| UFC 8: Shamrock vs. Leopoldo | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC 8: Shamrock vs. Leopoldo | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | February 16, 1996 | |||
| Venue | Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum | |||
| City | Bayamón,Puerto Rico | |||
| Attendance | 13,000 | |||
| Buyrate | 300,000[1] | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC 8: David vs. Goliath was amixed martial artspay-per-view event held by theUltimate Fighting Championship on February 16, 1996, atRuben Rodriguez Coliseum inBayamón, Puerto Rico. It is the onlyUFC event held inPuerto Rico[2] and was later released onhome video.
UFC 8 was the first UFC event located outside of theContinental United States. It featured an eight-man tournament, and aUFC Superfight Championship fight between reigningUFC championKen Shamrock andKimo Leopoldo. The event also featured one alternate fight, which was not shown on the live pay-per-view broadcast. The tournament had no weight classes, or weight limits. A 10-minute time limit was imposed for all matches in the tournament except Superfight and final (15 minutes).
The event's matchups pitted larger fighters against smaller fighters, hence the term "David vs. Goliath".Local promoter for the historical first and only professional mixed martial arts event was Richy Miranda-Cortese, whose company Sports & Entertainment Ltd had to take local Government officials toFederal Court in order to avoid cancellation of the event by the Government. Among those government officials was GovernorPedro Rosselló and Sports and Recreation Director Erick Labrador. The presentation of the event developed into a new boxing commission rules and regulations and Imposition of a banning Law that was later overturned after Miranda-Cortese fought it in court.
The tournament championship fight featuredDon Frye againstGary Goodridge, with Frye taking the victory when Goodridge tapped out.
Just days before the show, the Puerto Rican government made a ruling banning the event. Two days before the card,Cablevision became the first major carrier, of what over the next few years would become nearly every major cable system inNorth America, to ban the show, stating it never expected to airUFC or similar type of programming ever again.[2]The event is also notable as being the firstMMA event to draw criticism, includingMichigan politician Calvin McCard’s on site protests at UFC 8. These protests would spark the nationwide movement against MMA in 1996, spearheaded byArizona SenatorJohn McCain, which would later temporarily push the sport in theUnited States underground in 1997.[3]
| Superfight Championship | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| N/A | Ken Shamrock (c) | def. | Kimo Leopoldo | Submission (kneebar) | 4:24 | [a] | |
| Finals | |||||||
| N/A | Don Frye | def. | Gary Goodridge | TKO (submission to punches) | 2:14 | ||
| Semifinals | |||||||
| N/A | Don Frye | def. | Sam Adkins | TKO (doctor stoppage) | 0:48 | [b] | |
| N/A | Gary Goodridge | def. | Jerry Bohlander | TKO (punches) | 5:31 | ||
| Quarterfinals | |||||||
| N/A | Don Frye | def. | Thomas Ramirez | KO (punch) | 0:08 | ||
| N/A | Paul Varelans | def. | Joe Moreira | Decision (unanimous) | 10:00 | [c] | |
| N/A | Jerry Bohlander | def. | Scott Ferrozzo | Submission (guillotine choke) | 9:03 | ||
| N/A | Gary Goodridge | def. | Paul Herrera | KO (elbows) | 0:13 | ||
| Alternate bouts | |||||||
| N/A | Sam Adkins | def. | Keith Mielke | TKO (submission to punches) | 0:50 | ||
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||||||
 Don Frye (Wrestling) | KO | |||||||||||||
 Thomas Ramirez (Baguazhang) | 0:08 | |||||||||||||
| Don Frye | TKO | |||||||||||||
| Sam Adkins * | 0:48 | |||||||||||||
| Paul Varelans (Wrestling) | DEC | |||||||||||||
 Joe Moreira (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) | 10:00 | |||||||||||||
| Don Frye | SUB | |||||||||||||
 Gary Goodridge | 2:14 | |||||||||||||
| Jerry Bohlander (Shootfighting) | SUB | |||||||||||||
| Scott Ferrozzo (Wrestling) | 9:03 | |||||||||||||
| Jerry Bohlander | 5:31 | |||||||||||||
| Gary Goodridge | TKO | |||||||||||||
| Gary Goodridge (Kuk Sool Won) | KO | |||||||||||||
| Paul Herrera (Wrestling) | 0:13 | |||||||||||||
The following fighters were honored in the October 2011 book titledUFC Encyclopedia.[4]
