Harold Howard
The story of Kevin Randlemann’s fight with Pedro Rizzo at UFC 24 being cancelled after he knocked himself out backstage is a well known part of MMA folklore. But Frank Shamrock once told a tale that’s even crazier than that about Harold Howard at UFC 3.
“I remember when Harold Howard was leaving the Octagon and heading back through the small entrance area that led the fighters to the back,” Shamrock recalled to Bleacher Report. “He had just won his fight to get into the semi-finals and he was hit by a rotating light right on the temple. He fell and was completely unconscious, he literally dropped like a sack of potatoes!
“His team picked him up and got him on the examination table in the back and woke him up. Fifteen minutes later he was back in the Octagon fighting.”
Luckily Howard didn’t have to compete in the semifinals as Royce Gracie quit before they started due to exhaustion. That gave the concussed Howard another much-needed breather backstage. And with Ken Shamrock also pulling out of the final, unheralded alternate Steve Jennum fought him in the final instead. However, despite being the smaller man, Jennum would hurt the already concussed Howard on the feet. He then took him down and landed ground and pound until Howard’s corner threw in the towel.
