Fifteen years ago this weekend, UFC held their eighth PPV event in Denver, Col. in front of just 3,500 fans. Bruce Beck, not Mike Goldberg, was the play-by-play announcer. Joe Rogan was part of an ensemble cast of a new TV show on NBC called "News Radio" with Dave Foley, Stephen Root, Andy Dick, Maura Tierney, Phil Hartman, and Vickie Lewis. Nobody could have foreseen Rogan becoming one of the most influential voices in the toughest badass sport to ever exist on a mainstream level. Jose Aldo was nine years old.

In the sports world, Michael Jordan had just returned to the Chicago Bulls and picked up where Shaquille O'Neal left off the year before as the scoring champion in the NBA. Kevin Garnett was a rookie on the Minnesota Timberwolves. Meanwhile, the biggest names in UFC were Oleg Taktarov, Dan Severn, Ken Shamrock, Tank Abbott, Marco Ruas, Kimo, and Royce Gracie. The rules for UFC hadn't been sorted out, judging criteria was a controversy, fighters were trying to figure out how to "solve the guard," time limit draws were a concern, and UFC wasn't on ESPN's map. At least ESPN is now covering UFC, but the sport is still struggling to get competent consistent judging, fighters are still trying to "solve the guard," and time limit draws are still common.

The following is my report published in issue #366 of the Torch Newsletter 15 years ago covering the tournament format of UFC 8: Ultimate Ultimate followed by analysis by columnists Bruce Mitchell and Chris Zavisa and then our reader poll results. For current MMA news, be sure to check out our sister site, MMATorch.com, with full time coverage by editor Jamie Penick and analysis from the entire MMATorch team of contributors.

UFC 7.5 - Ultimate Ultimate
When: December 16, 1995
Where: Denver, Colo. - Mammoth Center
What: Hybrid fighting pay-per-view
Live Attendance: 3,500

TOURNAMENT ANALYSIS

SEMI-FINALS: Dan Severn defeated Tank Abbot in the semi-finals and Oleg Taktarov in the finals to win his second UFC tournament. Both of his victories came via judge's decisions after fighting both wrestlers to time limit draws.

The "Ultimate Ultimate," as UFC8 was billed, was a small letdown in the sense that the three most anticipated match-ups ended in indecisive time-limit draws. After the four favorites got past their first round opponents easily - all four first round matches together took less than seven minutes total - they stalemated against each other.

Oleg Taktarov vs. Marco Ruas (pronounced Ooh-ahse) saw the best and worst of the sport side of UFC. Marco began the match going for the same leg-weakening kicks that led him to his UFC7 finals victory over Paul Varelans. Oleg kicked back as the two fighters exchanged gestures of pride, kicking the intensity level of the match up a notch. At 3:00, after circling each other and exchanging fleeting blows, Taktarov backed Ruas to the fence. Ruas locked on a backhug. Taktarov already had a cut above his right eye. Ruas stomped on Taktarov's feet just as he did often in UFC7. Taktarov went for his "move of the night," a diving leglock takedown. Ruas, unlike Taktarov's first round opponent Dave Beneteau, knew how to defend against the hold. Oleg went into the guard at 4:30.

They quickly ended back on their feet, though. Taktarov shot in on Ruas's legs twice, but both times Ruas moved out of the way. Taktarov threw a left hook that caught Ruas on the cheek. Ruas grabbed at his cheek, showing the effects of being punched. Oleg then shot in again and locked on a choke from the side. He was unable to shift the choke to Ruas's windpipe, so Ruas was never in serious trouble despite a pop from the crowd. Oleg rolled on his back into the guard (lying on your back with your hands protecting your face and your legs wrapped around the bottom of your opponent) while holding the side choke. At 8:52 referee John McCarthy broke up the two fighters due to inactivity.

Taktarov was checked by a ringside physician to see if his cut was bad enough to stop the fight. It was not and the match continued. From then on Ruas wanted no part of Taktarov, passively avoiding any possible stand-up exchanges or shoot-in attempts. Ruas threw a few more kicks toward Taktarov's legs, while color commentator Don Nelson suggested Taktarov block the kick and move on him. When Taktarov made a late shoot-in attempt, he missed and was on his back. Ruas, though, passed up the chance to move in on Taktarov and instead backed off. The announcers speculated that Ruas felt unsure of himself on the mat after his early exchanges with Taktarov, so opted to be conservative. The fight ended with both fighters circling each other as the fans booed. The judges then awarded the decision to Taktarov who then collapsed to the mat perhaps crying over his win. The unanimous decision came because Taktarov scored with a left hook, a leglock, and a choke, while showing good defensive abilities in the guard and more aggressiveness at the end. Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, Ruas, through an interpreter, complained about the decision, citing Taktarov's bloodied face as evidence he won the fight. Nelson and co-color commentator Jeff Blatnick strongly disagreed with Ruas. Ruas came across as a sore loser which the announcers readily pointed out.

