- Friday 11.21.2003
- U.S. Broadcast: Pay Per View
- Promotion: Ultimate Fighting Championship
- Ownership: Zuffa, LLC
- Venue: Mohegan Sun Arena
- Location: Uncasville, Connecticut, United States
- Enclosure: Octagon
- TV Announcers: Mike Goldberg, Joe Rogan
- Ring Announcer: Bruce Buffer
- Post-Fight Interviews: Eddie Bravo
- Attendance: 9,200
- MMA Bouts: 8
-
Promotion Links:
-
Event Links:
Fight Card
-
UFC Welterweight Championship
Submission, Rear Naked Choke
3:54 Round 1 of 58Main Event
170
5 x 5 | Pro
Cancelled & Fizzled Bouts
Referees
-
John McCarthy
Hughes vs. Trigg I (8), Correira vs. Abbott (6), Lawler vs. Lytle (4), Rockel vs. Liguori (2) -
Larry Landless
Lindland vs. Vitale (7), Tanner vs. Baroni I (5), Rizzo vs. Rodriguez (3), Edwards vs. Agallar (1)
Wiki
UFC 45 Wiki
If nothing else, the poor Pay Per View buy rate of UFC 45, which featured a main event pitting Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes against Frank Trigg, demonstrated that casual MMA fans at the time wanted to see the heavier weight classes. Light Heavyweight fighters such as Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, Ken Shamrock, and Chuck Liddell had all impressed in previous Pay Per View efforts, and none were featured on the UFC 45 card.
Although Hughes basically dominated Trigg from start to finish, choking him out at the 3:54 mark of the first round, Trigg would turn to trash talk aplenty to hype up an eventual rematch, and kick start one of the biggest rivalries in the UFC at the time. UFC 45 also marked the creation of the UFC Hall of Fame, as the first two members were inducted during the live Pay Per View broadcast. The inductees were Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock, who shared mid-event smiles and pleasantries in the Octagon where they had twice gone to war.