The morning of what was expected to be the biggest fight up to that point in UFC history, Frank Shamrock was remarkably calm. He seemingly already knew not just the result of the fight against a far bigger and stronger opponent, but how it would go.



"It'll either be a quick win, with an armbar in the first round, or a win late in the fight, when he's tired out," Shamrock said at breakfast before his Sept. 24, 1999, UFC middleweight title defense against Tito Ortiz.



It was a very different UFC in those days. The company was a strong pay-per-view entity from its debut in 1993, until 1997, when it was on the wrong end of a domino effect of cable providers dropping the shows due to outside pressure from Sen. John McCain. The period from early 1997 until, depending on your point of view, either 2001, when Zuffa purchased the company, or 2005, when it actually became a financially viable business after the debut of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV, were the dark ages.



Shamrock was the UFC's biggest star from late 1997 through the end of 1999. But at the time, few were watching. Due to his falling out with Dana White and UFC management early into the Zuffa run, his history with the company is largely buried. He's not in the Hall of Fame, has never been introduced at a UFC event (he was in the corner of Brian Ebersole at one fight a few years back but never acknowledged on camera) on television. And when the company asked fans to vote for the greatest matches in history, none of his matches were even put up for nomination, despite the fact the Ortiz match is still generally considered the best fight in the first seven years of UFC history.

The fight came up again in recent weeks, as Ortiz noted that he had turned down the offer of a rematch with Shamrock because he wanted to challenge Liam McGeary for Bellator's light heavyweight title. Shamrock's name resurfacing to fight was a surprise, because he retired six years ago due to numerous injuries. Two years ago, after Spike TV did a documentary on his life, that seemed to build up a grudge match with adopted brother Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock made to clear he had no interest in fighting again.

Looking back today, the fight doesn't seem so special, past the clear charisma of both fighters and the announcers putting over how high the stakes were. Ortiz mostly took Shamrock down and held him down for three rounds. Shamrock was active from the bottom, and by round four, Ortiz was tired. As round four was ending, Ortiz was exhausted, Shamrock locked in a guillotine, gave it up, and landed elbows and hammer fists, some to the back of the head which were legal before the advent of the unified rules. Ortiz then tapped to end the fight.



But at the time, it was a landmark event to the few people who were still paying attention to UFC. There were about 4,000 fans in the Lake Charles Civic Center in Louisiana, and there were about 55,000 homes watching on pay-per-view. That was actually an astounding total since UFC had no television, and probably 90 percent of the country had no access since the show was only available to those who had satellite dishes. And the satellite business was nowhere near as strong as it is today.



Ortiz had beaten Jerry Bohlander and Guy Mezger of the Lion's Den. After the Mezger fight, there was one of the most important moments in UFC history, as Ortiz put on a T-shirt that read, "Gay Mezger is my b****." Ken Shamrock, in Mezger's corner, was furious, jumping on the fence and ready to go after Ortiz, while ref John McCarthy pulled Ortiz away. That scene led to three Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock fights between 2002 and 2006.



Frank Shamrock, who was both a coach and training partner with Mezger and Bohlander a few years earlier, had a falling out with the Lion's Den in 1997. That didn't stop hyping this as another fight in the Ortiz vs. Lion's Den story. At this point, Shamrock was UFC's middleweight champion. At the time the weight class was 199.9 pounds, and was essentially the forerunner of what is today's light heavyweight division. Two years earlier, Shamrock had armbarred 1992 Olympic gold medal winning wrestler Kevin Jackson in 16 seconds in the first title match. He's was the only fighter to have two title wins in less than 25 seconds before Ronda Rousey finished both Alexis Davis and Cat Zingano in 16 seconds or less.



Ortiz was much bigger. He had close to a five-inch height advantage. While he weighed in at 199, by fight time he was at least 217 pounds, and his camp was claiming, perhaps to mess with Shamrock's head, that he would be 222 pounds inside the cage. Shamrock weighed in at 198 pounds, but he weighed in fully clothed. When he stepped off the scale, he took a book out of his back pocket. He was somewhere between 192 and 195 pounds when he stepped into the cage. And unlike most fighters, who diet down before a fight, he was taking he opposite approach, eating as much as possible over the last few weeks.



