22 LAS VEGAS WEEKLY PHOTOGRAPH BY BENJAMEN PURVIS OCTOBER 19-25, 2006 OCTOBER 19-25, 2006 PHOTOGRAPH BY WESLEY GATBONTON LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 23 As mixed martial arts becomes a phenomenon in the U.S., Las Vegas is poised to become its capital BY JOSHUA LONGOBARDY SINCE THE EARLY ’70s, when Bruce bearing maximal cleavage; and of course Lee incorporated various disciplines of the celebrities, like Carey Hart and Jenna unarmed combat into his karate style, the Jameson. Most of whom had shown up for sport of mixed martial arts has been BIG. the actual fights, and not just the social Like Tyson-Holyfield II BIG. Like NCAA event UFC’s shows have become. Final Four Championships BIG. Like “The last boxing match I worked as part Super Bowl BIG. (Think 90,000 insatiable of the Nevada State Athletic Commission fans at Tokyo National Stadium for Pride was the Oscar De La Hoya-Ricardo Fighting Championship’s Shockwave/ Mayorga fight (which, you know, was a Dynamite event, cheering and anguish- major event), and at the first match of the ing as if the world depended on the out- undercard there was no more than 500 come of each fight.) people scattered across the arena,” said But just not in America, where mixed Marc Ratner, who attended thousands of martial arts—otherwise known as fights as executive director of the NSAC. MMA—is just starting to grow. It used “But at the Liddell-Sobral fight, there was to be that fighters like Heath Herring a good 5,000 watching the first fight.” and Kevin Randleman, two Las Vegas And they stayed to watch the main guys who do combat with more than just event, with volcanic enthusiasm—the type their hands, and without anything to of noise and energy typical of big American assist them but four- to six-ounce gloves spectacles and consistent with the atmo- on their knuckles, had to go east, to the sphere of the Strip—cheering on Liddell as other side of the world, where mixed he waged battle with the challenger inside Chuck Liddell gives his warmest regards to Babalu Sobral. martial arts was BIG enough to make UFC’s trademark Octagon ring, 38 feet in them more than a daily wage: It made diameter and enclosed by a cage fence four them into celebrities. Saturday Night Raw with first match of the night’s card commenced feet high and locked shut. But then, in 2001, the Ultimate the Lean, Mean, Ultimate three hours earlier and then erupted by They cheered even louder when Liddell Fighting Championship organization Fighting Machine the time the champion Liddell emerged won, knocking Sobral out with a dozen was reborn in the States, and, spear- August 26, 2006: from the locker room, with Sobral already strikes and one concussive blow. Sobral, headed by owners the Fertitta family, Before a loud and lively crowd at the out and ready for him. And that’s because a crafty Brazilian well-versed in many of of Station Casinos fame, just last year Mandalay Bay Events Center, UFC super- most of “The Iceman” Chuck Liddell’s the sport’s disciplines, such as jiu-jitsu and it made MMA big business in America. stars Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin fights end by way of first-round knockout. kickboxing, blew his load early and ran Not yet BIG, but large enough that two put on stellar shows in their respective Sobral had been waiting to fight Liddell straight into his demise just one minute new major players in Las Vegas, attor- fights. And like all big-time fighters before since 2002, his last loss, which came to the and 35 seconds into the first round. neys Louis Palazzo and Ross Goodman, them, they got the Saturday night party on hands of Liddell. At 6 feet, 3 inches and As it oftentimes happens in the UFC, would start a new MMA organization the Las Vegas Strip off to a dynamic start. 205 pounds, with a Mohawk, a slight beer the fight was so quick, wild and dictated right here in Las Vegas, and pour tons of The main event, Liddell’s bout against gut and very heavy hands, Liddell was by primal instincts that even this cham- money into signing fighters like Herring. Renato “Babalu” Sobral, was a title fight, waiting for him too, with the raucous sup- pionship bout featuring two of the most And large enough that a BIG organiza- for the light heavyweight champion- port of the crowd behind him. well-prepared fighters in the world turned tion like Pride FC in Japan, for which ship belt, and so it was scheduled for five Nobody in the UFC is adored by the into a brawl lacking art or science. But Randleman fights, would bring its first rounds instead of three, like most UFC masses the way