UFC 15
| UFC 15: Collision Course | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Information | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | October 17, 1997 | |||
| Venue | Casino Magic Bay St. Louis | |||
| City | Bay St. Louis, Mississippi | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC 15: Collision Course was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on October 17, 1997, in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The event was seen live on pay per view in the United States, and later released on home video.
History
UFC 15 was headlined by a UFC Heavyweight Championship bout between Maurice Smith and Tank Abbott. Abbott was brought in as a last-minute replacement for Dan Severn, who couldn't fight because of an injured hand.
UFC 15 featured a Superfight between Randy Couture and Vitor Belfort, a Heavyweight Tournament, and two alternate bouts. The show also marked the last event to feature Bruce Beck, who had been the main play-by-play announcer starting with UFC 4. He was replaced by Mike Goldberg in UFC 16. This was the first Pay-per-view UFC event to feature a second referee, Joe Hamilton, who handled the less significant matches while "Big" John McCarthy still handled all the title and championship matches.
Collision Course marked a major change in the UFC's rules, with limitations set on permissible striking areas. Headbutts, groin strikes, strikes to the back of the neck & head, kicks to a downed opponent, small joint manipulation, and hair pulling all became officially illegal.
Results
| Heavyweight Championship | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Heavyweight | Maurice Smith | def. | Tank Abbott | submission (exhaustion) | 8:08 | [lower-alpha 1] | |
| Heavyweight Superfight | |||||||
| Heavyweight | Randy Couture | def. | Vitor Belfort | TKO (punches) | 8:16 | ||
| Finals | |||||||
| Heavyweight | Mark Kerr | def. | Dwayne Cason | submission (rear-naked choke) | 0:53 | [lower-alpha 2] | |
| Semifinals | |||||||
| Heavyweight | Mark Kerr | def. | Greg Stott | KO (knee) | 0:17 | ||
| Heavyweight | Dave Beneteau | def. | Carlos Barreto | decision | 15:00 | [lower-alpha 3] | |
| Alternate bouts | |||||||
| Heavyweight | Alex Hunter | def. | Harry Moskowitz | decision | 12:00 | ||
| Heavyweight | Dwayne Cason | def. | Houston Dorr | TKO (punches) | 3:43 | ||
UFC 15 Heavyweight Tournament Bracket
| Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||
| Mark Kerr | KO | ||||||||
| Greg Stott | 0:17 | ||||||||
| Mark Kerr | SUB | ||||||||
| Dwane Cason1 | 0:53 | ||||||||
| Dave Beneteau | DEC | ||||||||
| Carlos Barreto | 15:00 | ||||||||
1 Dwane Cason replaced Dave Beneteau who withdrew due to fatigue.
