| UFC 43: Meltdown | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC 43: Meltdown | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | June 6, 2003 | |||
| Venue | Thomas and Mack Center | |||
| City | Las Vegas, Nevada | |||
| Attendance | 9,800 | |||
| Total gate | $645,140 | |||
| Buyrate | 49,000 | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC 43: Meltdown was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on June 6, 2003, at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event was broadcast live on pay-per-view in the United States, and later released on DVD.
Headlining the card was an Interim Light Heavyweight Championship match between future UFC Hall of Fame inductees Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell. This was the first interim title fight in UFC history.
Ken Shamrock was originally slated to face Ian Freeman at this event, but was forced from the card with a torn ACL. Vernon White would step in as his replacement. [1]
| Main Card | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Light Heavyweight | Randy Couture | def. | Chuck Liddell | TKO (punches) | 3 | 2:39 | [a] |
| Heavyweight | Kimo Leopoldo | def. | Tank Abbott | Submission (arm-triangle choke) | 1 | 1:59 | |
| Light Heavyweight | Vitor Belfort | def. | Marvin Eastman | TKO (knees and punches) | 1 | 1:07 | |
| Heavyweight | Vernon White | vs. | Ian Freeman | Draw (split) (28–29, 30–27, 29–29) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Heavyweight | Frank Mir | def. | Wes Sims | DQ (kicking a downed opponent) | 1 | 2:55 | |
| Preliminary card | |||||||
| Heavyweight | Pedro Rizzo | def. | Tra Telligman | TKO (doctor stoppage) | 2 | 4:24 | |
| Middleweight | Falaniko Vitale | def. | Matt Lindland | KO (slam) | 1 | 1:56 | |
| Lightweight | Yves Edwards | def. | Eddie Ruiz | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
The following fighters were honored in the October 2011 book titled UFC Encyclopedia . [2]
