UFC creator Art Davie: Ken Shamrock was my Ronda Rousey

Art Davie

Early UFC executive Art Davie said the link between pro wrestling and UFC isn’t anything new.

In fact, Davis said, the promotion found out early on its history what’s now an industry truth: there’s a lot of crossover between the fan bases.

“We did a lot of focus group testing and found out our fans were wrestling fans,” he told MMAjunkie Radio.

Davie said he reached out to the pro wrestling community early on in his tenure as matchmaker for the UFC, then a no-holds-sparred spectacle where groin shots were permitted. He called Eric Bischoff, a longtime wrestling promoter then working with World Wrestling Entertainment, looking for talent.

When future UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture made his octagon debut in 1997 at UFC 13, he met Tony Halme, also known as Ludvig Borga in WWE predecessor World Wrestling Federation. (The fight was over in 60 seconds. Couture locked in a rear-naked choke, and that was it.)

Sometimes, the crossover went the other direction.

“Ken Shamrock was my Ronda Rousey, because when he went over to the WWE and became ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Man,’ at that point, he was the best known MMA fighter on the planet,” said Davie, who in 2014 released a book about the early years of the UFC. “So there’s a natural connection there.”

Years later, former WWE champ Brock Lesnar would make his way to the octagon and bring scores of wrestling fans to the UFC, driving pay-per-view numbers to new heights. He lasted three years with the promotion, winning the heavyweight title before a pair of exposing losses to now-former champ Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

It would be three years before Phil “CM Punk” would become another high-profile crossover, though his story diverged from Lesnar’s upon arrival. While Lesnar had been a decorated amateur wrestler, Punk only had a few years of martial arts experience. Two years after the UFC announced his signing in December 2014, he has yet to make his debut.

If you ask Davie about whether it’s a good idea for Punk to get into the octagon in today’s UFC, he’ll give you a pretty straight answer. As much as anyone else who’s been in the industry and seen countless fighters come and go, he’ll be the first to say that his early work at bringing the two worlds together came at a time when MMA wasn’t a sport. Now, that’s obviously not the case.

“My opinion was more applicable in the early years, when it was style versus style,” he said. “But today, the guys have evolved. Today, it’s a common style that you have to master to be good MMA. 1993 is a long, fossil time ago.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean the line between the two isn’t still porous. Before her knockout setback, ex-UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey stepped into the ring at WrestleMania 31 and cranked on the arm of Stephanie McMahon.

The nearly 80,000 fans watching at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., chanted her name.

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