Matt Bevan

If You're Listening

This story starts with the US Navy and its boxing program.

In the 1950s, one of the young men being trained as a naval officer at Annapolis was John McCain III.

Both John McCain I and John McCain II were admirals in the Navy, so John McCain III had quite a bit of expectation hanging over his head.

At the academy, recruits would compete against each other in boxing to earn days of leave.

During his time there, McCain became quite an accomplished lightweight boxer, and even when he left the Navy to pursue a career in politics, he never lost his love of the sport.

First and foremost, I'm a fervent, lifelong fan of the sport.

I have followed professional boxing closely for over four decades.

When McCain entered the US Congress, he took special interest in policies related to boxing.

Professional boxing has commonly been called the sweet science and the red light district of sports.

Both are accurate descriptions.

In this capacity, he also looked into other combat sports.

In 1993, that included the emerging sport of Mixed Martial Arts or MMA.

This was the first ever Ultimate Fighting Championship event.

There were also no gloves and no weight divisions.

The first ever fight at the UFC was between a Dutch kickboxer and a Hawaiian sumo wrestler who was almost twice his weight.

The fight lasted 28 seconds before sumo wrestler Tilia Tulli charged at his opponent and fell to the ground.

Kickboxer Gerard Gourdeau then kicked Tulli in the head.

One of Tulli's teeth was found in the crowd.

Two more were embedded in Gourdeau's foot.