By Chamatkar Sandhu
March 17th 2001
Rich Franklin defeated Travis Fulton via TKO (broken hand) at the end of round 1 at Rings USA – Battle of Champions which went down in Harveys Casino Hotel, Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA. On the same card UFC hall of famer Matt Hughes defeated Brett Al-Azzawi via submissions (armbar) in 3 minutes and 27 seconds of the first round.
March 17th 2002
Alistair Overeem defeated Roman Zentsov via submission (keylock) in 1 minute and 26 seconds of the first round at 2 Hot 2 Handle – Simply The Best 4 which went down in Ahoy Sportpaleis Rotterdam, Holland, Netherlands.
March 17th 2005
WEC 14: Vengeance was held by World Extreme Cagefighting on March 17th, 2005 at the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino in Lemoore, California. The Main Event saw John Polakowski take on Olaf Alfonso.
In the main event John Polakowski defeated Olaf Alonso via TKO (corner stoppage) at the end of the first round.
March 17th 2006
WEC 19: Undisputed was held by World Extreme Cagefighting on March 17, 2006 at the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino in Lemoore, California. The event aired live on the HDNet Fights.
Eight past, present, or future WEC champions competed at this event, which was the most ever featured on a WEC card.
In the main event Urijah Faber defended his WEC featherweight championship versus Cole Escovedo. Faber defeated Escovedo via TKO (corner stoppage) at the end of Round 2 to win the WEC Featherweight title.
March 17th 2007
Jeremy Stephens defeated Vern Jefferson via TKO (punches) in 3 minutes and 58 seconds of the first round at Greensparks Full Contact Fighting 3 in Iowa, USA. This win took Stephens’ record to 12-1 and he was then subsequently signed by the UFC and has fought for the organisation ever since.
March 17th 2007
John Dodson defeated Jake Long via TKO (punches) in the main event of Last Man Standing – Total Devastation which went down in the State Fair Grounds, Roswell, Eastern New Mexico, Mexico.
March 17th 2007
Stefan Struve defeated Atte Backman via submission (triangle choke) in 3 minutes and 54 seconds of the first round at Fight Festival 21 which went down in Helsinki, Finland.
March 17th 2008
Michael McDonald defeated Dominic Pena via submissions (arm triangle choke) at 1 minute and 12 seconds of the first round at Gladiator Challenge 76 – Alpha Dog Challenge which went down in Porterville, California, USA.
For more information, pictures, regular updates and if you want to expand your knowledge of mixed martial arts follow @MMAHistoryToday on Twitter.
Follow me @ChamatkarSandhu
