Harding punished Tarver in the title elimination fight, breaking Tarver's jaw and two ribs.
At the end of a season, the two remaining fighters of each weight class are placed in a single-elimination fight at Ultimate Fighter Finales, such as The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale where the title of Ultimate Fighter is awarded to the winner.
But, in a closely fought elimination game that was decided, in effect, by a single score, having a clear goal taken off the board can rightly be seen as crushing.
"Why should Shane have to fight an elimination bout?
But the left-handed Rus, 20, fought off elimination and built confidence as Clijsters's game unspooled amid 10 double faults and 65 unforced errors.
Like the Yankees a day before, the Phillies fought off elimination, cueing the conspiracy theorists and prompting all those television executives to put the paper bags away.
Then Rahman addressed the essence of the fight, the elimination of either him or Holyfield for the next possible shot at the heavyweight title held by Lennox Lewis, but to be challenged by Mike Tyson on June 8 in Memphis.
"The old problems that existed on Sept. 10, before the attack, are still with us: the elimination of poverty, the fight against H.I.V. and AIDS, the question of the environment," he said.
They needed to win the Western Athletic Conference tournament to make the N.C.A.A. field of 64, fought off elimination in regionals and super regionals, and became the first No. 4 regional seed to reach the series since the tournament expanded in 1999.
Her political career began almost accidentally in 1989 when, after mobilizing parents to fight the elimination of a school music program, she decided to run for the school board, winning in a Republican stronghold.
But the Bruins fought off elimination with a 5 1 victory in game three on May 4, where Bourque scored two goals and one assists against his former team.
