Tra Telligman was a tough boxer from Dallas who met and joined the Dallas Lions Den after meeting Guy Mezger and Ken Shamrock. He was different from any other fighter in MMA history (that I know of) because he was missing his pectorial muscle that he lost in a car accident as a kid. He was still tough and wanted no sympathy.
In
1995 Tra debuts and defeats Urajimer Hoodenkin, it was both fighters pro debut's. Tra knocked Hoodenkin out inside of 2 minutes . MMA has a tough boxer as a Heavyweight know and Hoodenkin never fights again.
In
1996 Tra entered the SuperBrawl 1 tournament, Tra won via verbal submission over Brian Matapua, in the finals of the bracket Tra faces Walt Darby, an alternate, different fighter same result, Darby submits from punches and Tra wins SuperBrawl and is
3-0 with all 3 wins coming from verbal submissions.
UFC comes calling and wants Tra for their
UFC 12 Heavyweight Tournament. Tra jumps at the oppurtunity. His draw in the tournament, a 1-0 19 year old by the name of Vitor Belfort. In only a minute, Tra and Vitor traded numerous punches, and the Phenom was born.
Tra got a nasty cut and still wanted to fight but the referee stopped the bout. Tra is 3-1 .
Tra doesnt fight for 8 months then goes to the
World Pankration Tournament 1 and heel hooks Rick Mathis in 50 seconds. He is offered to fight in
Pancrase 9, which is in 3 days! Making this even tougher is the fact Tra is facing
Keiichiro Yamamiya (36-29-9) even worse Yamamiya is riding his most impressive 3 fight win streak of his career (Suzuki, Shibuya and Hasagewa).
Tra goes the full time limit, he was hampered by Pancrase's striking rules but still was more dominant fighter I thought.
Fight is declared a draw. Tra is 4-1-1.
Tra is invited to
UFC Ultimate Japan 1. He is facing the tough
Brad Kohler. A guy that reminds me of a modern MMA's poor mans version of Tony Galento. In an absolute drage em out kind of fight with both fighters impossing their will. Tra is kind of getting worked over by Kohler on the ground and boom,
Tra gets the arm and Kohler taps. Tra is 5-1-1.
In 1998 Tra goes back for
World Pankration Championship 2 and knocks out David Riviera in the first round.
Tra then goes back to UFC for
UFC 20, he is facing Pedro Rizzo. It is a classic stand up fight. Tra comes out and bum rushes Rizzo literally from the word go, more important he is landing on Rizzo. Even more important, Rizzo is looking hurt. There is a moment in the fight that I am positive if Tra lands 1 more big shot he has Rizzo asleep, then as fast as it started Rizzo starts landing punches and leg kicks. As time goes on Tra starts slowing, he is still landing big jabs on Pedro.
after 4 minutes, Tra runs in and boom, he doesnt know what happened, he is on the ground, his face feels destroyed and Big
John is talking to him. Tra drops to 5-2-1 and he has a facial fracture and has to have surgery. He doesnt fight for a year after one of his best performances. Tra is ranked Number 10 in virtually every ranking organizations Heavyweight rankings.
In 2000 at
Pride 9 Tra goes 20 minutes in a decision loss to Carlos Berrato, he looks good though and doesnt get to dinged up, he still had good stand u and it didnt realy affect him, cause that was a BIG QUESTION from Pride, are you gonna trade after reconstructive surgery?. He did and Pride decided to
match Tra against Igor Vovchachyn.
At
Pride 13 pretty much everybody thought Igor was going to blast Tra, and everyone thought Igor had the better stand up. In a pretty uknown big upset,
Tra completely controlled Vovchachyn and was dominating the stand up, Damn near knocked Vovchachyn out with a check left hook. The judges tallies weret even needed in reality, Tra won a Unanimous 3 round Decision.
Tra is 6-2-1. Tra does not fight from 2001 to 2003 returning at
UFC 43 against Pedro Rizzo, The fight is good, real good, basically plays out like the first one though, Tra won the first round IMO, but then in the 2nd round he gets tagged and cut and the fight ends up getting stopped. Tra still had alot of good moments.
Tra doesnt fight until
2005 at UFC 54 against Tim Sylvia. Tra does good early and has success landing on Sylvia. I was starting to feel relaxed, even though Tim was winning I thought Tra was ok, then boom with about 3 seconds left in round 1 Tim kicks Tra in the face out of no where. 4:59 1st round KO. Tra already knows his face is broken and ina scary moment was taken out of the octagon in a stretcher. Alot of fans actually believed/believe Tra died and the UFC covered it up.
In reality Tra knew his career was over, he never fights again and has his 2nd major facial surgery.
He retired with a 7-5-1 record, managed to fit Vitor
Belfort, Pedro Rizzo (twice), Caros Berrato, Igor Vovchachyn, Kiechiro Yamamiya, and Tim Sylvia. Not only was he a good fighter who was a
top 10 Heavyweight, he was one of the nicest gus you would ever meet, Mezger, Oleg, Tra, Pete, Jerry, were all just down to earth guys, werent big headed, if you were sitting nexxt to them you would never know they were world class fighters.
Tra was just a flat out good guy, who had some bad breaks and didnt complain or want you to feel sorry for him. I remember being at dinner with Tra, Guy, and my dad and Tra was talking about how he just wasnt going to risk another surgery. He has been a big part of Alex Andrade's comeback.
Tra never really gets credit neither does Mezger or Bohlander, but all 3 of those guys worked corners in big time fights and did a good job, they knew what the other guys needed to hear and do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAOe-ozR2m0&feature=PlayList&p=BF039E0FCF625BCE&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=35
Home Page 
