| UFC Japan: Ultimate Japan | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC Japan: Ultimate Japan | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | December 21, 1997 | |||
| Venue | Yokohama Arena | |||
| City | Yokohama,Japan | |||
| Attendance | 5,000 | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC Japan: Ultimate Japan (also known asUFC Ultimate Japan orUFC 15.5) was amixed martial arts event held by theUltimate Fighting Championship on December 21, 1997, inYokohama,Japan. The event was seen on pay per view in theUnited States, on cable TV inJapan, and was later released onhome video.
The event featured a four-man heavyweight tournament, the first ever UFC Middleweight Championship bout, a Heavyweight Championship bout, a Superfight and an alternate bout. Ultimate Japan 1 featured the first UFC appearance of MMA legendsKazushi Sakuraba andFrank Shamrock.
The event was the first appearance of longtime UFC announcerMike Goldberg, who replacedBruce Beck as theplay by play announcer. Another notable first was the use of unique entry music for each fighter, though this was not repeated inUFC 16. Also, this UFC event was the first to be located in a country other than the United States or its territories.[1]
In an attempt to gain attention for the JapaneseKingdom Pro Wrestling,Hiromitsu Kanehara andYoji Anjo signed on to compete in theUltimate Fighting Championship'sUltimate Japan tournament. As fate would have it, Kanehara was injured in his training for the tournament, andKazushi Sakuraba wound up as his late hour substitute. The tournament was intended for heavyweights, and Sakuraba, at 183 pounds, was nearly twenty pounds beneath the UFC's 200 pound designation for the weight class. Reporting himself as 203 pounds in order to gain entry, Sakuraba was paired off against the 243 pound Brazilian jiu-jitsu blackbelt and former Extreme Fighting champion, Marcus Silveira.
Following a barrage of blows by Silveira, Sakuraba dropped for a low-single, only for the fight to be prematurely ended on a KO. RefereeJohn McCarthy had mistakenly thought Sakuraba to have been knocked out. A loud protest followed from the crowd and an angry Sakuraba attempted unsuccessfully to take the microphone and address the Japanese audience. However, after reviewing tape, McCarthy changed his decision to a no-contest.Tank Abbott, who had earlier defeatedYoji Anjo, dropped from the tournament due to an injured hand, leaving Sakuraba and Silveira to face off once more that night in what would be the championship bout of the tournament. This time, Sakuraba claimed the victory, submitting Silveira with an armbar. Afterwards, Sakuraba famously stated, "In fact, professional wrestling is strong".
| UFC Heavyweight Championship | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Heavyweight | Randy Couture | def. | Maurice Smith (c) | Decision (majority) | 1 | 21:00 | [a] |
| Heavyweight Tournament Final | |||||||
| Heavyweight | Kazushi Sakuraba | def. | Marcus Silveira | Submission (armbar) | 1 | 3:44 | [b] |
| Heavyweight bout | |||||||
| Heavyweight | Vitor Belfort | def. | Joe Charles | Submission (armbar) | 1 | 4:03 | |
| UFC Light Heavyweight Championship | |||||||
| Middleweight | Frank Shamrock | def. | Kevin Jackson | Submission (armbar) | 1 | 0:22 | [c] |
| Heavyweight Tournament Semifinals | |||||||
| Heavyweight | Kazushi Sakuraba | vs. | Marcus Silveira | No Contest (premature stoppage) | 1 | 1:51 | [d] |
| Heavyweight | Tank Abbott | def. | Yoji Anjo | Decision (unanimous) | 1 | 15:00 | [e] |
| Heavyweight Alternate bout | |||||||
| Heavyweight | Tra Telligman | def. | Brad Kohler | Submission (armbar) | 1 | 10:05 | |
| Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||
 Tank Abbott | DEC | ||||||||
 Yoji Anjo | 15:00 | ||||||||
| Kazushi Sakuraba1 | SUB | ||||||||
 Marcus Silveira | 3:44 | ||||||||
| Kazushi Sakuraba | NC | ||||||||
| Marcus Silveira | 1:51 | ||||||||
1 Due to the NC, and Tank Abbott bowing out of the tournament, UFC officials ruled that a rematch between Sakuraba and Silveira would serve as the Heavyweight Tournament Finals.
The following fighters were honored in the October 2011 book titledUFC Encyclopedia.[2]
