Nearly twelve years later, the UFC was still around, but it was in trouble. The promotion’s new owners, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta and Dana White, weren’t new anymore. They were five years into their ownership, and after investing millions and millions into the brand that weren’t coming back, it was nearly time to call it a day.

The last-ditch effort was a reality show, The Ultimate Fighter, and its first season captivated fans old and new by showing the personalities and stories of the athletes outside of the Octagon. It was a success. But whether it would save the UFC was another story, and that burden seemingly fell on those competing in the show’s season finale, aired live on Spike TV.

That was 2005. Today, the UFC is an international juggernaut, partnered with heavyweights like ESPN and Reebok, with events airing around the globe several times a month. In short, it’s not going anywhere, and nearly everyone believes that a good deal of the credit for kicking off the MMA explosion goes to the men who fought for the Ultimate Fighter’s light heavyweight title at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas on April 9, 2005, Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar.

Their three-round bout was a back-and-forth, action-packed, drama-filled war, one of those fights you can watch over and over and not grow tired of. It was worthy of the adjective “great.” But in my second UFC theory, while the fight was one to remember, the men who fought in it were the ones that fans latched onto, and that’s why people stuck around and wanted to see what happened next.