UFC 3;The American Dream
UFC 3;The American Dream
Independence Arena,Charlotte NC
September 9,1994

Quaterfinal Bout;
Keith Hackney defeated Emmanuel Yarborough

Quarterfinal Bout;
Ken Shamrock defeated Christophe Leninger

Quarterfinal Bout;
Harold Howard defeated Roland Payne

Quarterfianl Bout;
Royce Gracie defeated Kimo Leopoldo
(Gracie got injured in fight,and was unable to continue in the tournament)

Semifinal Bout;
Ken Shamrock defeated Felix Lee Mitchell(After this Shamrock quit in the tournament,because he wanted to fight Royce Gracie,but since Royce already was injured he wouldnt be able to fight him)

Semifinal Bout;
Harold Howard defeated Royce Gracie by forfeit since Royce was already injured

Finals;
Steve Jennum defeated Harold Howard to win the UFC 3 and to win 60,000 dollars.

Eh
Great field with a horrible outcome. This is when having a tournament bracket backfired in the UFC's face.

UFC 3
This one was pretty good! On paper, this one had some of the best matches of the early UFC events. There was a lot of striking, some grappling and for those of you who want the pain, there are a lot of injuries in this one as well.

Match 1, Keith Hackney (Karate) vs. Emmanuel Yarbrough (Sumo). This match was probably the most underdog match of the night. Keith Hackney was totally the underdog in this match. Hackney (about 5'10" 200 lbs) went up against 6'10" 600+ lbs of Yarbrough. Just watching Yarbrough is amazing because the guy is huge. He's so huge in fact that at the time of the event, they didn't know how much he weighed because at the weigh in, he broke the scale. This is a great striker match and it also has the "ridge hand heard round the world" or at least on Yarbrough's head. Another thing that made this fight interesting was that they broke the door to the Octagon and the fight had to be restarted. It's a very good match.

Fight 2 was between returning UFC fighter Ken Shamrock (Shoot Wrestling) and Chris Leninger (Judo). This is a total grappler match. If you like grappling, this is a good one for you. Fight 3 saw newcomers to the UFC Harold Howard (Karate) and Roland Payne (Muay Thai). This was a short match but it was impressive. A lof strikes from both fighters and a little grappling. Fight 4 was also another great match that pitted 2 time UFC Champ Royce Gracie against Kimo (Tae Kwon Do). This is a really good match and this was one of the first times that Royce was tested in the Octagon. This match also taught fighters in the future that having hair is a total disadvantage. And who could forget Kimo's walk to the ring?

This one was very memorable because of the injuries in this one, there were 2 major ones that altered the finals. The finals in this one (in my opinion) were undeserved by the 2 fighters who made it there. One made it as an alternate and the other didn't even have to fight his semi-final match because his opponent threw in the towel before the match. That was a disappointing finish. That and Harold Howard's entourage bothered me. They were acting like jerks. Trust me, you'll see. In any case, the matches up until the finals are great. I will say it that the final is a good match but the controversy around it made it bad. I still say check out UFC 3 and also check out UFC 1 and 2.

What a tournrmant!
UFC 3 was to be the great showdown between Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock. UFC I. saw an over-confident Shamrock beaten under a minute. So here it was, the fight; but there were others in the mix. Kimo gave Royce Gracie a tougher match than expected. He threw off Gracie's timing and made him use up a lot of energy, leading a victorious Gracie to bow out of the remainder of tourney. Without Gracie, everything just fell apart, Hackney couldn't continue, and Shamrock would succumb to injuries. This was the what-if tournamnt. Gracie still had the rules,(no time-limit, no stand-ups) but I guess we would have seen a marathon between Gracie and Shamrock. Still, the ending of the tournament was a suprise, and is worth checking out.

A must for UFC fans!
This is one of the best UFC tapes you can get. Things are exciting right off the bat, as 200 lbs Keith Hackney takes on 600 lbs. Manny Yarborough, with surprising results. Also, Harold Howard dishes our one of the most vicious KO's, and Kimo almost destroys the invincible Royce Gracie. Steve Jennum and Ken Shamrock also make good appearances. This is a classic UFC that every MMA and NHB fan should own.