In 1993, the UFC held their first event in Denver, Colorado, planting the seeds for an entire sport to begin growing out of this barely legal event. The mastermind behind the concept was Art Davie, who held onto an idea for years until he was finally able to turn it into a reality. Davie has just released a book explaining the history of the first UFC and all of the tumultuous events leading up to it, and I had a chance to chat with him about damn near everything!
In part four of this six-part series, Art Davie talks about some brawls that have happened outside of the octagon, including “Tank” Abbott mugging Pat Smith in an elevator, and the potential signing of John Wayne Bobbitt to the early UFC (for younger fans, Bobbitt was known in the news in the 90’s when his wife, Lorena Bobbitt, cut off his penis). Surprisingly, these two events actually intersected with each other!
Art also tells us more about the incident from UFC 3, where Royce Gracie forfeited his match against Harold Howard which led to Kimo Leopoldo and Joe Son running out to the cage to take credit for the victory and the near-brawl that ensued between them and the Gracie family, as well as Joe and Art nearly fighting in the parking lot after.
If you are having trouble with the video above, head over to this link and watch the video on Youtube.
If you want to check out Art Davie’s new autobiography and uncensored tell-all about the first UFC event, head over to this link here to pick up “Is This Legal?: The Inside Story of The First UFC from the Man Who Created It”. It comes with The Fight Nerd seal of approval as a must-have for MMA history fans!
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