Mixed Martial Arts Career
Burnett made his professional MMA debut on April 20, 1996, competing at the third and final Oklahoma Free Fight Federation tournament in Tulsa. Burnett defeated Todd Justice and Tony Hays only to eventually lose to Kevin Nix in the final round of the tournament. Shortly after this, Burnett began to train with Ken Shamrock's Lion's Den in Susanville, California. Burnett's next fight would not take place until the following year at the inaugural World Pankration Championships where Burnett submitted Mike Hipp with a heel hook.
Burnett's success attracted the attention of the UFC, who invited Burnett to fight in their organization. Burnett made his victorious UFC debut at UFC 16, stopping Eugenio Tadeu with strikes in the first round. This fight was nominated by the UFC to appear on the UFC's Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights.
Burnett's performance earned him a title shot against Pat Miletich to determine the first-ever UFC Welterweight Champion. Burnett lost a controversial decision to Miletich at UFC Ultimate Brazil. Burnett returned at UFC 18 where he won a unanimous decision over Olympic silver medalist Townsend Saunders.
Burnett would leave the Lion's Den later in 1998 to go back to Oklahoma when he found out he was having a child. Burnett started his own training facility, with brother and trainer Scott Burnett, in East Tulsa called Mikey's Gym. He also began to teach and instruct at various other gyms in the city and surrounding area for the next several years.
Read more about this topic: Mikey Burnett
Famous quotes containing the words mixed, martial, arts and/or career:
“There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody’s expense but his own.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“To a surprising extent the war-lords in shining armour, the apostles of the martial virtues, tend not to die fighting when the time comes. History is full of ignominious getaways by the great and famous.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)
“In a very ugly and sensible age, the arts borrow, not from life, but from each other.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman’s natural fitness for the career of mother: the alternatives are all too expensive.”
—Ann Oakley (b. 1944)