The other semi-final was even more clear-cut, although less interesting, as there was never a moment past the 1 minute mark at which it seemed Severn was at risk of losing to Abbot. Abbot confirmed his resiliency and toughness but failed to change his reputation of being relatively weak in the technique department. In the opening seconds Abbot was on top of Severn backing him into the fence. Severn, though, used technique to take Abbot to the mat and ended up on top of Abbot, who was in a weak face-down position. Severn laid on a series of elbows, punches, and slaps, although all from a weak leverage position. The blows took their toll on Abbot, but not to the point that Tank tapped out. Several times Severn applied a choke, but because Tank has such a strong, short neck, the choke had very little effect, just as was the case throughout most of Tank's UFC6 final's loss to Taktarov. Late in the 17 minute match when Severn let Tank rise to his feet, the fighters locked up against the fence. Abbot was clearly too winded to mount an offense. Severn won on judges' decision, although once again did not show an ability to put away a fighter with a submission (although Taktarov was unable to put Abbot away, either, so Abbot is clearly less susceptible to joint locks and chokes than most others). Severn celebrated openly the judges' decision.

FINALS: In the UFC8 pre-fight show, each of the competitors was interviewed regarding their fights and the UFC on a whole. When asked about the format changes in UFC8, Steve Jennum foreshadowed a controversy that arose in the finals regarding judges deciding the winners in the case of time limit draws.

"With the different styles, what are the judges going to look at?" asked Jennum. "Are they going to look whether the guy is on top more? Royce Gracie is an excellent fighter off of his back. If he were in a situation where he fought Dan Severn and he was on his back for almost (the whole fight), who would they give the fight to? I would hope they have some real solid guidelines they are going to use to pick the winner."

In the finals, Taktarov spent the majority of the time on his back in the guard. That worked against him in the eyes of the judges, even though the guard is one of the most desirable places to be in a hybrid fighting match. Royce Gracie intentionally went to the guard because there are several places to go from the guard into submission holds against your opponent. In the UFC8 pre-fight show, Ken Shamrock spent 20 minutes demonstrating ways to move from the guard into submission leglocks. Nevertheless, because of the paradigm that when you're on your back, you're losing, the judges may have held Taktarov's strategy against him.

At 1:30 Taktarov went for his diving leglock and appeared to have Severn beat. Severn was in obvious pain and almost appeared to be considering tapping out, but he rolled to the fence and broke the hold.

Early in the match, Jeff Blatnick suggested Severn would be unable to "solve the guard," thus would have to concentrate on opening Taktarov's cut leading to the referee stopping the match. In fact, it seemed from the early minutes what it would turn out to be a 30 minute draw, that indeed the only way the match would end would be via blood stoppage. At 6:00, Ken Shamrock who joined the broadcast team, agreed the only way the bout would end would be via blood stoppage. Shamrock did add, though, that while Taktarov cuts easily, he clots quickly.

At 11:40 Severn continued to remain on top of Taktarov, throwing some knee drives. At 12:55 the ref stood up the fighters due to inactivity and had Taktarov's cuts checked. The fight was allowed to continue. As the two exchanged some punches, Severn was backing away. They ended up on the mat again where Taktarov once again went into the guard. At 17:20 they were stood up again by the ref. They circled for a few more minutes before Taktarov went into the guard at 20:00. There was a little bit of shifting on the mat, but otherwise little action. At 27:00, they went into a 3 minute overtime. In the overtime, the announcers believed Taktarov needed to be the aggressor in order to win because the points were in favor of Severn. Severn did back off in the overtime. An exhausted Taktarov, who had less rest than Severn between his semi-final and the finals, was only able to make a couple ineffective rushes at Severn before the time limit expired.

In a unanimous decision, Severn was awarded the victory. The announcers talked as if the decision to award Severn the victory was clearcut. Taktarov, though, was safely in the guard most of the fight, was more aggressive at the end of the fight, and nearly forced Severn to submit to a leglock early in the fight. Severn, meanwhile, was aggressive but never appeared to be on the verge of winning outside of the possibility the fight would be stopped due to blood.

First Round: Tank Abbot beat Steve Jennum at 1:14. Jennum tapped out as his face was being smooshed against the cage with no sign he would be able to escape. Dan Severn beat Paul Varelans at 1:01 with a front face chokehold. Oleg Taktarov beat Dave Benetau at 1:22. Marco Ruas beat Keith Hackney at 2:39 with a chokehold.

