World Extreme Cagefighting 1: Princes of Pain
2001-06-30, Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, Lemoore, CA
Thanks to a thread started by my pal Mekchu where we’re going to watch every WEC event, I watched the inaugural WEC event last night. As my contribution to the thread, I put together some background writing for context, but I did not realize how much I found. So I’m also going to share it here.
The show is available in individual fight files on UFC Fight Pass. Certified cool dude Brut assembled the links to the fights in order, if you would like to watch. They’re all quite short.
https://ufcfightpass.com/video/33846/cruz-gomez-vs-isaias-martinez-wec-1
https://ufcfightpass.com/video/33787/leonard-garcia-vs-victor-estrada-wec-1
(The third fight, Nick Agallar vs. Ray Benavides, has been lost to time)
https://ufcfightpass.com/video/33856/chris-sanford-vs-bobby-martin-wec-1
https://ufcfightpass.com/video/33806/phil-ensminger-vs-gabriel-garcia-wec-1
https://ufcfightpass.com/video/33825/scott-carson-vs-bryson-haubrick-wec-1
https://ufcfightpass.com/video/33808/tony-alanis-vs-bryant-garcia-wec-1
https://ufcfightpass.com/video/33804/lalo-moz-vs-bruce-nelson-wec-1
https://ufcfightpass.com/video/33807/gan-mcgee-vs-seth-petruzelli-wec-1
https://ufcfightpass.com/video/33810/dan-severn-vs-travis-fulton-wec-1
The first thing I noticed is that the ring announcer looks like Furio from The Sopranos
- The Wrestling Observer was mostly only covering UFC and PRIDE at the time, so there is no mention of this show around when it happened. But there was notable historic MMA news that broke on 6/28/01, two days before this show took place:
"Dynamite" Dave Meltzer, WON 2001-07-09:
During a time when the dynamics of the sports entertainment industry in the United States seems to be changing almost weekly, in what would be the biggest story since the purchase of UFC by Zuffa Entertainment, In Demand announced UFC PPV shows would be back on basic cable starting with the 9/28 event after the two groups agreed to a four year contract.
The announcement was made on 6/28 at a press conference at the ESPN Zone restaurant in New York to promote the PPV event the next day. Steve Brenner, the President and CEO of In Demand made the announcement, crediting the recent sanctioning of UFC by the athletic commissions in New Jersey and California for the move. The 9/28 date is tentatively scheduled for the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas, pending formal approval of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which is expected when the subject comes to an official vote on 7/23. There is a follow-up show at this point scheduled for 10/26, as will as a final show of the year for December.
That's right, the founding of WEC coincides almost exactly with the end of the "dark ages" of UFC where it finally got onto the road to becoming the "legitimate" sport that we know and love.
- The show takes place at the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, on the first nations land of the Tachi Yokuts tribe in Lemoore, CA. 22 of the first 24 WEC events took place at the Tachi Palace from 2001 to 2006, when Zuffa purchased the organization. WEC was the first MMA promotion to be aligned with Tachi Palace. From 2007-2009, Palace Fighting Championship ran 17 events there, followed finally by Tachi Palace Fights, who ran all 35 of their events there between 2009 and 2018. That run included a very brief break, where "the tribal council decided to discontinue mixed martial arts events at the casino in December 2012, but reversed its decision in March 2013, and TPF fights resumed."
- In his promo after his main event win, Dan Severn said that he's 43 years old and is entering the final two years of his professional career, to the disappointment of the crowd. He said he was currently working on trying to put together what would be his final big sendoff fight. Dan would actually continue to fight another 11 years after this event, finishing up in April 2012. This event was his 52nd pro MMA fight, and he would spend that 11 years having 75 more fights before finally actually retiring. I searched the text of Dan's book for reference to this fight but he did not write abut it. The only reference he makes to the year 2001 in the book is about his fight with Forrest Griffin in October, which was Forrest's pro debut after a 5-0 amateur start and which Dan won by decision.
- I decided to open up one more Observer issue from later in July before I concluded that this show had no coverage and I found the first WEC CONTROVERSY~!
"Dynamite" Dave Meltzer, WON 2001-07-23:
UFC pioneer and pro wrestler Dan Severn was suspended by the International Fighting Council (IFC) after allegations from the promotion that he was involved in a fixed fight on 6/30 in Lemoore, CA against Travis Fulton. Fulton, along with Severn's manager, Becky Levi, were also given indefinite suspensions, effective immediately, as it related to a match that Severn won by unanimous decision.
