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Story and photos by Todd Hester
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I saw at the end bmes rtmld FU~W ~ e p pay-per-view
k the event into pdctable time dois.
of UK: V, when Royce and Ken Sham+ drew, W
was all the other fighters run to Sham& to ad- Plus, k w e Awe were no weight classes, very
were umHe to compete
ebrate the draw as if they had m i n d t q e h . talemed lightwfighte~
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r n athletic commissions about fight1% over into & odwds d d s and would ~ ~ l c ehm
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50 I hart the id& of m a t i n g the Braailm variatlsr u b h t would eventually transfarm noDream Team, &wh -Id
be all the Brazilian ~haltl&Wd into mixed martial arts.
&mat&
of television, pressure from
fighters training togettrer in I& l i v ~ani B
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lu-Jitsu, wrestling, and muay Thai under ~ ~ a P l c l m
uww
y hard-won experience in prab &ows p ~ l l e me
d ta adbat and
Carlmn &a& and I actually opened an a
d mdng t
.ly in Los Angdes for C a k n to tea& in. Many
F the tradi-onalfighten
not agree bemuse t h e w point to remember: I was inventing th
d as I went along. Th
the);dldn't want to mix their pure art of jiu-jbu sp~rth m the g ~ u up
had never been done before arid 1 was expel
with any other style. But Marco Ruas did agree,
even though a the time he didn't have a h a l menting tP see what worked. By UFC 5 t+
style that i n c o r p o d all the arts. He had done process that c~nvwredvale tudo t o NHB and
his arm cros+imining in luta then to MMA had begun. I added time limits,
for illagai techniques,
live, wresting, baing, judges, &s&ifications
caporeira, and jiu-jiku on his weight clams, and glows. I eliminated head
o m . So we -ed
Ruas buffs,strikest o the head and b c k of the neck,
Vale Tudo b a c a w I was kicks w a downed opponent, mall joint manipm i n c e d that only fighters ulation, pressure-pointstrikes, and hair pulling.
By UFC 15 the bulk a f the changes, W perwho bgined &is way would
be sucaessful in h e future. cent, we@ in p k e ta change NHB to MMA. k
The Brazilian Dream Team dl came together on October 17. 1997 at UK:
eventually became the 15 when Cmmission&r Billy Lydns of the
Brazilian Tw Tern md was Mississippi Boxing CorraniJon &cially sanetioned MMA. That was almost two years before
the New Jersey State Athletic mntd Board
sanctioned MMA in Atlantic City and 25
rn MMA twainmonths before SEG took the UFC into their
first state sanctioned show in Atlantic City."
~ ~ t a m d ~
aroaurd the world. It had
a universal appeal that I
knew would tr%nscerrd
all political hor4em and
CXOIS d
l cosrtimnts.
That first event had a9
eight men t o u m m x r t
plus a ruper fight.
Hmong the fighters
were t h e e of the aaix
UFC champions h c l ~ d h g Steve Jennum, Oleg
TaMarov and Mama
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Cove] itary The Men Who Created MMR
still not out of Lapenda's biood and he says
that his future plans include a theatrical movie
on the mixed martial arts vrarlh w h i b @ p p
rently in development.
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numbers in those days
and a total surprise to
everyone except me.
But I just knew it was
going to be a hit. I told
peode that you could
turn off the sound and
just watch the television
Hnd you could tell what
the show was about.You
could be blind in one
eye and deaf in both
ears and you would still
love the UFC." -,M-
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