Maturing This show was a sign of UFC maturing from an experimental concept to a full-fledged sporting event of its own. No longer is the intrigue based on "which fighting style will win" but is based on who is best at the UFC hybrid fighting style, although it was intriguing hearing former kickboxer Don Nelson talk about openings he saw as a stand-up fighter and hinting that he may train to participate in a future event.

This show as much as any showed that the kneejerk politicians' efforts to ban this "human cock fighting" was an uninformed, opportunistic overreaction.

Up Next: The next UFC features a SuperFight with Ken Shamrock vs. Kimo. Talks have resumed with Royce Gracie and there is a chance he could participate in a SuperFight later this year. Any mixture of Gracie, Shamrock, Taktarov, Ruas, Severn, or Abbot would be marketable and intriguing.

In fact, I'd prefer to see a three-match, three hour pay-per-view with one hour time limits on the first two bouts and TV time remaining on the third bout featuring a Severn vs. Shamrock rematch, Taktarov vs. Abbot for the first time, and the "Battle of Brazil" ("Battle of Egos"?) with Gracie vs. Ruas. After all, the undercard mismatches don't sell pay-per-views and this special format would eliminate the subjectiveness of the short matches that work against the skills that make hybrid fighters, by definition, great - i.e. defensive preservation ability. If the first two matches went a combined one hour, that would leave up to two hours for Gracie vs. Ruas to really fight to the finish. Then have a few stand-by matches with Benetau and Hackney types to fill time should matches go much shorter than expected.

COLUMNIST COMMENTS

Chris Zavisa, Torchh columnist: The Saturday night Ultimate Ultimate proved to be a very good athletic event that more than gave the consumer their money's worth. It was carried out in a much more serious manner than the previous ones as exemplified by the absence of scantily clad "ring girls." The event was well-paced.

I have two overwhemling impressions of the event. First, the total dominance of Dan Severn. The man worked a total of 50 minutes against his three opponents and dominated at least 47 of those minutes. That is an astounding statistic. The announcing team seemed to rap him for not being able to put away Abbott and Taktarov. This sport has become so defensive-minded that it is difficult if not impossible to put away a skilled veteran. I wonder if either Shamrock or Gracie could now beat Severn.

The other impression I'm left with is the total contradiction between the reality of what happened and the controversy leading up to it. We saw none of the inhumane carnage that the Defenders of Public Morality and Standards saturated the nation with. There was far less brutality shown here than on the average Sunday afternoon football game.

Bruce Mitchell, Torch columnist: The Ultimate Fight had exactly the type of show they needed to put on something other than barbarism. SEG emphasized technique and safety, cut down on the dubious claims, and ran their event like a serious, high-quality sport.

Bruce Beck, Jeff Blatnik, and Ken Shamrock were excellent at explaining the intricacies of the fighting styles. The fighters all seemed first rate, although it seemed that there were two distinct tiers of quality.

As is the case when sport is at a high level, the character of several fighters was further illuminated. Tank Abbot came across as a classic poor sort who sucked when he was outclassed skillwise. Marco Ruas, by refusing to lock up for the final eight minutes with Taktarov and then having the audacity to complain about the judges came off even worse. His reputation was exposed as more hype than substance.

On the other hand, Taktarov is obviously one of the toughest competitors in any sport. His attitude, technique, and stamina were amazing. His approach, however, presents a new challenge to UFC officials. Are the new rule changes, time limits, and judges fair to a combatant whose style is based on fighting out of the guard.

And then there's Dan Severn, who made no excuses for his last showing and through hard work and preparation renewed his reputation as one of the best performers and most sought after commodities in the wrestling world. Severn played the rules of the ultimate fight to his advantage, just as any great athlete would.,

With all of that, this was not one of those sporting events where circumstances, competitors, and fate come together to create a transcendent event. This was workmanlike, interesting, and sometimes boring - just like other sports.

I am interested to see what critics have to say who saw their first event. UFC helped themselves with the single-most important issue - legitimacy as a sport.

READER POLL RESULTS

Average Score: 7.5

Best Match: Dan Severn vs. Oleg Taktarov (40%), Marco Ruas vs. Oleg Taktarov (40%), Dan Severn vs. Tank Abbott (20%)

Worst Match: Tank Abbot vs. Steve Jennum, Marco Ruas vs. Oleg Taktarov...

Please Recommend or Like This Article on Twitter or Facebook

KELLER BLOG: Paul Heyman alliance with C.M. Punk - where does it go from here?

KELLER'S WWE SUMMERSLAM PPV BLOG: Results and analysis throughout the show including Lesnar vs. Triple H, Cena vs. Punk vs. Show

KELLER: C.M. Punk is not best utilized as a tweener, despite a recent reader poll; he should be all out heel

Comment on this Article Below