On This Day in UFC History: January 31, 2004 - UFC 46: Supernatural - GSP UFC Debut, Vitor Belfort becomes Champ
Who knows what little nine year old me was doing on January 31, 2004, but these UFC athletes were busy making their mark in a sport I would grow to love later in life.
In Las Vegas, Nevada, eighteen years ago, UFC 46 took place and man, what a legendary night it was. I wonder how many people could have guessed nearly all of these fighters would still be pretty well known all these years later?
I searched YouTube and found a few fights from this night. It is so trippy to see this 2004 era UFC footage.
A young Matt Serra fought on this card! He got the job that night against Jeff Curran. Serra would actually become a UFC Champ a little over three years later. In fact he would defeat GSP who fights on this very same card. As a matter of fact, Serra has fought several fighters that appear on this UFC 46 card. He's fought B.J. Penn, GSP and Matt Hughes.
Josh Thomson is perhaps a pretty underrated MMA fighter because he did not have the greatest success in the UFC, but he is very well respected because of some great runs he had in other MMA organizations, like Strikeforce where he was a Champion. Thomson has defeated, Gilbert Melendez, and many other medium level fighters. Perhaps one of Thomson's greatest achievements is being the only fighter to finish Nate Diaz with strikes. On this night Thomson defeats Hermes Franca.
Ah yes, George St-Pierre, arguably the greatest MMA fighter ever makes his UFC debut on this day! He would be victorious against a tough Karo Parisyan.
Lee Murray is a character I only somewhat only learned about within the past year or so. Dude was a great fighter, but wasted his potential because well, he was a legit high level criminal!! LOL. The stories are pretty endless about Murray. Dude was a savage. He's currently serving 25 years in prison for a crazy record breaking bank robbery.
On this night he defeated Jorge Rivera. The first clip shows some highlights of the fight, the other shows a bit of info about Lee.
While it's all pretty entertaining and legendary in a weird way, dude wasted a lot of potential. He could have been a STAR! In a way I guess he still is....
One more video about Murray, why not?
B.J. Penn Captures the Welterweight UFC Championship after submitting Matt Hughes!
Two LEGENDS!! Src
Vitor Belfort Captures the Light Heavyweight UFC Title against Randy Couture! Src
What an interestingly deep UFC card from the early 2000's!
There's FIVE UFC Hall of Famers on this card!
- George St-Pierre
- B.J. Penn
- Matt Serra
- Matt Hughes
- Randy Couture
I wonder if the people that watched this UFC event, could have guessed that five of these fighters would be Hall of Famers?
Pretty amazing!
Top US Song when UFC 46 occurred: 'Hey Ya!' by Outkast... This song is awesome, I love it to this day. Brings back a lot of memories!
Top US Movie on January 31, 2004 - 'You Got Served'!
Does UFC 46 bring back any memories for you? Let me know!
Wow, what a freeking Fight Card, guess this was one of the first UFC events i followed.
Man, GSP and Matt Serra in the prelims.
GSP earning 6000 Dollar. Seems like a joke today. Every single fighter on this card is a legend.
Was a big fan of Hermes Franca in the following years. Sadly went bad ways later.
Belfort man, what a fighter from the beginning. Met him at a beach in Rio years later. Tragical story about his sister from the picture of his shirt. She was kidnapped shortly before the fight and i guess never came back.
Carlos Newton always was a entertaining fighter, iconic style, you have to watch his highlights!
Randy Couture the man, fighting until mid of his 40th, a face made for the movies.
Can't stop, every fighter on this fight card has such a history and stories, you could make a series of movies about everyone!
Hey wow thanks for your enthusiastic comment! Right I was also tripped out by seeing GSP on a prelim!!! Seeing those low payments does seem like a joke, but it also gives me a lot more respect for these fighters' amazing rise to the top! What happened to Hermes? I'll have to look that one up. Wow you met Belfort!! Thats pretty amazing! Yes I briefly learned of Vitor's sister, I am pretty close to my own sis, I can't imagine fighting with that looming over my mind! Props to Vitor I hope he is coping ok to this day. I had heard of Carlos I will definitely do a deeper dive one of these days!!
Randy is a boss for sure!!! Big fan.
Yes the UFC has become more deep and fascinating as time progresses!! Can't wait to watch more the next 60+ years or however long I have on this earth LOL.
Nice to meet ya!! 😄
Thanks! Just starting to post stuff here, so its good to meet a theme you can get excited about.
Not hard to get enthusiastic about this fight card. First fighter Matt Serra who later got famous for his enexpected title win and now co-hosted some ufc shows. GSP's opponent was one of the few judo experts who made it into mma and showed their talent.
Not to mention Lee Murray, like you already said. Not nice guy and hero like GSP, but a real gangster in life and the cage. When you talk badass, he's the man you have to look for.
With Belfort I was lucky, i was there on holiday with my coach and he knew a lot of guys, also met the Minotauro Brothers and Romario. Crazy 2 weeks.
Hermes sexually assaulted a student in his academy, served prison. Just saw he still is fighting, but not like in his prime.
UFC became deeper, but, that also comes with the cost, that you will never again have a fight card with such a talent and so many guys who made history.
I think they might be making a movie about Lee Murray. That is true, all of these guys were pioneers, such a great time wish I was older back then! So have you trained MMA? That's an amazing experience!
Yeah, a movie will be coming for sure. Only question is if it focuses on the heist, or his whole life.
Yes, i've trained and fought in MMA, but only regional level. Still, got to know some of the biggest names of the scene. I even made it to visit one of the Pride Shows in the US. I guess you can't compare it to the japanese Pride Events, still makes me more happy than the most UFC events.
Have you been to a live mma event yet? I think regional events have their own spirit and its really benefital to see a young prospect make its way to the top from the beginning.