| UFC Brazil: Ultimate Brazil | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() The poster for UFC Brazil: Ultimate Brazil | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | October 16, 1998 | |||
| Venue | Ginásio da Portuguesa | |||
| City | São Paulo,Brazil | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC Brazil: Ultimate Brazil (also known asUFC Ultimate Brazil orUFC 17.5) was amixed martial arts event held by theUltimate Fighting Championship inSão Paulo,Brazil on October 16, 1998. The event was seen onpay-per-view in theUnited States andBrazil, and was later released onhome video.
Ultimate Brazil was the first appearance of the UFC in Brazil, and the second UFC event to take place outside the US. The event was arranged through the initiative of Sérgio Batarelli, formerKickboxing andVale Tudo fighter, promoter of theInternational Vale Tudo Championship, WVC (World Vale Tudo Championship) and manager of multiple Brazilian MMA fighters.[1]Ultimate Brazil marked the first UFC event (other thanUFC 9) to not utilize the tournament format which, aside fromUFC 23, was abandoned completely in following events. The event featured the first ever UFC Lightweight Championship fight, as well as a Middleweight Championship fight.
Ultimate Brazil was part one of what the UFC called "The Road To The Heavyweight Title" (not to be confused with theevent of the same name), a tournament of sorts, spanning four events, to crown the new UFC Heavyweight Champion followingRandy Couture's relinquishing of the belt.
UFC Brazil marked the first appearance ofPedro Rizzo, who would go on to become a top UFC heavyweight contender. The event also featured the first UFC appearance of futurePRIDEMiddleweight ChampionWanderlei Silva in a fight against formerUFC 12 heavyweight tournament champion and futureUFC Light Heavyweight ChampionVitor Belfort. Belfort became the first person to knock Silva out, with an impressive 44 second knockout after a barrage of punches.
| Main Card | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Middleweight | Frank Shamrock (c) | def. | John Lober | TKO (submission to punches) | 7:40 | [a] | |
| Welterweight | Pat Miletich | def. | Mikey Burnett | Decision (split) | 21:00 | [b] | |
| Middleweight | Vitor Belfort | def. | Wanderlei Silva | TKO (punches) | 0:44 | ||
| Heavyweight | Pedro Rizzo | def. | Tank Abbott | KO (punch) | 8:07 | ||
| Heavyweight | Tsuyoshi Kosaka | def. | Pete Williams | Decision | 15:00 | ||
| Middleweight | Ebenezer Fontes Braga | def. | Jeremy Horn | Submission (guillotine choke) | 3:27 | ||
| Alternate Bouts | |||||||
| Lightweight | Cesar Marscucci | def. | Paulo Santos | TKO | 10:27 | ||
| Middleweight | Tulio Palhares | def. | Adriano Santos | TKO | 9:00 | ||
The following fighters were honored in the October 2011 book titledUFC Encyclopedia.[2]