| UFC 9: Shamrock vs. Severn 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC 9: Shamrock vs. Severn 2 | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | May 17, 1996 | |||
| Venue | Cobo Arena | |||
| City | Detroit,Michigan | |||
| Attendance | 10,000 | |||
| Buyrate | 141,000 | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC 9: Motor City Madness was amixed martial arts event held by theUltimate Fighting Championship on May 17, 1996, at theCobo Arena inDetroit,Michigan. The event was seen live onpay-per-view in theUnited States, and later released onhome video.
UFC 9 was the firstUFC production not to feature thetournament format (which was brought back by popular demand atUFC 10). Instead, it featured an entire card of regular bouts. The card featured seven bouts and an alternate bout to fill time for the pay-per-view broadcast.
The main event was the highly anticipated rematch between reigning UFC Superfight ChampionKen Shamrock and number one contenderDan Severn, who had fought one year earlier atUFC 6 for the UFC Superfight Championship, with Shamrock reigning victorious.
TheUFC drew national criticism leading up to the event, due in large part toArizona SenatorJohn McCain's letter writing campaign against the "brutal spectacle" of no holds barred fighting.[1] After a legal battle in theDetroit courts up until 4:30 p.m. on the day of the show, theUFC was allowed to continue, but with modified rules.
The special rules included no closed fisted strikes to the head and no headbutts – a rule that refereeJohn McCarthy attempted to enforce, but with little success. Before the show, fighters were warned not to use closed fisted strikes under penalty of arrest. Although many fights that night included closed fisted striking, no fighters were arrested.
Due in part to this special rule, the Superfight betweenDan Severn andKen Shamrock is widely considered one of the worst MMA fights of all time, with the fighters circling each other for nearly 20 minutes with little or no contact.[2][3]
Following the legal battle overUFC 9, SenatorJohn McCain was successful in pullingUFC pay-per-view broadcasts from numerous cable systems, includingTCI cable, which greatly hurt pay-per-view buy rates.[1]
| Superfight Championship | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| N/A | Dan Severn | def. | Ken Shamrock (c) | Decision (split) | 30:00 | [a] | |
| Main Card | |||||||
| N/A | Steve Nelmark | def. | Tai Bowden | TKO (doctor stoppage) | 7:25 | ||
| N/A | Cal Worsham | def. | Zane Frazier | TKO (punches) | 3:14 | ||
| N/A | Rafael Carino | def. | Matt Andersen | TKO (punches) | 5:32 | ||
| N/A | Mark Schultz | def. | Gary Goodridge | TKO (cut) | 12:00 | ||
| N/A | Mark Hall | def. | Koji Kitao | TKO (doctor stoppage - broken nose) | 0:40 | ||
| N/A | Don Frye | def. | Amaury Bitetti | TKO (punches) | 9:22 | ||
The following fighters were honored in the October 2011 book titledUFC Encyclopedia.[4]
