- Saturday 12.07.1996
- U.S. Broadcast: Pay Per View
- Promotion: Ultimate Fighting Championship
- Ownership: Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG)
- Venue: Fair Park Arena
- Location: Birmingham, Alabama, United States
- Enclosure: Octagon
- TV Announcers: Bruce Beck, Jeff Blatnick
- Ring Announcer: Manny Garcia
- Post-Fight Interviews: Tony Blauer
- Attendance: 6,000
- MMA Bouts: 10
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Promotion Links:
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Event Links:
Fight Card
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Tournament Championship
Submission, Rear Naked Choke
1:22 Round 1 of 110Main Event
30 min one round | Pro
Cancelled & Fizzled Bouts
Referees
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John McCarthy
Frye vs. Abbott (10), Abbott vs. Nelmark (9), Frye vs. Hall (8), Shamrock vs. Johnston (7), Abbott vs. Worsham (6), Frye vs. Goodridge II (5), Leopoldo vs. Varelans (4), Hall vs. Mitchell (3), Nelmark vs. Bossett (2), Bowden vs. Nilson (1)
Wiki
UFC 11.5 Wiki
Continuing the tradition started at Ultimate Ultimate 1995 of creating a tournament to determine the best of the best among past UFC winners and runners up, the Ultimate Ultimate 1996 tournament was a groundbreaking moment for the sport of mixed martial arts in the United States. Prior to the event, the UFC’s biggest superstar, “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” Ken Shamrock made an appearance on the NBC talk show Late Night with Conan O'Brien, a groundbreaking moment in the sport’s mainstream recognition. Ultimate Ultimate 1996 marked the last UFC appearance of Don Frye, who transitioned to New Japan Pro Wrestling following his tournament win over Tank Abbott. Shamrock also left the promotion following the event, and would not return until UFC 40 in 2002.
Mark Coleman had just come off with winning two tournaments and was the favorite going into the event. he pulled out shortly before due to the flu. Paul Varelans was the replacement for him.
The night also marked the first event to introduce the "no grabbing of the fence" rule.
A unique occurance happened in the Octagon in this event. It was the first and last time that a ref stopped a fight and then started it back up and the origianl loser won the first. In the Jack Nilson- Tai Bowden fight, the ref made a stoppage in which Nilson won but the fight was started up again and Bowden later got the win. This fight was never aired live and was only aired once which was the Ultimate New Years 97 marathon.