10 Crazy Facts About UFC 1
6. The Solitary Boxing Glove
For those who’ve never seen UFC 1, to go back and watch it conjures up memories of the classic Street Fighter II video game. As in, some of these fighters were purely all about one single way of fighting.
One such fighter, of course, was Art Jimmerson.
Jimmerson was a veteran boxer who had never really hit the big time throughout his career. Supposedly, he didn’t even realise what he signed up for when he decided to partake in UFC 1 – although he was sweetened with a $15,000 payday.
In terms of fighting style, Art was simply a straight-up boxer. He couldn’t kick, he couldn’t grapple, he didn’t have any ground skills. The dude could punch, and that was that.
Bizarrely though, he turned up to UFC 1 wearing one solitary boxing glove for his first round fight against Royce Gracie. To this day, nobody actually knows exactly why Jimmerson decided on just the one glove – with some claiming that the fighter was so scared of having a bone broken that he wanted a non-gloved hand so that it would be clear to see if he was tapping out.
And tap out Art Jimmerson did, as Gracie submitted him barely two minutes into their fight.