UFC 17

UFC 17: Redemption
A poster or logo for UFC 17: Redemption.
Information
Promotion	Ultimate Fighting Championship
Date	May 15, 1998
Venue	Mobile Civic Center
City	Mobile, Alabama
Event chronology
UFC 16: Battle in the Bayou UFC 17: Redemption UFC Brazil: Ultimate Brazil

UFC 17: Redemption was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on May 15, 1998 at the Mobile Civic Center, in Mobile, Alabama. The event was seen live on pay-per-view in the United States, and later released on home video.

The event featured a four-man Middleweight Tournament, three Heavyweight Superfights, an alternate bout in case of tournament injury, and a Heavyweight "exhibition" bout. A Middleweight Championship bout between Frank Shamrock and Jeremy Horn was also taped for broadcast on a later pay-per-view.

UFC 17 was the last UFC event (aside from UFC 23), to feature the "tournament" style format.

Several hours prior to the event, Olympic Gold medalist and UFC commentator Jeff Blatnick was introduced as the promotion's commissioner in a meeting with the fighters to discuss the fight rules for the event. Blatnick asked at the meeting that the fighters refer to the sport, which at the time had many different names including the misnomer "No Holds Barred", as Mixed Martial Arts, with the intention of improving the sport's image. He then repeated the request to the media covering the event later that night. This is generally considered the first time the term Mixed Martial Arts was used to refer to the modern sport, and Blatnick is widely credited with coining the term in relation to it.

UFC 17 featured the first UFC appearance of both Dan Henderson and Carlos Newton, as well as the first MMA fight for Chuck Liddell.