City Mobile, Alabama Venue Mobile Civic Center | Date 15 May 1998 | |
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UFC 17 Redemption UFC Brazil Ultimate Brazil Location Mobile Civic Center, Mobile, Alabama, United States Promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship | ||
UFC 17: Redemption was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on May 15, 1998 at the Mobile Civic Center, in Mobile, Alabama. The event was seen live on pay-per-view in the United States, and later released on home video.
History
The event featured a four-man Middleweight Tournament, three Heavyweight Superfights, an alternate bout in case of tournament injury, and a Heavyweight "exhibition" bout. A Middleweight Championship bout between Frank Shamrock and Jeremy Horn was also taped for broadcast on a later pay-per-view.
UFC 17 was the last UFC event (aside from UFC 23), to feature the "tournament" style format.
Several hours prior to the event, Olympic Gold medalist and UFC commentator Jeff Blatnick was introduced as the promotion's commissioner in a meeting with the fighters to discuss the fight rules for the event. Blatnick asked at the meeting that the fighters refer to the sport, which at the time had many different names including the misnomer "No Holds Barred", as Mixed Martial Arts, with the intention of improving the sport's image. He then repeated the request to the media covering the event later that night. This is generally considered the first time the term Mixed Martial Arts was used to refer to the modern sport, and Blatnick is widely credited with coining the term in relation to it.
UFC 17 featured the first UFC appearance of both Dan Henderson and Carlos Newton, as well as the first MMA fight for Chuck Liddell.
The title Redemption refers to Mark Coleman's return after losing the UFC Heavyweight Title to Maurice Smith at UFC 14. Coleman was originally slated to face then UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture, who had to withdraw due to an injury. Lion's Den fighter Pete Williams would step in as a last-minute replacement to face Coleman. Similar to his fight with Maurice, Coleman looked good early on in the fight, but when the fight went into an overtime round, Coleman appeared to be drained of energy, breathing heavily and keeping his arms low—even turning his back to Williams occasionally while standing. He took several hard shots from Williams, and was eventually knocked out by a devastating head kick Williams delivered to the face. The Coleman/Couture matchup would finally take place 12 years later at UFC 109, with Couture winning by submission.