UFC 66: Chuck-Tito 2
Even though it is often stated that UFC is the fastest growing sports organization in the country, you can make the argument that the company was never bigger than on Dec. 30, 2006.
Chuck Liddell's light heavyweight title defense against Tito Ortiz was the culmination of a nearly five-year story, when Liddell became the top contender for what was then Ortiz's title. The company delayed the title match by signing the first Ken Shamrock match with Ortiz in late 2002 as an attempt to jump-start interest in a money-losing organization. At the time, Shamrock, both because he was a star in the early days of the promotion when it had a lot of popularity, as well as for his later notoriety gained as a pro wrestler, was a far bigger star than Liddell.
After that business was taken care of, Ortiz claimed an injury, then came a contract dispute, then he took time out to film a movie. The UFC became so frustrated they even created an interim championship because Ortiz wouldn't agree to face Liddell. It wasn't until April 2, 2004 that Ortiz and Liddell finally got in the cage. By that time, Randy Couture was light heavyweight champion, having beaten both men.
Ortiz claimed that he was poked in the eye before the finish of Liddell's UFC 47 victory, and it took two-and-a-half years to build the rematch.
By this point Liddell had beaten Couture twice, winning the championship in the process, and had become the most popular fighter in the company. Ortiz though, had become the company's biggest drawing card, scoring a close decision win over Forrest Griffin, and easily beating Shamrock twice in what were the two most anticipated matches before this one in company history.
Major media that had never touched UFC suddenly, because of the hype of this match and the television ratings success of the third Shamrock-Ortiz match, proclaimed UFC as the hot new sports organization. In the Male 18-34 demo, the match bested several games of the 2006 World Series, even though the former aired on cable and the latter on network television.
The show was the first non-boxing event ever to top 1 million buys on pay-per-view in North America, hitting 1,050,000. The show also drew a sellout 14,607 fans to the MGM Grand Garden Arena, paying what is still a UFC record gate of $5,397,300.
The story of the fight was going to be whether Ortiz could take Liddell down and punish him on the ground. The result was, he couldn't. Liddell got the mental edge in the first round when an Ortiz takedown attempt failed. Ortiz did well in the stand-up early, but Liddell's punches were doing more damage, as he opened up two cuts over Ortiz's left eye in the first round, and knocked him down late in the round. Liddell went for the kill, but Ortiz escaped out of danger.
In the second round, Ortiz was finally able to take Liddell down, but Liddell frustrated him by getting up immediately. Still, Ortiz did enough standing to win the round.
The third round saw Liddell stuff an Ortiz takedown, then start connecting with body shots and an overhand right. Liddell put Ortiz down with a punch, and then let him up. Ortiz was bleeding heavily at this point and decided to go for broke, throwing wildly. But an exchange favored Liddell, who knocked him down, and after another flurry on the ground, ref Mario Yamasaki stopped it at 3:59 of Round 3.
Keith Jardine made himself a star in the semifinal with a knockout of Griffin in 4:41. Griffin appeared to have a meltdown after the loss, crying in the ring, dropping an f-bomb and walking away. He then came back, said he would be back, and then ran to the dressing room.
NOTEWORTHY
According to UFC president Dana White, Ortiz earned $5.8 million in 2006. Just before fight time, when joking about the past, White noted that "Tito loves me now." That didn't last long.
Aside from the main event, the key moment of the show was a commercial that played between fights in the arena, advertising UFC 67, which would feature the UFC debuts of Mirko "Cro Cop" Flipovic and Quinton Jackson. At the time, the signing of Filipovic, fresh off winning the PRIDEOpen Weight Grand Prix tournament, was by far the biggest news. However, Cro Cop ended up going 1-2 in UFC over the next year and went from being the consensus best heavyweight in the world to someone nobody considered at that level. Jackson ended up beating Liddell for the light heavyweight championship and is one of the company's biggest stars.
RESULTS
Christian Wellisch def. Anthony Perrosh, unanimous decision
Yushin Okami def. Rory Singer, submission, 4:03 R3
Gabriel Gonzaga def. Carmelo Marrero, submission (armbar), 3:22 R1
Thiago Alves def. Tony De Souza, KO, 1:10 R2
Michael Bisping def. Eric Schafer, TKO, 4:24 R1
Andrei Arlovski def. Marcio Cruz, KO, 3:15 R1
Jason MacDonald def. Chris Leben, technical submission (guillotine choke), 4:03 R2
Keith Jardine def. Forrest Griffin, TKO, 4:41 R1
UFC light heavyweight championship: Chuck Liddell def. Tito Ortiz, KO, 3:59 R3 (Liddell retains title)
