Let’s Get It On! (57 page)

1.
A salute goes out to the LAPD, whose insurance program paid for corrective surgery as soon as I joined up. My Herman Munster—sized hands weren’t made to handle contact lenses.

2.
A few years later on a cruise ship, Elaine and I won an award for the worst proposal story ever.

3.
The move would later be adopted by Gracie and renamed Kimura after its originator.

4.
This was later pared down to an eight-man tournament for UFC 1.

5.
Rumors that Rickson was later offered the opportunity to replace Royce at UFC 3 are false. SEG approached Rickson to fight alongside his brother after Royce said Rickson was ten times better than him. Rickson priced himself out.

6.
After Rhodes’ overexposure at UFC 2, I’d added a rule that fighters had to wear spandex or something similar under their uniforms. When he had none of his own, I loaned Leopoldo a pair of mine.

7.
Horenstein’s luck would continue to elude him later at UFC 14 when he’d face another All-American wrestler named Mark Kerr in his second and final UFC appearance.

8.
Coincidentally, Tank Abbott later faced both of these questionable winners in the finals: Taktarov at UFC 6 and Frye at Ultimate Ultimate 96.

9.
The Octagon was mostly made of wood, barring the fencing, and all of the structuring underneath was two-by-fours with a lot of trussing.

10.
Prior to the bout, I asked Severn if he had any questions. Our mics picked up his statement about two trains leaving separate stations and meeting in the middle. Since UFC 6, Severn’s ritual was to ask me questions about relativity or some other inane topic to get me to crack a smile. He rarely succeeded.

11.
Pulver had left primarily because his pay was lower than that of the heavier champions.

12.
Ouano went on to produce gloves for World Extreme Cagefighting, another promotion owned by Zuffa, as well as other promotions like King of the Cage, while glove prototypes continue to evolve and improve.

13.
The Octagon’s canvas is replaced at each event with new sponsors’ decals.

14.
The UFC regularly released footage to media outlets the night of the fights, but that footage never contained the main event’s outcome, ensuring pay-per-view sales through replays.

15.
Though Affliction’s cards were stacked, paying the fighters this much wasn’t sustainable. The promotion would do one more show and cancel a third just days before.