UFC 50: What happened when Tito Ortiz attempted to snap his losing streak?
UFC 50, held on October 22, 2004 from The Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, was primarily built around the trilogy bout between Tito Ortiz and long time rival, Guy Mezger. However, Mezger shockingly suffered a mild stroke in training and was forced to withdraw from the bout. With no main event, UFC scrambled and replaced him with no-name Patrick Cote.
Cote escalated a war of words in the weeks leading up to the card with Ortiz to generate interest in the fight but in all honesty it was a mismatch. At least it should have been. Ortiz, his confidence dented by successive losses to Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell seemed determined not to lose rather than attempting to win. The fight was dull and consisted mostly of Ortiz maintaining a mount on his opponent.
Three rounds later and the former Light-Heavyweight Champion had his hand raised after the judges scored in his favour; 30-27, 30-26, 30-26.
Ortiz would not bounce back proper until UFC 51.
The other big bout on the card saw the Welterweight Championship on the line. However, it was not BJ Penn defending. Penn had walked out on UFC and jumped to rival K1, vacating the strap in the process. However, no matter, that just set up a monster bout between the unbeaten George St. Pierre and Matt Hughes. The experienced Hughes forced GSP to submit with just one second remaining in the first round. With that, Hughes was Welterweight Champion once again.
Evan Tanner defeated Robbie Lawler to become the number one contender for the Middleweight Championship. That was a title he challenged for at the following event, UFC 51, in February 2005. For Lawler, it was a return to the drawing board after his third loss in four fights. Lawler would not fight again for the company until 2013.
Frank Trigg bested Renato Verissimo via TKO, with some brutal elbows to the head. Rounded out the card, new star, Rich Franklin defeated Jorge Rivera via third round Armbar. Franklin's next fight would see him destroy UFC Hall of Famer, Ken Shamrock earning himself a Middleweight Championship bout at UFC 53.
UFC 50 was a great card, pretty much from the top-down, aside from the lacklustre headliner. However, the event did not sizzle at the box office. The show drew a paltry 40,000 buys on pay per view. UFC 51, held four months later, would fare rather better.
Also read: Four MMA legends who never won a UFC tournament