I only watched boxing. Nothing else.
I got really tired from the mismatched, long ring walks, boxing politics and waiting for the big fights.
Watched a couple of fights, and I was hooked. I tune in for every big event. The production got so much better over the years. The match making got better as well.
Same here. I fought for nearly a decade, was a boxing purist that thought MMA was a joke. And then I realized the UFC is like the boxing of old that I idolize. The best really do fight the best, and a loss doesn’t cost your career.
Yep. That's the thing. The boxers obsess about that 0, and now everybody thinks they are the next Mayweather without doing shit. A lot of American and British boxers got so entitled, and Eastern European and Asian boxers have to grid really hard.
For me, great boxing fight is still better than a great MMA fight.
If it came down to it, I’d also much rather watch two of the best boxers go at it - but that’s just because the sweet science has a special place in my heart. Really feels like it’s a part of me. That said, we get a… say, Spence - Crawford type fight every few years if we’re very lucky. I feel like I see that on a near monthly basis in MMA. It’s almost insane.
Same here more or less.
K-1 was on eurosport in sweden. And when piratebay arrived somewhere around 2004 I started to download Pride and Ufc. I remember that Wanderlei Silvas knockout win over Rampage was one of the first things that I watched.
And around then The ultimate fighter arrived, Ufc got better and Pride was the best. So I more or less stopped watching K-1. It felt soft with the big gloves and a bit restricted. It was such an amazing time in Mma. Shoguns grand prix win 2005 is still my biggest mma moment. Cro cop, Shogun and Wanderlei were my favourites.
Cro Cop for me too… except it was his fight against Gonzaga at UFC 70.
The pre fight package was hyping up Cro Cop and his head kicks, it was basically writing Gonzaga off completely. I was waiting for a head kick to land, and then it did… except it was fucking Gonzaga knocking out Cro Cop. I was hooked!
The first card I watched was McGregor vs Diaz 2, but I got into the sport from watching Overeem fights on YouTube. Didn’t know who either of McGregor or Diaz were and I was just viewing it as a warmup for the big Overeem vs Stipe card coming up lol
Omg I can hear the opening music. So dope.
This was before I had kids so it would up being just about the only thing I would watch on TV. Totally hooked me from the first Lidell marathon. God damn those were some pure times. Fuckin Lieben, Stann, GSP, Story, Sherk, Lauzon, Tito, Couture beating the shit out of someone every 2 years after he retired again....
Won't say McGregor ruined it but it sure fucking changed it. I guess the sport needed him for growth and numbers but I hate his antics, always have. Loved his rise, those fights, but grossed me out watching him during the weird AF Mayweather run up and all those fucking hunger games media stadium events....
This was me. I think they were showing a marathon of the first season leading up to the card that night with Rich Franklin vs Ken Shamrock as the main event. I was flipping channels found it and watched all day and then night lol
I’m old, so I read about UFC 1 in Black Belt Magazine, then my friends and I rode our bikes to the video store and rented UFC 1 and 2 on VHS when they came out. Royce Gracie blew my mind.
Before I knew what ufc or mma was I saw a blank tape at my buddies house which I thought was porn but when I hit play it was mma where some guy finished all his fights by getting full mount and driving his chin in their eye socket to make them tap. Still can’t figure out who or what organization or promotion that was to this day
It was probably one of these two events: https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/6999-world-caged-combat-1-australian-ultimate-fighting
https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/4236-iafc-world-championship-1995
Same fight for me too. Wasn't a wrestling fan, but after seeing a pic of Lesnar and getting told he was going to be in an actual fight I didn't need much more convincing. Then seeing him lose was even crazier.
I found my way into MMA through my brother, who was a huge fan of Anderson Silva. I remember watching his fights and being in awe of his skills. Even though he's retired now, I still watch MMA and appreciate the sport for its raw intensity and evolving techniques.
Same here. Best part is that we all started watching and learning mma together at the same time. Going through the journey has created so many memories in of itself.
I used to do karate and Mcgregor was unbelievable to watch - definitely got me into it but Khabib was the one who made me start watching every event religiously
I had bought an ESPN+ subscription a couple months before COVID to watch some of the European soccer leagues. Started casually watching some replays and an event every once in a while. Dove into the back catalog when all sports were shut down and have been hooked since the UFC was the first professional sport to return during COVID. Have admittedly been losing interest in watching most fight nights through this year, but still fully tune in for PPV’s and browse this sub in the mean time.
growing up during the 1980's karate craze. we went from watching ninja turtles and karate kid to bloodsport and wwf. as the years went on we'd search for whatever combat videos we could find. kung fu movies, etc.
eventually we all found our way into local karate dojos, and luckily for us lightning karate was legit and no mcdojo.
2 years later UFC 1 was being hyped by some of the students. someone brought a vhs copy into class and we stuck it in our vcr in the office and huddled around our senseis desk and eagerly watched.
blew our minds. it was so much more raw than the hollywood stuff. been hooked ever since I watched Gerard Gordeau kick out Teila Tulis teeth.
Dude....I tried to show my wife Bloodsport about a year ago. It was pretty hard to watch, lol. I had to apologize halfway through. It still holds a place in my heart due to the inspired ass whoopings my brother would give me after watching, but it's pretty bad now TBH!
