Stories from the Road: Monte Cox

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The Hector Camacho boxing match Cox promoted at the Mark of the Quad Cities drew 6,000 fans. Needless to say, he was through with boxing after Quad City Ultimate I. In the first four months in 1996, Cox made more than three times his annual newspaper salary.

“That’s when I knew I wasn’t going to be a newspaper writer much longer,” Cox said. “I didn’t have any financial problems before [and] then there was all of this money. When I did my second Quad City show in May ’96 ... to be fully vested in the newspaper company’s 401k, I had to be there for seven years. After QCU II, it was seven years and three days -- and then I quit.”

Cox has promoted more than 500 MMA shows since.

PANIC IN THE TOKYO DOME

Cox represented Jens Pulver, the first UFC lightweight champion at 155 pounds. When Pulver got into a contract dispute with the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2002 and could not get the money he wanted, he opted to vacate the belt. Pulver took a fight against Takehiro Murahama at the Tokyo Dome in Japan with a brand new group called Universal Fighting-Arts Organization on August 8, 2002.

Pulver made more for that fight than he would have received from the UFC if he continued to win, according to Cox. Pulver-Murahama was the second fight on the card. Because of that, neither man had to go out for the parade of fighters since they were expected to be getting ready. Pulver, however, had more pressing concerns than Murahama.

“It’s me, Jeremy Horn and Jens in the dressing room, and Jens goes to me, ‘Dude, you hungry?’ I tell him I’m always hungry,” Cox said, whimsically. “Jens told me he’s starving and asked if we had time. We thought we had a whole block of time with the introductions and the first fight. I left it up to Jens, and he says, ‘Let’s do it.’ So we all take off from the Tokyo Dome’s floor level and run up to the mezzanine. There were a lot of steps.”

The looming dilemma was that everyone knew Pulver, so he found himself being stopped to sign autographs every three or four steps. Finally, Cox, Horn and Pulver reached the main concourse and ordered some chicken. They were relaxed, filling their bellies and thinking they had time. They were wrong.

“I walk over in the arena to see how it’s going and I asked Jeremy what Murahama looks like,” Cox said. “He tells me he’s a short, stocky guy with bushy hair -- and I ask Jeremy to come over: ‘Like that?’ I asked; and there’s Murahama standing in the ring, and you can hear them going, ‘Jennnnssss Pullllvvvveeerrr.’ I scream, ‘Jens, we’re up!’ He drops the chicken mid-bite, bones fly everywhere and we go running down from the mezzanine to the back. We don’t even have gloves on. We had no time for a robe or anything, and Jens gets to the ring while he’s putting on the gloves as he’s running to the ring.

“The ref is looking at us like, ‘You jackasses!’ The first two rounds are just wars. Jens was a college wrestler who never wanted to take anyone down. He just wanted to stand and box. The first two rounds are close. I told Jeremy we have to tell Jens to at least shoot a takedown just to get Murahama on his heels. He was sitting back and waiting on us and blasting Jens,” he added. “The bell rings [and] Jens comes back screaming, ‘No! I know what you’re going to say. I’m not going to take him down.’ Jeremy and I look at each other, and Jeremy goes to Jens, ‘You have to throw more rights then, because you’re loading up too much with the left.’ We knew we couldn’t talk Jens into it. Jens wound up winning a split decision in what was just a war. He had no warm-up, no hand wraps, still chicken grease on his fingers. We didn’t have any time to do anything, and Murahama was already standing there. It’s a fight I won’t forget.”

DOERKSEN: THE UFC FIGHTER

Canadian middleweight Joe Doerksen always dreamed of becoming a UFC fighter. His 51 wins are more than any other Canadian in MMA history. Doerksen’s first foray in the Octagon did not go too well. At UFC 49 in August 2004, Doerksen suffered a broken jaw in a second-round submission loss to Joe Riggs.

Doerksen received a second chance at UFC 52, where he faced Patrick Cote on April 16, 2005 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Cote had Doerksen in real trouble in the third round. Doerksen took a jolting shot and appeared literally out on his feet when Cote jumped on him and tried to finish. Doerksen, however, got a quirky break. Cote slid off, and out of instinct, Doerksen threw around “The Predator” and cinched a rear-naked choke for the victory.

“It was bizarre, because we thought Joe lost -- we thought,” said Cox, who managed Doerksen. “The fight ends and Joe is jumping up and down yelling, ‘I’m a UFC fighter! I’m a UFC fighter! I’m a UFC fighter!’ He was so happy he won a UFC fight, he had to tell everyone. We’re coming back to the dressing room and Joe tells us we have to call his wife. Then he stops for a second, ‘Oh, wait a minute, my wife cheated on me and I divorced her.’

“Joe waits a few seconds, and then says, ‘Well, I have a girlfriend. We have to call my girlfriend and tell her that I’m a UFC fighter.’ Now I’m looking at Joe, and he’s looking at me, because I know he broke up with his girlfriend before the fight. Then Joe says, ‘Oh yeah, I broke up with my girlfriend. We’re not together.’ He sits down in the chair and he comes to the conclusion that he has no one to tell,” Cox added. “The doctor comes in and tells Joe we have to take him to the hospital. Joe says, ‘No, didn’t you see? I won. I’m a UFC fighter. I’m a UFC fighter. I won. I won.’ The doctors asks Joe, ‘What year is it?’ Joe hesitates and hesitates and blurts out, ‘Oh, s---! Where’s the ambulance?’”

Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.