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MMA’s early years: UFC 22

The UFC 22: Only One Can Be Champion event was a MMA (mixed martial art) event that took place on Sept. 24, 1999 and was presented by the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Author: Jenna Fletcher
Date: Feb 1, 2011 - 9:00:23 AM

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The UFC 22: Only One Can Be Champion event was a MMA (mixed martial art) event that took place on Sept. 24, 1999 and was presented by the Ultimate Fighting Championship.  The fight was held in Lake Charles, Louisiana in the Lake Charles Civic Center.

This fight had a few different bouts but was headlined by the fight between Frank Shamrock and Tito Ortiz who were fighting for the Middleweight Championship.  There were also two lightweight bouts, two heavyweight bouts, a middleweight bout, as well as a couple of preliminaries.  The headliners did not disappoint and after the fight it was considered one of the greatest fights ever.  The main reason it was so entertaining was because both fighters had a wide range of different skills and the action was very back and forth without anyone completely dominating.  Shamrock wowed fans with his kick boxing techniques and Ortiz took Frank to the mat on more than a few occasions.  At the end of the fight (late in the 4th round) Shamrock eventually won by throwing a succession of hammer fists, punches, and elbows right to the temple of Ortiz.

The other notable things to come about in this fight were that Matt Hughes made his first appearance in a lightweight bout where he won by unanimous decision in the third round after 5 minutes.  He fought Valeri Ignatov and sadly enough this event wasn't televised.  Matt Hughes would later go on to become the UFC's Welterweight Champion and completely dominate that division.  Another notable person to fight was that of Jens Pulver.  He also fought in a non-televised preliminary bout against Alfonso Alcarex and it ended in a draw after a couple of rounds.  Another fact is that this is the very last fight that Frank Shamrock would fight in for the UFC.

UFC 22: Only One Can Be Champion was also the very last event by SEG to go straight to home video release.  The SEG was struggling and was on the verge of bankruptcy because ratings were so low for this type of event on pay per view through the US, Brazil, and Japan.  The next UFC event to go to home video would be UFC 30 when they were taken over by Zuffa.

Some of the other fights that took place in this event were the middleweight bouts that included John Lewis vs. Lowell Anderson and Chuck Liddell vs. Paul Jones.  John Lewis would win his fight by TKO after stopping his opponent in the corner in the third round.  Chuck Liddell would also win by TKO because of his menacing strikes after only 4 minutes in the first round.  As for the heavyweight bouts the first was between Brad Kohler and Steve Judson.  Kohler ended up knocking out Steve after only thirty seconds in the very first round.  The next bout was between Jeremy Horn and Jason Godsey and Horn would get an armlock and win by submission.  Next was Tim Lajcik vs. Ron Waterman where the match was ruled a draw after three rounds.

Jenna Fletcher writes reviews on various sporting events including the online sportsbook. In this piece of write up, the author highlights one of the most popular sports MMA and MMA betting tips. The author takes the readers opinion on how MMA betting online occurs.

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