“I remember sprinting out to the cage in my gi and being excited, but having extreme tunnel vision and that was very odd for me,” he adds. “It wasn’t a scared feeling, it was like things were in 3D and it was pretty wild.”
After receiving final instructions from referee Mario Yamasaki, the fight began and Serra and Carter delivered a barnburner.
Unfortunately for the charismatic future champion, his first foray into the Octagon ended with him on the business end of one of the most memorable finishes in UFC history.
“I was super-aggressive and got him in a lot of bad positions, but one, I didn’t know how to pace myself, and two, at that time, I did not clock in enough rounds just straight up sparring and kickboxing,” says Serra, reflecting on the bout 17 years later. “Everything was designed to get the fight to the floor. The inexperience cost me the fight, but you know, all I wanted to do was get him.
“There were no setups. I kicked him in the head in the first round and that shook him because he thought I was going to take him down. I haven’t seen it in a while because I don’t like to watch it, but it was a helluva fight and I’ll tell you, I lost that fight with less than 15 seconds on the clock.
“I was in the guard and I could have stayed in the guard — and who knows what would have happened if it had gone to the decision because it was a close fight, back and forth — but I got up, I got away and I just ran at him, haphazardly.”
The finishing sequence is one most fight fans remember vividly.
After trying to connect a triangle choke in the final minute of the third round, Serra scrambled to his feet with 20 seconds remaining in the fight.
Both men backed up to reset and as Serra started to press forward, Carter threw a left kick that sailed by without connecting, but spun and connected with a perfectly placed backfist that sent Serra tumbling to the canvas.
“Just a thought of, ‘I’m gonna get him!’ and Shonie, with the experience that he had, just faked a little kick, spun around and I ran right into a backfist,” says Serra. “It was a highlight that probably to this day you’ll still find it. I believe it was the first spinning backfist knockout in the UFC.
“That thing was a great highlight and I would like to think it kept me humble.”
