UFC Originally Had Gators – Seriously
(The future centerpieces of the UFC.)
I don’t make a habit of reading askmen.com unless I’m researching how to properly organize my closet or how taking a cooking class can make me a better lover – my closet has never looked better by the way – but MMA News is directing attention to askmen’s article, 5 Things You Didn’t Know: The UFC. The piece digs up some absurd stuff we knew and some we didn’t about the organization. Case in point:
1- It was supposed to involve alligators
If nothing else, you can’t successfully accuse the original promoters of the UFC of failing to think big. Specifically, in addition to such outrageous ideas as putting electric fences around the ring, one of their many schemes was to include live alligators thrashing around in moats. Fortunately, UFC doctors were a bit more practical in their thinking, advising against such plans because of the potential harm these could do to the fighters.
Was Bob Meyrowitz behind the curtain on this one? It doesn’t give an exact date as to when the gators were to make their appearance, but I’m guessing YAMMA’s showman had crocs and gators as an idea for a new “surface”.
Point number two details John McCain’s flip-flop on his stance concerning MMA, specifically the UFC. That we are well aware of – as we are of point number five, which is that Dana White kept Tito in the UFC in 2006 by offering to go three rounds with him – a ploy that likely won’t work this time around.
3- It originally had the same standing as the KKK
While early ideas like alligators and electric fences never came to fruition, promoters did hype fights as being “no holds barred,” ending only with “knockout, submission or death.” When McCain began his anti-UFC campaign in 1996, he succeeded in accomplishing numerous state bans on the sport, and was able to push athletic commissions to refuse the sanctioning of a single bout. Perhaps the most telling example of the backlash came at the hands of a public TV station that refused to run a UFC sponsorship ad — to that point, the only other organization the station had ever refused was the Ku Klux Klan.
The UFC in the same standing as the KKK is a major stretch, but more importantly, what kind of fucking commercial would the KKK be airing? Do they have an energy bar they’re hawking I don’t know about? Or maybe they really are that dumb and think people will sign up based on their ads. What douches.
4- Its owners have agreed to settle disputes with jujitsu
Currently, in the spirit of the UFC, the ownership contract features a unique dispute resolution clause: In the case of a deadlock between members of Zuffa, LLC., the Fertitta brothers, “… shall engage in a sport jujitsu match” of three five-minute rounds, which would be referred by the current UFC president (and 10% owner of Zuffa) Dana White.
That makes sense. The execs from Remington settle their disputes by dragging out their six-shooters and dueling, and the head guys at Don Julio Tequila decide arguments by drinking an entire bottle of their product and seeing who can make the most bad decisions in one night – although the Julio guys score from time to time. Kind of…
