UFC 19: What happened when Tito Ortiz made an enemy of Ken Shamrock?
UFC 19 took place in March 1999 and is most famous for the post-main event confrontation between Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock.
Ortiz was competing against Guy Mezger for the second time. He had lost to Mezger in the final of the Light-Heavyweight tournament at UFC 13 and was looking for vengeance. He got it. Ortiz looked every bit the best in the world as he controlled Mezger from start to finish in the headliner. He had plenty of opportunities to sink in submissions if he wished. He didn't. Ortiz instead delighted in humiliating his opponent with strikes until the referee stepped in to end the contest.
Not content with humiliating Mezger inside the Octagon, Ortiz post-fight, donned an offensive t-shirt that read "Guy Mezger is my b*tch." This sent Shamrock, Mezger's Lion's Den stablemate, who was in his corner during the bout, into a frenzy and he leapt onto the Octagon fence and berated the young upstart.
It was an intense moment to see the WWE superstar aggressively scream at Ortiz as the cocky fighter responded by giving him the double bird. Three and a half years later at UFC 40, the pair would finally get the opportunity to settle their differences inside the Octagon.
Underneath the headliner, Kevin Randleman defeated former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Maurice Smith in a bout to determine who would face Bas Rutten for the vacant strap at UFC 20. The young, hungry Randleman dominated the veteran with his expert ground game, completely nullifying any offense Smith could have mustered. The bout went to a decision, but Randleman was the only fighter who impressed.
Chuck Liddell lost his first MMA fight to the legendary Jeremy Horn in his first (televised) UFC bout. Horn showed his greater MMA nous by avoiding Liddell's strikes and trying to control him on the ground as much as possible. The fight went entirely to Horn's game-plan and he eventually submitted the "Iceman" with an arm triangle choke. A hugely impressive win for Horn but Liddell, as everyone knows, would be back.
Gary Goodridge faced a man who incredibly outweighed him by over 100 Ibs in Andre Roberts. However, not one to be overawed, "Big Daddy" came, saw and knocked Roberts out in 40 seconds.
Pete Williams, still notorious for kicking Mark Coleman's head off his shoulders at UFC 17 clashed with Jason Godsey in another one-sided encounter that lasted under two minutes. Williams worked Godsey within his guard to secure the kneebar submission.
The final bout on the main card saw only the second UFC appearance of future Middleweight Champion, Evan Tanner.
Tanner competed versus Val Ignatov and displayed all of his excellent striking ability by pounding away with punches and elbows. This wasn't much of a contest. Tanner, the winner by stoppage.
UFC 19 was taglined "Young Guns" and it did a great job of showcasing it's younger talent, several of whom would go on to become UFC legends such as Randleman, Ortiz, Liddell and Tanner.
It was also, one of the more entertaining shows of this era as well.