@page { margin-bottom: 5.000000pt; margin-top: 5.000000pt; } UFC 47 “It’s On” April 2, 2004 Mandalay Bay Events Center Las Vegas, Nevada Bouts I Reffed: Mike Kyle vs. Wes Sims Yves Edwards vs. Hermes Franca Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz It got so loud during the final few seconds of Ortiz-Liddell’s first round that I couldn’t hear anything, including the horn to signal the round’s end. Thank God I heard the ten-second clap and started my usual countdown in my head. Ortiz missed the horn as well, so when I broke them up, Ortiz thought for an instant that I’d ended the fight on him, and he pushed me in the back. I didn’t feel it at the time but later was told about it and saw it on the tape. Liddell iced Ortiz in the second round with a left hook directly to the eye, which crumpled him on the fence. Afterward Ortiz claimed he’d been poked in the eye, but it was a legal punch. As the sport evolved, the UFC continued to flounder. Around UFC 40, I’d known the promotion was struggling.
