as he felt the "no rules" format was too dangerous and he did not want to risk his career so early. However, he signed with the UFC in 1998, after his Pancrase career. Rutten entered the UFC with a massive amount of hype; he was undefeated in his last 19 fights and was touted by the organization as the "world's greatest martial artist." Rutten was originally scheduled to fight heavyweight champion Randy Couture in a title match for the UFC Heavyweight Championship in his first fight, but Couture had a contract dispute and left the UFC to sign with a different promotion. The title was then stripped from Couture and a tournament of sorts was set up to determine the next champion. Thus, the Dutchman's first fight in his quest for the UFC belt was against Fighting Network RINGS exponent Tsuyoshi Kosaka at UFC 18. During the bout, Rutten was repeatedly taken down and struck with ground and pound, but he ended up scoring a dramatic KO with just a minute left in overtime. The fight was a source of controversy because referee John McCarthy seemed to unfairly stand the fight up when Kosaka was mounted on Rutten and actively landing clean effective punches. On 7 May 1999, at UFC 20, Rutten faced Kevin Randleman for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. The first four minutes consisted of Rutten taking unanswered punishment from his guard, getting blood on his face, but after the fight was stood up to check Rutten's cut, Rutten landed a hard kick to Randleman's liver, slowing his pace for the rest of the fight. They then exchanged strikes in Bas's guard, with the Dutch fighter opening a cut in Randleman via elbow strikes on top of his head, until the end of the overtime. The fight went to the judges, and they gave the split decision win to Rutten, crowning him as UFC Heavyweight Champion. This victory met a heated controversy from fans and professionals of the sport alike, among them Randleman's corner and Mark Coleman, who criticized the judges' decision. Fight judging at that point was not based on the current 10-point must system, but on whom the judges felt won the fight overall. Rutten vacated the title later in the year, in order to drop down to middleweight (now known as light heavyweight) a weight closer to his natural weight, in a bid to try to