Columbus, Ohio was the stage for some extreme happenings in the ring of the first ever Gracie Fighting Championship event. An MMA-show idealized by Relson Gracie where a team consisting of Gracies' students would clash with MMA fighters who would be regarded as wrestlers.  It was former UFC Champion Mark Coleman's team...  Hammerhouse.  Team Gracie members who departed from Brazil expected some ground'n'pound specialists in a few of the eight fights that comprised the event. But this certainty in the minds of the Gracie team was their undoing as they fell victim to the Hammerhouse fighters' surprising versatility.     
     

During the pre-thoughts of each combat, the confidence was high for both teams.  But the Gracies came on strong scoring the first three victories by juji-gatame (armbar) - Phil Cardella (Relson Gracie) over Patrick Horner in R1 and Michael O'Donnell (Carlson Jr.) finishing the undefeated, Jon Koppenhaver in 4:02 of R2, and finally a maXfighting featured fighter Light "heavy hitter" Fredson Paixao used his tenacity and formidable submission skills to use that same technique to tapout Mike French at 0:42 of R2.  Paixao applied a chain of submissions but the wily French was about to escape and counter like few have seen before...  even slipping a rear-naked-choke that would have made an anaconda envious.  Finally, the American fighter succumbed to an armbar from the guard.     
   

Until this moment this moment the atmosphere was obviously favorable for Gracies and it looked bad for the "wrestlers" as they were down 3-0 right.   
   

Then the first actual Gracie stepped into the ring - this was Rhalan Gracie, the son of Relson against Jorge Gurgel's Dustin Hazelette. This one was perhaps the match of the night, with the fighters set to trade intense submission attempts in the three rounds. In the end, Hazelette split decision the eighteen-year-old Rhalan.   
   

Things were turning around, and the nightmare continued for the Gracies, when WEC champion Mike Pyle mopped up Gustavo Machado by TKO in short 1:20 of R1 by punches.   
   

The score now was 3-2 with the Gracies still ahead.  But after Daniel Moraes, a Royler Gracie black-belt gassed during his fight with Forrest Petz, the score was then even. Moraes tried to impose his wrestling background (acquired by training with Darrel
Ghollar) and on a few occasions he actually got the takedown.  But a calm Petz was able to take control of the action and eventually score a TKO in R3 over the Brazilian.   
   

Then the coup de grace... UFC veteran and Olympic Silver Medalist "The Law" Matt Lindland took BJJ World champion and 2-0 MMA fighter Fabio Leopoldo in the 7th fight of the evening. With a good base, and an extraordinary balance, Lindland debunked all comments regrading his fight gam as "boring". He didn't give Leopoldo and his BJJ game a chance.  After the fight went down, Lindland was able to reverse to top position and land strikes.  If things were terrible for Leopoldo in R1 and R2, they stayed worst when a cut in his eye caused for a doctor check. The fight continued, but without any way of defend himself or to attack Lindland, the over-matched Leopoldo became easy prey to be submitted by rear-naked-choke at 3:25 of R3.  The "wrestler" choked the BJJ World Champion.    

4-3 Hammerhouse.
 

In main event Daniel Gracie faced Wes Sims and it became his responsibility to tie the score for the Gracie clan.  In Round 1 Daniel executed a solid ground-game after the recovering from some heavy knees delivered by Sims. In R2 Sims head-butted Daniel (receiving a warning) then Daniel was knocked unconscious on the canvas by a Sims' knee.  Sims then held back from going after Daniel with more strikes, and decided to back off.  This gave Daniel time to recover and get back in the fight.  R3 was where the controversy really came about. When the fighters were on the ground, Daniel landed three illegal knee-strikes into the face of Wes Sims'.  Despite this, Daniel Gracie was declared winner by TKO.

Later that night, the result was changed by Ohio Athletic Commission to a draw due to the illegal moves. The fight was stopped by a foul in round three, so it was determined that it would go to the judge cards to evaluate the completed rounds.  The fighters split rounds 1 and 2, thus it was a draw. 
 

In one of 'the out of challenge fights', Vitor Ribeiro increased his record to 15-1 with a TKO victory over "The Westside Strangler" Chris Brennan at 3:25 of R1. 

Other Results:

Stevel Conkel TKO'd Brian Peoples in 1:02 of R1 
Ben Rothwell KO'd Dan Bobish at 4:20 of R1  
 


K-1 Rules 

Gary Turner unanimous decisioned Carter Williams

Source: MaxFighting.com