WHY THE UFC HALL OF FAME MATTERS
I rebooted the UFC Hall of Fame eight years ago. It remains an imperfect but vital institution
The UFC Hall of Fame was a passion project for me while I worked at Zuffa. I’ve never worked as long and hard on anything in my career. What you’ll read below isn’t objective - but I do think it is fair.
Things had started well but when the big announcement came you could, as UFC Hall of Famer Don Frye is fond of saying, hear a rat piss on cotton.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had set off an eruption of cheers when he’d stormed on stage before the UFC 244: Masvidal vs Diaz weigh-in. It was November 2, 2019, and the 5,000 UFC fans in New York’s Madison Square Garden had chanted the Hollywood’s stars name as he made his way to the podium with a smile so bright it could be used to send Morse Code.
“There’s something I’m very excited to announce,” he began, “but I wanted to start with the MMA community first.”
Johnson let anticipation tighten in the air.
Then: “That announcement is - I am proud to say - we are gonna make a film about the life of one of your founding fathers! The pioneering UFC founding father! The SMASHING MACHINE! MARK KERR!”
The Rock pushed back from the podium in anticipation of further waves of cheers.
Instead, an embarrassed silence skulked around MSG.
“Everybody’s pumped…” he said, weakly, as fans began to ask each other who the fuck Mark Kerr was.
As the Rock sulked away to ponder the future of his biopic, I texted a former UFC colleague: “Mark Kerr for UFC Hall of Fame shortlist next year? Rock inducting him would be big.”
The text was unsolicited. My 12-year run with the UFC had ended earlier in 2019. It was no longer my responsibility to compile shortlists for, or, really, give any thought to the UFC Hall of Fame at all. But obsessions die hard and the mission wasn’t complete.
The Rock falling flat on his face was just one example of MMA’s indifferent ignorance to the sport’s past. I’ve seen hundreds more: old era champions walking around like they are invisible at modern UFC events, “Jon Jones” being the populous answer to a completion question asking who was the first Black UFC heavyweight champion, an actual UFC commentator not knowing the identity of one of the greatest fighters of all-time, the viewing habits of UFC Fight Pass subscribers, and, who can forget a full marketing campaign been needed to ‘reintroduce’ George St-Pierre when he returned in 2017.
Let’s shelve the investigation as to how this culture of “if it happened two years ago, it may as well have never happened” got started for another day. It is no-one’s fault and it is everyone’s fault.
That’s why the UFC Hall of Fame matters. It amounts to four press releases, four vignettes and one evening a year but it is something at least. If you check ESPN, MMAFighting, MMAJunkie or any of the other major MMA beat sites, you’ll notice that pretty much the only time a Maurice Smith – first Black UFC heavyweight champion, first striker of any kind to have success in the UFC octagon – or Kazushi Sakuraba - the biggest MMA star and greatest fighter of the sport’s first decade – get a mention is in connection to a UFC Hall of Fame announcement.
That’s a disgrace.
THE UFC HALL OF FAME BEGAN WITH ROYCE GRACIE and Ken Shamrock at UFC 45, November 2003, but its current incarnation, inaugurated in 2015, is my baby. A lot of people more talented than I – Heidi Noland, Jon Anik, Lejon Lin, Zach Candito and many more– took my ideas and made them real in no time at all but I spent years researching and tinkering with a HoF reboot. I read dry academic books on museum curation and spent long hours speaking with representatives of other Halls of Fames, not only in sports but also entertainment.
After spending more hours on this than I ever admitted to former employer or could justify to my kid, I finally got the green light to reboot the UFC Hall of Fame in early 2015. Instead of randomly bringing out ex-fighters to the Octagon (Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock), or awkwardly shoe-horsing an announcement into a pre-fight press conference (Chuck Liddell), the UFC Hall of Fame would induct an annual class at a gala event in Las Vegas.
But, I panicked, will enough fans care?
The framework for the various ‘wings’ of the new hall were borrowed (okay, we can say “copied”) and modified from some of the most respected institutions I could get to give me a few hours of their time.
Copying the International Boxing Hall of Fame and separating the fighters into Pioneer Era and Modern Era wings was a no-brainer. No gloves, no rounds, different and often inconsistently rules - many of the early UFC fights were as divergent from the sport of today as 19th century bareknuckle prize fighting was to a modern Canelo Alvarez bout.
Rami Genauer, founder of Fight Metric, had already provided UFC 28 – the first UFC held under the new Unified Rules - as the official border between the ‘pioneer’ and ‘modern’ MMA eras. And so, presto, two of the four wings were decided.
