UFC 20

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title: "UFC 20" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["ultimate-fighting-championship-flagship-events", "1999-in-mixed-martial-arts", "mixed-martial-arts-events-in-alabama", "sports-competitions-in-birmingham,-alabama", "1999-in-sports-in-alabama", "may-1999-sports-events-in-the-united-states"] description: "UFC mixed martial arts event in 1999" topic_path: "sports" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_20" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary UFC mixed martial arts event in 1999 ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox MMA event"]

Field	Value
name	UFC 20: Battle for the Gold
image	UFC20.jpg
promotion	Ultimate Fighting Championship
date	May 7, 1999
venue	Boutwell Auditorium
city	Birmingham, Alabama
previousevent	UFC 19: Ultimate Young Guns
followingevent	UFC 21: Return of the Champions
::

| name = UFC 20: Battle for the Gold | image = UFC20.jpg | promotion = Ultimate Fighting Championship | date = May 7, 1999 | venue = Boutwell Auditorium | city = Birmingham, Alabama | attendance = | gate = | buyrate = | purse = | previousevent = UFC 19: Ultimate Young Guns | followingevent = UFC 21: Return of the Champions UFC 20: Battle for the Gold was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on May 7, 1999 at the Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama. The event was seen live on pay per view in the United States, and later released on home video.

History

UFC 20 was the final event of what the UFC called "The Road to the Heavyweight Title", a tournament of sorts spanning four events, held to determine the Heavyweight Champion after Randy Couture vacated the title (due to contract disputes with the UFC). Bas Rutten defeated Kevin Randleman to become the new Heavyweight Champion in a controversial split decision.

Referees for the event were Mario Yamasaki (first time for UFC pay-per-view) and John McCarthy.

Results

|Heavyweight |Bas Rutten |def. |Kevin Randleman |Decision (split) | |21:00 |For the vacant UFC Heavyweight Championship. |Heavyweight |Pedro Rizzo |def. |Tra Telligman |KO (punch) | |4:30 | |Heavyweight |Pete Williams |def. |Travis Fulton |Submission (armlock) | |6:28 | |Middleweight |Wanderlei Silva |def. |Tony Petarra |KO (knee) | |2:53 | |Lightweight |Marcelo Mello |def. |Dave Roberts |TKO (punches) | |1:23 | }}{{MMAevent bout |Lightweight |LaVerne Clark |def. |Fabiano Iha |TKO (doctor stoppage) | |1:33 |

Encyclopedia awards

The following fighters were honored in the October 2011 book titled UFC Encyclopedia.

• Fight of the Night: Pedro Rizzo vs. Tra Telligman
• Knockout of the Night: Wanderlei Silva
• Submission of the Night: Pete Williams

References

References

1. Gerbasi, Thomas. (2011-10-17). "UFC Encyclopedia - The Definitive Guide to the Ultimate Fighting Championship". DK.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::