The SmarK Rant for UFC #2

(As requested from the Observer thread…)

The Ultimate Fighting Championship II: No Way Out! (March 11 1994)

– This was back when SEG favored roman numerals in their titles.

– Changes in the format: 16 men in the tournament (Royce Gracie v. 15 tomato cans, basically), no rounds this time.

– The original announce crew is gone and replaced with Brian Kilmeade and stuntman Ben Perry, along with dead weight Jim Brown.

Open Weight tournament preliminary round

Royce Gracie (Jiu-Jitsu) v. Minoki Ichihara (Karate)

“Here’s a profile on a fighter we don’t know anything about!” That’s a direct quote. So the first 7 fights were dark matches in the prelim round, and they saved Royce’s for PPV, I’m guessing in case the unthinkable happened and someone beat him. Both are in gi here. Royce takes him down immediately and wraps him up, then throws strikes. Gotta say, this announce team is immediately more engaging and relaxed than the first one was. Ichihara is hopelessly trapped in Gracie’s mount, and without referee mandate to stand them up, the end result is inevitable. And indeed, he lets Ishihara get up long enough to roll him over in the armbar at 5:05. Ichihara was tapping like crazy immediately and Big John was actually very slow to get in there and stop it. Textbook Gracie.

– To fill time and educate new fans, we get an interesting look at the different disciplines on display (karate, kickboxing, kung fu, wrestling/grappling and “exotics”). What’s interesting to me is that the eventual style that now dominates UFC is based on kickboxing melded with grappling and the rest have completely gone by the wayside.

Open Weight tournament quarterfinals

Scott Morris (Ninjitsu) v. Patrick Smith (Kickboxing)

Smith just destroys Morris in 10 seconds, knocking him down and out off the bell and then pounding his face into hamburger with sick elbows until the corner throws in the towel. Morris had absolutely no defense on the ground.

Fred Ettish (Kenpo Karate) v. Johnny Rhodes (Karate)

Ettish is a sub for an injured prelim winner, and it’s another gi sighting. They trade some punches and Ettish goes down, trying to fight from his back, but Rhodes just unloads on him with knees to the head. Today Big John stops it immediately because Ettish isn’t defending himself, but Rhodes lets off and it’s allowed to continue. Ettish is bleeding all over the place and he’s clearly overmatched here. Rhodes gets full side control and chokes him out with ease at 3:00. This should have been stopped 15 seconds in, but maybe that’s just the modern viewer in me talking.

Orlando Weit (Kickboxing) v. Remco Parduel (Jiu-Jitsu)

Remco gets a quick takedown and fights for the arm, but Orlando fights him off, so Remco elbows him RIGHT IN THE FUCKING FACE, into unconsciousness at 1:30. Oh my god. I’m so glad they banned knee and elbow strikes like that, because that’s terrifying. He could have shattered the bones in his face from that position.

Royce Gracie (Jiu-Jitsu) v. Jason DeLucia(Kung Fu)

DeLucia shoots in on Gracie, but Royce just wraps him up from the guard position and then casually turns him over into full mount and then pretty much breaks his arm with a hanging armbar at 1:00. That’s pretty evil, as he lets DeLucia think that he’s escaped, but he’s got control of the arm from the bottom the whole time. That’s just UNFAIR.

Open Weight tournament semi-finals

Patrick Smith v. Johnny Rhodes

They go with the standup fight, but Smith catches him on the fence and guillotines him to finish at 1:00. I’ll be glad when we get to the shows where these guys actually have training to defend against basic stuff like that.

Royce Gracie v. Remco Parduel

Gracie shoots in and hangs on like a bulldog before taking Parduel down and controlling from the rear. Gracie ends it with a choke after a relatively marathon 1:30. Well Parduel lasted longer than I thought he would, I’ll give him that.

Open Weight tournament finals:

Royce Gracie v. Patrick Smith

Royce patiently waits for Smith to try the takedown, at which point he hangs on and goes to full mount, dismantling Smith’s defense and pounding him for the win at 1:18.

This was truly some wild west crazy shit from the early days, with some of the most blood-curdling finishes you’ll ever see on a UFC show, back from the days before rules and true skill. Royce Gracie absolutely slicing through the tournament is amazing to watch and this makes for an unexpectedly entertaining show. Strong recommendation, as long as you can stomach a couple of the finishes.