, told him he’d have to choose between the two. I don’t think the money was even close, so Buffer, too, bid farewell to the Octagon.

Another man to make an appearance at UFC 7 was cageside physician Richard Istrico, who would stay on all the way through to UFC 30. Dr. Joe Estwanik, the previous cageside physician who’d also worked with the United States Olympic boxing team, had recommended Dr. Istrico to SEG. Meyrowitz liked that he came from New York, where SEG’s offices were located.

Dr. Istrico jumped right in and would send the fighters out for a host of exams like CAT scans, MRIs, and stress tests. He even asked me to start getting physicals because, as he put it, “You’re in there the most out of everybody,” and he had no qualms telling a fighter he couldn’t compete in the UFC if his medicals weren’t up to snuff.

The view you might get from where I stand: Mark Hall vs. Harold Howard at UFC 7 “Brawl in Buffalo” (September 1995)

Though UFC 7 boasted the promotion’s largest live audience to date, objections to the event were mounting. Arizona Senator John McCain, future United States presidential candidate, became the face of the anti-UFC movement when he drafted letters and sent them to the governors of every single state. Ironically, one of the first to jump on McCain’s bandwagon was Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who’d captained the United States judo team in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Campbell pledged never to allow the UFC back into his state of Colorado after it hosted Ultimate Ultimate 95 in Denver. McCain’s campaign would gain steam in the next year.

Meanwhile, the UFC reached its second birthday and decided to celebrate by bringing back the notable fighters for one gala night. Ultimate Ultimate 95 was meant to be a reunion of the best we’d seen in the Octagon thus far, and for the most part I thought it was. Veterans like Oleg Taktarov, Dan Severn, Tank Abbott, and Marco Ruas pulled out all the stops in their bouts.

The event also marked a big first for the UFC. Judges sat cageside to decide the fights’ winners. Before the event, I’d told Meyrowitz that bringing back their standouts would lead to closely contested bouts. If a fight went the distance, it would be considered a draw, but that meant neither fighter would advance in the tournament, and nobody wanted that. Meyrowitz agreed that it was time to bring in judges.

The addition went fine for the most part, except that SEG seated all of the judges at the same table on one side of the cage. In future events, they realized the value in placing each of the three judges on a different side.

SEG also quickly abandoned the practice of showing judges on camera as they each held up a card with the name of their winner on it. Can you imagine judges doing that today? With some of the questionable decisions fans haven’t agreed with, they’d probably have to run for cover after the shows.

It was a shame the UFC had brought the show back to the Mammoth Events Center. For what was supposed to be their biggest event yet, the venue was nasty. But with McCain picking up the UFC’s scent and his political army joining the hunt, shoddy venues would become the least of the UFC’s worries.

Elaine manning the phones in the boardroom at the UFC’s first Ultimate Ultimate event (December 1995)

With my best friend and fellow referee, Joe Hamilton, at his first UFC, Ultimate Ultimate 95

Having a laugh with Tank Abbott

If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d best teach it to dance.

—George Bernard Shaw

From the beginning, I was shocked that people didn’t just flock to the UFC and the sport that would evolve out of it. I thought every guy would love it. How could he not? It’s fighting. There’s nothing more pure.
People should just fall in love with this,
I thought, and when they didn’t, I couldn’t understand why.