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Los Angeles, California Such a spectacle of violence was never seen before in the United States. Often labeled brutal and barbaric, some deemed it obscene. Thirteen years later, that very spectacle runs every week on television, nearly every month on pay-per-view. Lamented for brutality and barbarism, many label it the fastest growing sport in America. Technically, the term is mixed-martial arts, but in a sport where nothing is fake, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is the reality of the new gladiators. The UFC - America's biggest and most recognized mixed-martial arts company - debuted in November of 1993 in Denver's McNichols Arena as a tournament with no rules and no holds barred, hell bent on determining which fighting style was the brutal best. One of its latest installments - UFC 61: Bitter Rivals - took place on July 8th in front of a jam-packed Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, showcasing an organization that boasts five weight classes, well-rounded martial artists and regulations specifically designed to lessen the sport's danger. In some regards, the only two similarities between the two pay-per-view cards are the eight-sided cage that is known simply as "the octagon" and a guy by the name of Ken Shamrock. One, the former, is the symbol of the UFC, while the other is the bridge between then and now. "Him and Royce [Gracie] are the pioneers of something that no one ever thought would be a sport," says UFC President and Co-owner Dana White. "[Shamrock] helped take the sport to where it is today."  HOF fighter Ken Shamrock takes off the gloves for the final time on October 10. And today it's The Ultimate Fighter, a reality show on Spike TV that's currently in its fourth season. It's weekly "Unleashed" broadcasts feature past fights and Ultimate Fight Night shows - a once taboo notion of televising the sport on live television - on Spike, as well. Its pay-per-views grow in numbers every year in front of sold-out crowds in Southern California and Las Vegas. The sport routinely has the internet buzzing, often finding itself in the top five on the Yahoo! Buzz list. Fight coverage in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Houston Chronicle sprinkle sweat and blood around the globe. Celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Michael Clarke Duncan and Kevin James litter the audience at every card. "We've taken this thing to a whole different level," said White, who, along with Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, purchased the UFC in 2001. "We've got big plans for next year. We're going global." Those plans include branching out to Europe, with White saying a new London office should be put into play in the near future. Indeed, the company has drastically changed from its UFC I form. Very shortly, UFC 65 will have come and gone, with middleweight champion Rich "Ace" Franklin defending his title against Brazilian striking specialist Anderson "The Spider" Silva on Oct. 14. But, at least for a short span, Shamrock owned the right to having been on the first and last UFC pay-per-view. And what a journey it's been from one to the other. Portrayed, in particular during The Ultimate Fighter Season 3, as a short-tempered brute easily infuriated and quick to a conflict, the calm and cool version of Ken Shamrock would surprise most. Just ask him about the very first Ultimate Fighting Championship, and he's suddenly a master storyteller. "The fighters didn't even know what they were gonna see," he begins. Fact is, on Nov. 8 of 1993, Shamrock was in Japan at another mixed-martial arts event, submitting Takaku Fuke in a mere 44 seconds. On Nov. 12, he was in Denver for the first-ever UFC. "So you can see how seriously I took this event," he jokes. He was jet-lagged and facing an altitude change. Obviously, not even Shamrock knew he was about to become a focal point of a mixed-martial arts revolution. Billed as an anything-goes event where two men would enter and one would leave, the UFC, as Shamrock saw it, was making claims that only movies made. He doubted the event would ever go off. But it did. It began with striking specialist Gerard Gordeau sprinkling the teeth of sumo wrestler Teia Tuli across the mat. "It was silent," Shamrock remembered. "You could hear a pin drop." Ultimate fighting was on, the brutality was for real and anything could happen. Shamrock made his debut shortly thereafter against tae kwon do specialist Patrick Smith. It didn't come before Smith and Shamrock's camps exchanged pleasantries behind the scenes – with Smith telling all who would listen that he felt no pain, and his camp chanting, "He's gonna crush you," even Shamrock's mild-mannered father Bob was incensed. Ken assured his father he'd take care of Smith. He did just that, submitting Smith with a heel hook less than two minutes into the fight. "From that point, I fell in love with this type of fighting," said Shamrock, who'd been in his fair share of barroom brawls, street fights and toughman contests before the UFC.
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