"In that era of the power wrestlers, the whole idea of being on top was the new dominant thing," remembered Shamrock. "The ground guys, on the bottom, never beat anybody up. It was hard to see what I was doing, hitting him, covering his mouth, I don't think that had been developed yet. My training was I'd go to Stanford, and tell them to give me your biggest wrestler and tell him to hold me down and punch me. I'd beat him up from the bottom. I figured out a way to make it work and make it a race that he just couldn't win."



Shamrock's ground style, taught to him by adopted brother Ken Shamrock and Japanese star Masakatsu Funaki, was refined by reasons of self preservation. A training partner of Ken Shamrock, who was bigger and stronger, he learned to survive, and to fight while being on his back for long periods of time. He did this with no jiu-jitsu training. The mentality of the Lion's Den at the time was anti-jiu jitsu, given their system was developed from catch wrestling that came from England and was brought to Japan.



The greatness of the fight was more the story than the substance. Frank Shamrock had never lost in the UFC and was being held down for most of the fight. In a sense, this was the precursor to the first Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen fight, except Sonnen did far more damage from the top. And in Silva-Sonnen, nobody expected what they saw in that fight. Ortiz being on top and keeping Shamrock down in this fight was largely expected. After three rounds of it, it was the Shamrock comeback that is what the fight was most remembered for.



"It was my most satisfying physical peak thing," said Shamrock, who was 26 at the time of the fight, and only fought three times over the next seven years. "I could have walked out there and done five more rounds. I was such a machine and everything worked. It was my most cognitive moment and I knew what was on the line."



Fighting by today's standards was primitive. Comebacks from three-round deficits were rare. Fights were more about striking, wrestling and submissions, with conditioning being part of it, but until this fight, never talked about as being a key factor in winning and losing.



Before the fight, Shamrock had told announcer Jeff Blatnick that "conditioning is my best submission," a line taken from Karl "Gotch" Istaz. Istaz, the former Olympic wrestler who became a Wigan, England trained submission artist, was the teacher of Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. It was his system, and the teachings of his son-in-law, Masami Soranaka, that Ken Shamrock was taught. From both sides of his training, Frank Shamrock was a Gotch Wigan-style catch wrestling disciple.



Ortiz had John Lober in his corner, significant since Lober was one of Shamrock's big rivals. Shamrock had started his career doing fights with Pancrase. While the fights are listed on his MMA record, and he was a major star with the group, the rules were very different. Pancrase was actually considered a pro wrestling organization in Japan at the time. It wasn't as if the fights were fixed, although like everything in Japan, a few were. But the rules were created out of pro wrestling, with closed fists illegal, and if you got to the ropes on a submission, it was a rope break.



Shamrock's first fight under MMA rules was with Lober. In those days, there were no rounds. It was 30 straight minutes without a break. Shamrock dominated the first 20. Then he hit the wall, hard. Lober beat him up the next 10, to take a split decision. Shamrock learned the lesson of conditioning that night. He later beat Lober in a rematch, a real grudge match, in Brazil.



In the first round, Ortiz got behind Shamrock and tried to suplex him. Shamrock blocked him. Shamrock had played that scenario out in his head many times, and every time, it ended with an armbar. But he didn't get it, and was taken down. Ortiz got two more takedowns in the round. Shamrock attempted one armbar, but really never came close.



"I had all these crazy dreams," Shamrock said. "I had a dream with Igor (Zinoviev, who he beat in 22 seconds), and I had a dream with Tito. I was going to give him my back. He was strong. I knew if I gave him my back, he'd lift me up, and I'd hook his leg when he put me down, I'd spin and go for an armbar. I knew I was about to beat him in the first 15 or 20 seconds. The move came. I don't know if I hesitated."



Rounds were new in UFC. Previously, they would go straight through without a break. In an effort to appease athletic commissions, and more importantly for the owners at the time, to get back on pay-per-view nationwide, they were told they needed to be like boxing. Before, UFC judging was simple. When the fight was over, all three judges wrote down on a piece of paper who won the fight. This was the first show where judging was done using the 10-point must system for rounds.



The second round was more of the same. Shamrock landed a high kick, but Ortiz took him down 30 seconds into the round and held him there almost the entire round.



Shamrock came out strong in the third round with body kicks, but Ortiz took him down 28 seconds into the round. Shamrock was bleeding by this point, and Ortiz stuck his finger in the cut, trying to open it wider. Technically, that wasn't illegal, because nobody had ever done it before so nobody thought to ban it. The rule banning it was implemented right after this fight.



Two judges had it 30-27 for Ortiz at this point, and one gave Shamrock the third round.