The Modern Era, I knew, had to be very modern. In 2023, there are massive cohorts of fans who simply don’t know that Ronda Rousey was once the biggest star in the sport, much less Chuck Liddell or Ken Shamrock. Worse, they didn’t care that they didn’t know - not with the UFC shelling them with monthly “historic” title fights.
Wait five years between a retirement and a Hall of Fame induction? Hell no. Not with these fans.
Each Class would be ‘headlined’ by a recently-retired icon who had the star power to put butts in seats. The Rondas, Fabers and Bispings would attract the spotlight that would then be shared with Maurice Smith, Kazushi Sakuraba, Jeff Blatnick, Art Davie, Jens Pulver and the others.
The format of other two wings took a little more thought, and a lot of talking to experts like Dave Meltzer (who went through similar research for his Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame) but in the end I think I solved what many saw as two major anomalies with the UFC Hall as it existed pre-2015.
Inducted a short time after losing his life in a tragic car crash in 2009, the late Charles ‘Mask’ Lewis looked out of place as the only non-combatant in the UFC HoF. Other Halls celebated non-particpants but the The TapouT founder and influencer needed company and, in time, the likes of Davie and Blatnick were added to the Hall’s new Contributor Wing.
It was during a fact-finding call with the Rock N Roll Hall that the idea of the Fight Wing presented itself, fully formed and providing retroactive context for Stephan Bonnar’s somewhat controversial 2013 induction. Why, I asked, had 22 men and one woman been inducted more than once? The answer came that an induction as a solo artist (eg Stevie Nicks) is in recognition of a long career of excellence, while induction as part of a band (eg Nick’s band Fleetwood Mac) recognizes greatness achieved in an extraordinary collaborative effort.
What if the UFC Hall recognized greatness in extraordinary competitive efforts, I wondered.
The UFC Hall had already done this without quite realizing it, inducting Stephan Bonnar on the basis of his 2005 Ultimate Fighter 1 fight vs Forrest Griffin. It was the single most important fight in MMA history, helping secure the UFC’s first paying TV deal (Spike TV), but it was still just one fight and Bonnar’s resume was thin when laid next to the meaty accomplishments of Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and the rest.
Yet in the context of a Fight Wing and those unforgettable 15minutes in Las Vegas on April 9, 2005, the late American Psycho’ is every bit a Hall of Famer. (The winner of that iconic scrap, Griffin, had gone on to win the UFC light heavyweight title and so was retroactively moved over to the Modern Era wing, too, and thus became the first two-time UFC Hall of Famer.)
As cynical as combat sports is, it can be equally as romantic. The Fight Wing can remind how any two fighters can draw out greatness from the other.
‘Reminding’ is a huge part of the functionality of any Hall of Fame. There really can’t be any doubt that Diego Sanchez and Clay Guida - despite having the best fight of 2009 and 13 Fight of the Night’s between them - would have been utterly forgotten in 10, 20 years time.
But their Fight Wing recognition in 2019, ensured their classic fight will be topical at least once a year. That’s not nothing.
It’s also important to remember fighters in their prime because - whether it is Randy Couture getting his front teeth kicked in, the sight of Chuck Liddell’s once glacial punch resistance melting away, BJ Penn’s excruciating losing streak or Michael Bisping’s body abandoning him until only his heart remained – most MMA legends exit wearing the medals of their worst defeats, not their greatest triumphs.
Most of them regret the late career losses almost as much as their fans; as Don Frye put it during his 2016 HoF induction: “I lost to guys who should never be able to go into a bar and say they once beat Don Frye in a fight.”
The UFC Hall offers a chance for a second final farewell, an opportunity to focus – if for one night - on a former champion’s peak and not their inevitable and often painful decent.
That matters.
THE UFC HOF IS ALSO BOTH A PACE-SETTER AND A FINISHING LINE to today’s fighters. One of the most gratifying indications the new look Hall is gaining in prestige is that, year on year not only more and more fans attended but more current champs and contenders were there.
No-one clapped louder during Bisping’s 2019 acceptance speech than Israel Adesanya. “I got six, seven years to earn my place on that stage,” Adesanya said, as if seeing a recent UFC Middleweight Champion’s swansong as a reminder of his own mortality.
A full knowledge of yesterday’s elite gives us a sense of scale for today’s champions; Adesanya’s petition to be considered the greatest UFC Middleweight Champion is properly measured against Anderson Silva circa 2009, not the aged version ‘Izzy’ outpointed a decade later.
