Gerard Gordeau’s UFC career could’ve looked far different if he escaped the clinch of Royce Gracie 31 years ago.
The Dutch kickboxer won the first-ever bout in the Ultimate Fighting Championship but later tapped to Brazil’s Gracie and never fought for the promotion again.
The month of November is a significant period for Dana White and the UFC every calendar year.
November 12, 1993, witnessed the UFC’s first-ever MMA event and this year marks its 31st anniversary.
Held live in Denver, Colorado, eight of the deadliest fighters in the world came face-to-face for the first time.
The reason was simple – could a boxer beat a jiu-jitsu guy? Debates in the MMA community at the time often involved conversations regarding the superior fighting technique.
On that night in November, MMA fans finally started to construct an answer for the first time to those debates.
From Savate – also known as French boxing – to sumo wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to Taekwondo – UFC 1: The Beginning really had it all.
“I think it was announced to everybody together that there was going to be a meeting for the rules that there were no rules,” Royce Gracie, one of MMA’s pioneers, who won the tournament said in an interview with the original UFC 1 fighters.
Ken Shamrock, who specialised in shootfighting during his youth and was a former foe of Gracie’s, added: “It didn’t really feel like we were in a position to ask why they were taking away shoes and [hand] wraps.
“This is back in 1993, we had sanctions, regulations, so to really hear them saying you can punch someone on the ground, kick them in the face…
“It just didn’t seem like reality in 1993, so my doubts were always let’s just see where this goes.”
That’s right. All fights during UFC 1 were no-holds barred, meaning all bouts were free of restrictions or hampering conventions.
The only rules put in place for the Colorado fights were no eye gouging or biting, but headbutts and shots to the groin were all allowed.
The fighters also didn’t wear gloves and there was no time limit on any of the bouts, meaning each fight would continue until someone was finished by KO, TKO or submission.
Even with all that said the so called ‘rules’ were only enforced by a warning from the referee and a small fine.
“But if you do a gouge or bite, like Gerard [Gordeau], as soon as I took him down he bit my ear,” Gracie once recalled in a conversation with UFC commentator Joe Rogan.
“There was no punishment, like: ‘OK, you’re going to get disqualified’ – it was just: ‘Don’t do it again, sir.’”
The crowd in Colorado were warned of a huge snow storm as they headed to Denver, but little did they know that the real storm was coming from indoors at the McNichols Sports Arena.
Sumo wrestler-turned-Hollywood actor Teila Tulia faced off against Gordeau in the first fight of the night that marked the UFC’s inaugural bout.
Tuli – also known as Taylor Wily – weighed in at 410 pounds ahead of his one and only MMA bout, which was remarkably nearly 200 lbs heavier than his opponent.
You would’ve thought the Hawaiian, who played a police informant during an incredible 171-episode run on Hawaii Five-O for a decade, would breeze past his smaller opponent, but that was definitely not the case.
Gordeau was a world champion in French Savate boxing and Dutch karate champion for eight consecutive years going into the bout.
And it was clear he had the superior skill set, as it didn’t take long for the Dutchman, who stood three inches taller than his opponent at 6′ 5”, to earn a victory.
Both men – having never been in a position like it before – sized each other up when the fight got underway, before Tuli charged at Gordeau to attempt a takedown.
The Honolulu native failed at the takedown attempt and fell to the floor just before Gordeau delivered a devastating football-like kick to Tuli’s head that sent one of his teeth flying.
He followed up with a right hand and the fight was soon called to an end after the doctor had assessed Tuli’s right eye, which he could no longer see out of.
Gordeau progressed into the next round and faced kickboxer Kevin Rosier, who was victorious over karate expert Zane Fraizer earlier in the night.
On the other side of the bracket, Gracie fought professional boxer Art Jimmerson in another strange matchup.
Gracie is one of nine sons of jiu-jitsu grandmaster, Helio Gracie and his brothers Royler, Rickson and Rorion all went on to master the Brazilian sport, too.
Gracie wore his traditional judo top and Jimmerson squared off with one boxing glove on his left hand, as fighters were allowed to wear whatever they wanted on the night.
Jimmerson had obvious reasons for lining up his left hand with the glove, but that was probably what cost him the fight – although he later admitted he didn’t even know takedowns were legal at UFC1.
Like a lot of these bouts, both men remained patient in the first few seconds to get a feel for one another’s style.
However, it didn’t take long for Gracie to take down the American, who couldn’t get up or out of the clinch and eventually succumbed by tapping from exhaustion when Gracie was on top.
He then met Shamrock in what would turn out to be an iconic matchup, as both men returned two years later to fight at UFC 5 and then eventually in 2016 at Bellator 149.
Gracie asserted his dominance against the American by submitting inside one minute, before doing the same to Gordeau in the final of the eight-man tournament.
The event sold 90,000 live PPVs and catapulted BJJ across the United States, which led to the continued growth of UFC and MMA.
Gracie even said his family’s academy doubled in size after the first UFC and double again after UFC 2, which took place four months later.
He later left the UFC after his second bout with Shamrock in April 1995 that ended in a draw after 36 minutes with both fighters rolling on the canvas for the majority of the fight.
He was said to have left due to disputes with organisers, who planned to bring in weight classes to the sport and time limits on fights.
Gracie, though, unexpectedly returned to the UFC 11 years later in May 2006 to fight America’s Matt Hughes, but lost in the first round after receiving numerous blows on the ground.
Since that day in 1993, the UFC has put on more than 700 events across the globe and became the largest player in all of sports and entertainment in the world.
But it almost disappeared without a trace until White and brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta joined forces.
After millions of dollars wasted, the brothers – owners of Zuffa – stepped in and bought the UFC for $2m in 2001 then installed White as president. In 2016, Endeavour Holdings bought Zuffa and made Frank and Lorenzo billionaires as they stepped aside.
Fast forward to September 2023, Endeavor announced it was acquiring WWE‘s pro-wrestling brand to combine into one publicly traded company.
It all means UFC is now valued at more than $12 billion.
