The Old School MMA Review team is back with one of the all-time greatest UFC tournaments!
Following up after the amazing Ultimate Ultimate tournament at the end of 1995, the UFC kicked off 1996 by leaving American soil for the first time ever, with the company heading to Puerto Rico with their one-night tournaments. For this event, all of the first round matches were built around the “David VS Goliath” concept, which meant each match had a huge weight difference featuring a smaller “David” battling a heavier “Goliath”. Most importantly, this event saw the MMA debuts of both Don Frye and alleged Gary Goodridge, as well as the octagon return of Superfight Champion, Ken Shamrock, and his challenger who had not set foot into the octagon since his beatdown of Royce Gracie at UFC 3, Kimo Leopoldo.
Plus, the re-emergence of “The Polar Bear” Paul Varelans, Scott Ferrozo and his orange “Fear Me” tarp, the ever-present threat of the Chupacabra, and Christopher Penn… for some reason. Seriously.
Don’t forget to support the official DVD release of UFC 8 (although this version sadly lacks the advertisement for the UFC instructional series)!
If you want to read more about Gary’s debut, check out his extremely well-priced and very honest autobiography, Gatekeeper: The Fighting Life of Gary “Big Daddy” Goodridge, and if you want to read more about Ken Shamrock’s Superfight (like why he wore knee high socks since we forgot to address that), check out Ken’s old book, Inside the Lion’s Den.