UFC 41: New Champion? No Champion!

Caol Uno (Photo: sherdog.com)

UFC 41: Onslaught – Atlantic City, N.J. – Boardwalk Hall – Feb. 28, 2003

Can a tournament end without a winner? It happened at UFC 41.

BJ Penn battled Caol Uno in the finals of a four-man lightweight title tournament. The semifinals took place at UFC 39, with Penn defeating Matt Serra and Uno beating Din Thomas.

In the finals, one judge ruled 48-46 Penn while another ruled 48-47 Uno. The third judge scored the bout 48-48. So the fight was a draw and nobody won the belt.

This decision put the lightweight title on ice, as a new champion was not crowned until UFC 64 more than three years later.

Tim Sylvia upset Ricco Rodriguez to win the UFC heavyweight title in only his second appearance in the Octagon. The “Maine-iac” improved his record to 15-0 by knocking out Rodriguez at the 3:09 mark.

Tank Abbott’s return to UFC was over in 46 seconds, as Frank Mir beat him by submission with an ankle lock.

“My submissions are devastating,” Mir bragged.

In the other pay-per-view fights, Matt Lindland beat Phil Baroni, and Vladimir “The Janitor” Matyushenko defeated Pedro Rizzo.

Another wacky decision took place on the preliminary card, as Din Thomas defeated Matt Serra. Originally, Serra was announced as the winner.

However, Serra knows how the producers of “La La Land” feel, as his victory was taken away from him. One of the judges had made an error on his scorecard, and Thomas was awarded the victory.

In the other prelims, Gan McGee beat Alexandre "Cafe" Dantas by TKO with 11 seconds left in Round 1; and Yves Edwards used a rear naked choke to beat Rich Clementi by submission in Round 3.