Liddell is. There were this, in essence, strikes a primordial chord show to America this Saturday, October fights. But few anticipated it to last that 9,000 in attendance, and they formed a in the audience, and they left the arena on 21, at the Thomas & Mack Center. Not yet long, evinced by the general antsiness in crowd typical of UFC events: bad dudes in Saturday night absolutely invigorated. BIG, but just about there. the crowd, which was rumbling when the Tapout T-shirts and their bad-ass chicks, “Ah man, I’m so fucking pumped,” 24 LAS VEGAS WEEKLY PHOTOGRAPH BY LOUIE TRAUB OCTOBER 19-25, 2006 said David Knight, a 29-year-old fan from which host small events just about every California. “That was an incredible fight, week of the year, and an MMA fighter and now I have Vegas in front of me, baby. must surmount these before he can reach “Whooooooooooooo!” UFC, Pride or, now, the WFA—and the On the contrary, Griffin’s fight against WFA is by far the coolest, the most open- Stephan Bonnar demonstrated that pro- minded, and they are serious about this. fessional mixed martial arts is not just Heath Herring, veteran Pride and K-1 two pit bulls unleashed within a locked fighter out of Las Vegas who just made big cage. In three rounds of sustained action news in the MMA world by signing with and calculated strikes, Griffin and Bonnar the WFA on October 3, and will thus be showed that there is thought, tactic and returning to home soil for the first time in above all timidity in the cage. That is, two seven years (as told to mmaweekly.com): I human beings vying to win a competition. actually called Quinton up and asked him Both young fighters got their start in about these guys. He said they were good the organization on UFC’s reality series, guys. I know Jeremy Lappen, who is CEO The Ultimate Fighter, on Spike TV. The of the company, and I think there are some show, now in its fourth season, has been intelligent people behind this company the medium of UFC’s prodigious growth that know what they’re doing. throughout America, says UFC’s president If you had a good deal of money and micromanager of all its operations, to start an MMA organization, as it Dana White. For not only did it expose appears the WFA does, would you focus the fledging sport to the masses, it also your operations in Las Vegas? acquainted the fans with individual ath- Brandon Adamson, an MMA fighter letes like Bonnar, 29, and Griffin, 27. So from the esteemed Miletich wrestling camp that on Saturday night, when they fought in Iowa: Definitely. Vegas is the fight capi- the rematch of their legendary battle at tal of the world. The majority of the fight- the conclusion of the show’s first season, it ers here are elite. was as if the fans in the crowd were cheer- UFC President Dana White: For us, Las ing for friends or even family. Vegas was the natural decision. The fight went all three rounds, and Scott Ence, part owner of Fight Club, in the end of a close and bloody match, near Valley View Boulevard and Tropicana the judges declared Griffin the winner. Avenue: Las Vegas is the best now. There’s After the fight, as is customary at MMA Forrest Griffin strikes the pose. gyms popping up all the time, and you can events, a microphone was handed to train in them side by side with top-class Griffin in the middle of the Octagon, half ago, when pay-per-view sales hovered At the press conference following athletes. It all goes back to the UFC and so that he would seduce the crowd into around a respectable 280,000 (at $34.95 the fight, at which the BIG media was the success they’ve had. We have a lot of loving him, because just as the gladiators each), and four years before that, when the absent—the ESPNs and the USA Todays UFC fighters who train at our own gym. in ancient Rome knew, winning over the new UFC had been raised from the grave and the Sports Illustrateds—Dana White Jeremy Lappen, who revived the dor- coliseum is critical. by its risk-taking owners, Dana White and introduced Liddell as the light heavy- mant WFA early this year with the mon- Griffin did. the Station Casinos moguls, Frank and weight champion of the world. This, by etary backing of Las Vegas attorneys Louis And they cheered him, like a hero. Lorenzo Fertitta. and large, was not accurate, because there Palazzo and Ross Goodman (as told to Yet, he would later say that he does not The UFC has been around since 1993, is competition Liddell must first conquer Whaledog.com): Everyone saw how suc- yet feel like a celebrity; and that’s because but for good reason it suffered the bad rep- before earning that status.