5 worst shows in UFC history

#4 UFC 61: Bitter Rivals – 07/08/2006

A dull main event between Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski helped to ruin UFC 61

UFC 61 was one of the most heavily hyped shows of 2006, and was largely built around a double main event of Tito Ortiz facing Ken Shamrock in a long-awaited rematch supported by a season of The Ultimate Fighter, and the third part of a trilogy between UFC Heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia and former champion Andrei Arlovski.

The show actually broke the UFC’s pay-per-view record at the time by drawing around 775,000 buys, but unfortunately, it turned into a damp squib. It didn’t begin badly at all – Joe Stevenson defeated Yves Edwards in a fantastic Lightweight tilt – but it simply went sliding downhill from there.

First, a bloated Frank Mir edged out a decision over Dan Christison in an all-time sloppy Heavyweight bout. Next, we saw Josh Burkman defeat Josh Neer in a thoroughly forgettable Welterweight fight. The show could’ve been saved had the two main events delivered, but unfortunately, they only made things worse.

The Ortiz/Shamrock fight turned into a disaster when referee Herb Dean stepped in prematurely as Ortiz dropped elbows on Shamrock from the guard; Ken immediately protested and the whole building seemed to agree, showering the cage with a chant of “bullsh*t”. In all honesty, they weren’t wrong.

As for Sylvia vs. Arlovski, everyone expected a wild brawl given the events of their first two fights – essentially a combined 3 or so minutes of craziness – but instead, both men looked tentative and treated the crowd to a tepid display of point-fighting that Sylvia edged to retain the title.

It was such a bad show – and the Ortiz/Shamrock result left such a bad taste – that the UFC decided to repay the faith of the fans by putting on an extra show headlined by a third Shamrock/Ortiz fight in October.