ALL-NEW ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP
PRESENTS UFC 33: VICTORY IN VEGAS

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UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz
vs.
UFC Light Heavyweight Contender Vitor Belfort

UFC Lightweight Champion Jens Pulver
vs.
UFC Lightweight Contender Dennis Hallman

UFC Middleweight Contender Dave Menne
vs.
UFC Middleweight Contender Gil Castillo

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Friday, Sept. 28, 2001, At 10 PM ET/7 PM PT
From Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas, Nevada

Victory in Vegas will be broadcast live on iN DEMAND, DIRECTV and Dish Network pay per view at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, and features six televised fights. The suggested retail price is $29.95.

      In the co-featured main event, UFC Lightweight Champion Jens Pulver (19-2-1 in Mixed Martial Arts), of Davenport, Iowa, will make his first title defense when he battles Dennis Hallman (37-4-0 in MMA), of Yelm, Wash. Pulver captured the UFC bantamweight title at UFC 30. Due to the restructuring of weight classes, Pulver is now recognized as the UFC lightweight champion. Rounding out the co-feature, Dave Menne (34-3-1 in MMA), of Forest Lake, Minn., will take on Gil Castillo (16-0-0 in MMA), of Concord, Calif., for the vacant UFC middleweight title.

      Highlighting the undercard will be a lightweight showdown pitting once-beaten Chuck Liddell (7-1-0 in MMA), of Santa Barbara, Calif., against undefeated Murilo Bustamante (9-0-1 in MMA), of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Five additional bouts will be added to the card at a later date.

      Ortiz, of Huntington Beach, Calif., is one of the UFC’s most recognizable athletes. The 6’2", 204-pound "Huntington Beach Bad Boy" progressed through the ranks as a junior college wrestler and has overcome many obstacles, including getting hit by a bus while riding a moped on his honeymoon.

      A two-time California State wrestling champion in junior college, Ortiz got his first taste of the UFC thanks to his high school wrestling coach, Paul Herrera. Herrera introduced Ortiz to Tank Abbott, who needed a sparring partner. The rest is history.

      On April 14, 2000, in Tokyo, Japan, Ortiz faced the highly regarded Brazilian fighter, Vanderlei Silva, for the vacant UFC world middleweight championship. The UFC 25: Ultimate Fighting Japan 3 match featured several heated exchanges. Ortiz’s takedowns and ground control earned him a unanimous decision and the middleweight title following 25 minutes of intense action.

      At UFC 30: The Battle On The Boardwalk on Feb. 23, 2001, Ortiz battled Evan Tanner at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J. The two combatants tied up immediately in the biggest fight of the evening. Ortiz got inside on Tanner, wrapped him up, elevated him and slammed him to the floor. The impact was enough to knock Tanner out, but Ortiz made sure his opponent was finished. He landed two solid punches to the head before referee John McCarthy stopped the fight just 30 seconds in. Ortiz remained the UFC middleweight champion. Tanner went from undefeated to unconscious.

      Ortiz is now recognized as the UFC light heavyweight champion due to the restructuring of weight classes after UFC 30. He successfully defended his belt with a technical knockout in the first round of a bout against Australian fighter Elvis "The King of Rock ‘n’ Rumble" Sinosic at UFC 32: Showdown in the Meadowlands.

      Belfort is a UFC veteran despite being only 23 years old. His fists of fury dazzled UFC fans when he first appeared at UFC 12: Judgement Day, a four-man heavyweight tournament. First, he defeated Lion’s Den fighter Tra Telligman by verbal submission from strikes at 1:18. In the finals, Belfort defeated Scott Ferrozzo, a 300-plus-pound behemoth, in less than one minute when the referee stopped the contest due to punches. Belfort returned at UFC 13 to take on well-known brawler/puncher David "Tank" Abbott. Belfort dispatched of Abbott in 53 seconds, again by referee stoppage due to punches.

      At UFC 15: Collision Course, Belfort faced wrestling standout and current UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture. The fighters battled for more than eight minutes before the referee stopped the contest and awarded Couture the win due to knees and punches.

      Two months later, Belfort returned to the UFC at Ultimate Japan I. He defeated judo practitioner Joe Charles by arm bar to get back on the winning path. Belfort then fought in his homeland at the first Ultimate Brazil I. He destroyed highly regarded striker Vanderlei Silva in just 44 seconds by referee stoppage due to punches.

      Pulver has gone undefeated in five UFC bouts (4-0-1). He made his UFC debut on Sept. 24, 1999, at UFC 22: There Can Be Only One Champion with a majority draw. Following victories at UFC 24, 26 and 28, the Sunnyside, Wash., native captured the first UFC bantamweight title at UFC 30: Battle on the Boardwalk by scoring a unanimous decision over Caol Uno.

      Hallman made his UFC debut against Matt Hughes at UFC 29: High Stakes, on Dec. 16, 2000, at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J. The Olympia, Wash., native ended matters early by forcing Hughes to tap out just 20 seconds in due to an armbar.

      Menne competed in MMA events for three years before making his UFC debut on March 10, 2000, against Brazilian Fabiano Iha at UFC 24: First Defense. Menne controlled the action throughout the bout by scoring points with solid punching on the ground. Following three rounds, Menne won a unanimous decision.

      The UFC’s Jeff Blatnick and Mike Goldberg will call the action from the Octagon. Blatnick, who has commentated NCAA and Olympic wrestling events since he won Olympic wrestling gold in the super heavyweight division at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, has been with the organization since UFC 4 in December 1994. Goldberg, whose primary occupation is television play-by-play announcer for the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League, has been with UFC since Ultimate Japan in December 1997.

      For more information, please visit the official UFC website at www.ufc.tv.

      Tickets, priced at $300, $200, $100, $60 and $30, can be purchased at the Mandalay Bay box office, or at any TicketMaster outlet. To order tickets by phone, call 877-632-7400. To order tickets on the Internet, go to TicketMaster.com. The Ortiz-Belfort light heavyweight championship will headline a nine-bout card that features two other championship fights including Jens Pulver defending his lightweight belt against Dennis Hallman, as well as Dave Menne taking on an opponent to be named for the vacant UFC middleweight title. "Victory in Vegas" marks a triumphant return of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and the UFC to cable television. The event will be televised live on iN DEMAND, DIRECTV, and Dish Network pay per view at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.

      Ortiz, of Huntington Beach, Calif., is one of the most recognized athletes in the UFC. "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" is 7-2-0 in the UFC and 9-2-0 in MMA. In his last UFC bout, Ortiz defended his middleweight title by scoring a first-round knockout over Australian contender, Elvis Sinosic, at UFC 32: Showdown In the Meadowlands on June 28, 2001, in East Rutherford, N.J. Ortiz is now recognized as the UFC light heavyweight champion due to the restructuring of weight classes after UFC 30.

      Belfort, of Rio De Janiero, Brazil, has a 5-1-0 UFC record and is 10-2-0 overall in MMA. A Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu specialist, three of his five UFC victories have come in less than one minute, all due to punches. Belfort’s sole loss came at the hands and knees of current UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture at UFC 15. At his most recent UFC appearance in Ultimate Brazil on Oct. 16, 1998, Belfort defeated Vanderlei Silva by punches in 44 seconds.