A rich understanding of MMA history also auto-tunes excessive hyperbole; no-one who’d seen St-Pierre’s prime took Tyson Woodley’s laughable “greatest welterweight ever” claims seriously.
NO HOF IS PERFECT, AND CERTAINLY NOT ONE THAT NEEDED to be restored to factory settings just eight years ago.
Some folks hate the Fight Wing as a very concept. Some think it is silly - and who can tell them that they don’t?
It sucks when folks are invited, say yes, and they are last-minute no-shows. Bob Meyrowitz (Contributor, Class of 2016) pulled out of attending in person on a week’s notice. It sucked worse when Rich Franklin – perhaps still miffed he didn’t get a post-career UFC color commentator position – pulled the same trick three years later.
It was weird when Matt Serra, a borderline pick in my mind, refused to mention George St-Pierre during an induction that wouldn’t have happened without their stunning first fight. Instead, did Ray Longo roast almost as boring as an episode of “UFC Unfiltered”.
Two induction ceremonies I wrote dragged well beyond the two-hour mark; both times it was my fault and no-one else’s.
There are other legit criticisms and room for improvements, however most of the critiques of the UFC Hall are off-the-rack UFC bashing hot-takes. For example: under the headline “Who has been snubbed from the UFC Hall of Fame?” MMAFighting’s Jed Meshew named – seriously, check for yourself – Lorenzo Fertitta, Frank Fertitta and Joe Rogan.
From such missives we glean disclosures like the UFC Hall focuses on UFC history and that Dana White, UFC President and co-owner since 2001, has final approval on inductions.
Well, I’d say it was high time someone pointed all this out… only an exhaustive FAQ was sent out to media and published on UFC.com in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 that answers many of the barbed questions lobbed at the UFC HoF.
It is not nice to read that the fruit of hundreds of hours of work is dubbed “mediocre at best”- as Mr Meshew did in his clumsy attack piece - but, hey, that’s the cost of having your work showcased in the public square.
What I won’t put up with, though, is bullshit like the UFC HoF is “meaningless” when I’ve had BJ Penn crying on my shoulder backstage, Maurice Smith’s estranged son ask for a ticket, families and friends fly in literally from all over the world and Don Frye tell me that in a year where he was divorced, lost his horse and health that the 2016 UFC Hall of Fame was the lone positive thing in his life.
Daniel Cormier burst into tears when he learned he was in. Anyone who saw Mark Coleman’s induction for his fight vs Pete Williams, surely, can see the Hall is meaningful to those who matter the most. “I thought I’d been forgotten,” he sobbed as the fans clapped their hands red, “I thought nobody cared.”
One of the laziest condemnations I’ve seen over the years goes something like this: only folks on Dana’s Xmas card list get in.
Ahem.
Randy Couture, Ken Shamrock, Tito Ortiz, Pat Miletich. Need more? Okay, Frank Trigg. More? Google what Bob Meyrowitz and Art Davie said about the UFC and White over the years. When I brought Frye up as a candidate, I began to tip-toe around some of what he’d said over the years before Dana stopped me dead. Don Frye, my old boss educated me, is a badass who ‘can say whatever the fuck he wants.’
There are also more mundane reasons a particular icon is not inducted yet, including simply not being available to travel to Las Vegas on the appointed weekend. Nevertheless, there is one glaring omission and, I fear, one that will remain for some time.
An honest attempt was made in 2017 to inaugurate Frank Shamrock. My friend Dave Meltzer, who helped set up my initial call with the best UFC fighter of the 90s, wrote at the time: “Both sides wanted it to happen but ultimately didn’t trust each other enough to go through with it” and that’s it in a nutshell.
If you want to read more, Josh Gross deep-dived here. There were great champions before Frank Shamrock, but he was the sport’s first truly mixed martial artist and any fans who doesn’t know that is poorer for it. Shamrock’s absence from the UFC Hall of Fame diminishes his memory and the UFC HOF equally.
The UFC Hall of Fame continues to give a worthy platform to the best of the best. Yes, an independent MMA Hall of Fame along the lines of the Baseball Hall would be wonderful – but it hardly the UFC’s fault that there isn’t one.
I’m thrilled Jens Pulver, the original lighter weight champion, will be inducted this July. I’ll be there.
The UFC Hall of Fame matters.
HEY - THIS IS FREE. IT ISN’T NOT LIKE I BAIT AND SWITCHED YOU WITH PROMISES OF ALL THIS CONTENT ONLY TO DELIVER A FRACTION OF IT AND REFUSE A REFUND. I’M NOT THE ATHLETIC!