According to an IFC press release, the suspensions alleging a predetermined fight, said that it became apparent to referee Mason White that Fulton was holding back from punching Severn while he had the 43-year-old former UFC heavyweight champion in a full mount. When questioned after the fight, Fulton claimed that Levi had approached him before the fight on behalf of Severn telling Fulton to go easy on Severn and to guarantee Severn the victory or Severn would pull out of the fight. Fulton was a last minute replacement opponent for Severn, who was expecting a much easier fight that night.
Commissioner Paul Smith said in the press conference that the participants could all be fined and suspended for up to one year for a first offense on this charge, but were withholding a final determination on the suspension until speaking further with Severn and Levi.
There are three different versions of what happened, two of them pretty clear cut, Smith's claim the fight was a work and Levi's claim it wasn't. Fulton's side of the story at this point is a little more murky, since he admitted to a pre-fight agreement but not to a fixed outcome, and brings into question whether a pre-fight agreement to limit offensive tactics constitutes a work (it doesn't) or a deception on the public (it is). At the same time, the question of feeding fighters opponents who are believed to have zero chance to beat them and switching opponents on fighters at the last minute is another form of deception, which at times is necessary, but opens up a lot of cans of worms.
Severn and Levi's story, in response, as printed in the current issue of Full Contact Fighter, is that they contacted by promoter Scott Adams about three weeks before the fight to come in and fight a tomato can, as a late replacement for Chuck Liddell. Severn booked himself to do fights on four consecutive weekends from 6/23 to 7/15 and this was the second weekend of the series. Severn was already booked for that weekend in the Poconos doing a seminar and being inducted into the World Karate Hall of Fame. On the day of the show, they flew out of Newark, to San Francisco, arriving at 3 p.m., and drove four hours to Lemoore. Upon arrival, they got the first indication that Fulton, a very experienced journeyman fighter, may be Severn's opponent because of problems with the scheduled opponent. When they got to Lemoore, CA, Levi was paid Severn's guarantee in advance. Levi said she went to Fulton, who told him that the original opponent was drinking and smoking at the casino and the promoters took him off the card. Levi then went to one of the promoters, Reed Harris, and told him the money figure they agreed to was to fight a tomato can, and not an experienced fighter like Fulton. Harris told Levi that they were already over budget and wouldn't up Severn's money. He said that if he thought Severn would want more money, he never would have taken the original opponent off the show. It should be noted Severn had a fight scheduled in September in Iowa against Fulton. She noted that they were given the rules, which banned knees and elbows to the head, just as Severn entered the cage (he missed the rules meeting because he was in the Poconos for his previous engagement), which ruined his typical fight strategy. Levi claimed that even though Fulton did get a mount during the fight, he never had any space and when he tried to make a move, Severn reversed him and dominated the rest of the fight. They were called the next day and told that Fulton had told Smith the fight was a work.
In the same magazine, Fulton did an interview saying that he was also promised an easy fight, his opponent kept changing, and the night before the fight they brought up to him fighting Severn. Fulton claimed he talked with Levi and said they would try to give the people a show but that the fight itself would be real, in that the grappling would be real, but they did reach a pre-match understanding because Severn was worn out from the travel and Fulton had one hand all banged up that he wouldn't be able to punch with. He said the agreement was that Fulton wouldn't punch Severn, which he said didn't really matter because with his hand so sore, he couldn't anyway. He said the deal they privately agreed on was not to strike each other, but there was no deal on who would win, and that Severn beat him fair and square. Fulton said he mentioned to Smith after the fight about their pre-fight agreement not to punch each other and Smith got furious, saying that with all the work the IFC is trying to do to legalize the sport and they were doing a work. Fulton said he mentioned the agreement not to punch when he was asked why he never threw a punch when he got the mount, and his response was, that he only had one good hand, and that they had agreed not to. Fulton also said that Adams was the next day to take him back to San Francisco to fly home, but refused to do so because he believed they did a fake fight and Fulton wouldn't admit to it, although Fulton did get a ride from Adams' father to the Fresno airport, and Adams' father bought him a plane ticket from Fresno to SF so he could catch his flight.
- Chris Sanford, the "guy in the shirt," was on TUF1 but got sent home by Randy Couture without even getting to fight. He lost to Josh Koscheck on the TUF1 Finale show.
- Scott Carson was the second of two guys to lose to professional MMA fighter and absent father Herschel Walker
- Bryson "The Outlaw" Haubrick only had 3 MMA fights (0-3), and his pro debut two months before he lost on this show was a loss at KOTC: Bombs Away to a 7-1 Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
- An 0-2 Victor Estrada was one of Antonio "Mandingo" McKee's 6 finishes in his 30 MMA wins.
- It does appear that there was an entire series of shows in New Zealand called "Princesses of Pain"