Having been at the show live, round three was very interesting. I thought there was no way a judge could have given Shamrock round three. Ortiz took him down twice and was on top for all but about 40 seconds of the round. Yet, it was also clear Ortiz was fading and Shamrock's defense off his back was the reason. I recalled that if you're really understanding the fight as a journey, Shamrock really won the round, but if you were judging, there was no way you could possibly give it to him.



Watching it today, while that ringside opinion was correct, it was even more clear. Round three was the turning point for Shamrock. Yet there is no way a judge could give Shamrock the round, even though, somehow, one did. It's a flaw in judging, in that you really couldn't understand who really won the round until the fight was over. But you have to give a score when the round is over, based on who had the most offense.



Shamrock would need a finish to win.



"I knew his skill set," said Shamrock. "I trained with all kinds of great wrestlers, Eric Deuce, I'd fought Kevin Jackson, I couldn't wrestle for crap but I understood it, so I felt there was nothing he could do. I could tell he was scared of being hit by me. I was covering his mouth. Nobody had done that. I was riding a big, crazy, giant horse. By the third round, I could see he didn't have a game plan. I could tell he was changing. He was fatiguing. He really reacted when I was covering his mouth.



"I always knew I could finish," he said. "My whole game plan was to finish, even with his size and weight. I knew he'd fatigue and I would finish. There's no way I could have wrestled and matched him. I don't have that kind of wrestling strength and I know it."



Shamrock came out for round four with the nasty cut that Ortiz had pried open. He started landing low kicks and punches. But Ortiz got another takedown, his eighth of the fight. The crowd started booing. The crowd started out leaning toward Shamrock, but by the third round were sensing an Ortiz win and backing him, really just as the tide was about to turn. The open of round four showed it was Shamrock who was fresher, but he still couldn't stop the takedowns. Shamrock reversed and started unloading, but was taken down again. This time Shamrock grabbed a guillotine from the bottom, and nearly finished Ortiz. He turned Ortiz over with the guillotine. He then let it go, and started dropping elbows and fists. With ten seconds left in the round, Ortiz tapped out.



Shamrock was sensing more of a dramatic knockout standing as he realized Ortiz was fading. But it didn't happen, and was satisfied with the win as it was. As people spoke of it as the greatest fight in UFC history, then-UFC owner Bob Meyrowitz came into the cage and said that Shamrock was the greatest fighter in the history of the company. Shamrock then announced he was retiring the championship.



"I knew it was my last fight (in UFC)," he said. "I had the retirement clause in there already. I knew I had to make a spectacular statement and I was done. I knew the sport (in the U.S.) was going to die or was on life support and I was getting out."



Shamrock made $60,000 for that fight, but it cost him $22,000 for his training camp and he ended up with a broken foot that put him on crutches.



"It was just timing," he said. "I missed the big limelight. The irony is I did the most amazing stuff with the least amount of people watching."



The UFC was floundering financially and the big money was in Japan. Shamrock's next step was to either work with K-1, Japan's kickboxing powerhouse of the time, and have them start an MMA division, or head to Pride. At the time, Pride had not yet become strong, but was only a few months from exploding with the popularity of Kazushi Sakuraba.



Shamrock constantly tried to get a fight with Sakuraba, which would have been the dream fight of the era. But Pride was telling different stories, with Sakuraba's big money opponent being Wanderlei Silva.



Ortiz beat Silva on April 14, 2000, in Tokyo, to win the vacant UFC championship. Since Ortiz had an easier time making 205 than 199.9, the weight class was changed and renamed the light heavyweight division. Ortiz held the title until losing via decision to Randy Couture on September 26, 2003. He remained a top star, beating Ken Shamrock in three one-sided fights that helped grow the UFC business, and did the first 1 million buy pay-per-view show in 2006 when he lost to Chuck Liddell.



Shamrock tried to get several promotions going, and did headline the first MMA show ever on premium cable, losing via disqualification to Renzo Gracie. He was the key star with Strikeforce, headlining the company's first-ever show in 2006. That show, in San Jose, Calif., drew 18,265 fans, of which 17,465 paid. The latter is still the largest paid attendance for an MMA show in the United States. He remained one of the best at promoting his fights, and made exponentially more money in the 2006 to 2009 era, but his body was ravaged by injuries at the end. He also no longer had the amazing quickness on the ground for his size, which even today, stands out in watching the Ortiz fight. He retired after a loss to Nick Diaz on April 11, 2009.