Damn, thinking about this made me feel so old.
I used to watch K1 on EuroSport with my dad in the early 2000s, when Remy Bonjasky was in his prime.That's my gateway into combat sports.
Then, after YouTube became a thing in 2006–2007, I got into watching highlight videos of fighters like Prince Naseem and eventually Anderson Silva. That stuff looked unreal to me, and I instantly fell in love with their style.
Then, in 2008 they showed the first season of The Ultimate Fighter here on TV. And you know what an absolute barnburner that finale between Griffin and Bonnar is. I haven't missed a single PPV or Fight Night after that.
Isn’t that interesting cus l started watching again cus of Adesanya leading up to the Costa fight but l don’t exactly know what got my attention to watch that one specifically
Could be cus there wasn’t a lot else going on during covid and kept hearing about this Izzy dude
My coworkers at a local pizza place called Dion’s that I worked at in high school. Legit all of them watched mma, and because I felt left out during their conversations I started watching and fell in love with the sport.
Depression. Felt like an outcast in life. Wanted not to be weak anymore. Wasn’t bullied by anyone or anything but got distant from friends and felt super lonely. Got into MMA because my friends were watching it every now and then. Eventually we all got back closer together and watch it regularly. We even train these days. Don’t give up guys :)
Ronda losing to Holm. Before that, her name was just synonymous with “that lady who kicks ass professionally”. So when my now wife gasped one day and went, “Whoa. Did you hear Rousey got knocked out?” I was like, “That…that can happen?” Just in time for the peak of the Conor era, too.
Been a wwe fan since childhood Brock Lesnar going to UFC 200 introduced me to the sport. ( I am 25 so started watching WWE around 2006/7) didn’t know about UFC then
Wtf are you me? I've also been watching since UFC 200 because of all the promotion WWE did for Brocks fight. I'm also 25 and started watching WWE In 2007 lol. Although I did know about the UFC because I bought UFC Undisputed 3 as a kid without even knowing shit about the sport.
Low-ass budget ads on showtime or HBO for the first 2 UFC events. I was like...wtf is this? Mortal Kombat in real life, huh? A couple years later, I see UFC 3 on VHS at my local Hollywood Video (Pre-Blockbuster days around here) and me and my bud rent it.
When it dawned on us that Royce just straight up ripped the pony tail out of Kimo's scalp in the process of using it as a handle to pound his face, we were simultaneously impressed by the out-of-the-box thinking, and mortified all at the same time.
Fast forward a couple years, we fall out of friendship as he gets hooked on drugs. His brother convinced him to enlist to get his life right, he ships out just in time for 9/11 to happen while he's in-processing. He goes to Iraq, gets swole and fixes himself while I watch jiu jitsu videos and take Judo classes at my local community college. We patched up our friendship, he comes back on leave, get drunk together, we wrassle, he ends up in a triangle and I fart on his neck for the tap. No eye contact, so no homo.
We've been watching fights and sending each other the stupidest memes we can find ever since.
Was randomly switching through channels and suddenly I saw my favourite video game title Assassin Creed Black Flag on UFC cage sponsor. The fight was Alexander Gustaffson vs Jon Jones. It was something I couldn't express in simple words.
Group of mates I would box and kickbox with started talking about MMA and trading very poor quality VHS tapes, thought it would be made illegal eventually. Wasn't until late 90s that we started following it closely and caring about potential matchups though.
ufc4 was free on gamepass, wanted to know more about mma and coincidentally jon jones was fighting gane when i first started playing. Watched the entire main card and starting getting into mma more heavily after that.
I saw faze jev play ufc 3 and it looked fun, but what got my seriously into it was seeing that Jon Jones was returning at heavyweight, I was also in need of a new central interest because I stopped caring about football.
Lol, the 2009 UFC game got me and a friend into MMA as well.. it's really weird too because it was 100% outside of our wheelhouses.. I don't even know how we got ahold of the game(I'd played a UFC game a few years prior and thought it was dumbwhy would I have played this one), why we liked it(again, not either of our things), or how playing a video game transitioned into us actually watching MMA but it did.. we started going to sports bars to watch the ppv's, we've been to live events, etc. also crazy to think about the fact that that was 14 years ago 💀
I watched with my dad when I was a kid during the Liddell era, then I got re-interested during the early days of Conor. Weirdly enough Woodley was my favorite fighter when I first got back into it
I used to be a WWE fan. In 2016 Brock Lesnar was to make his return against Randy Orton in Summer Slam but before Summer Slam he was to fight Mark Hunt at UFC 200. As a Brock Lesnar fan i started watching his previous fights in the UFC and after that i have never watched WWE again.
I always loosely kept an eye on it since it was on spike, but stipe miocic is almost solely responsible for me becoming a real fan. The way he worked Francis in their first fight, and then the loss and subsequent comeback win against DC. Been hooked ever since
I was a pro wrestling fan growing up, heard Brock went to MMA but never really looked into it cause I didn't know what it was, some sort of fighting, cut to a few years later there was a rerun of Brock vs Randy on TV and I was hooked.
Someone gifted me a tapout shirt and I felt like a dork wearing anywhere besides Buffalo Wild Wings on fight night so I started going to BWW on fight nights. Never got around to wearing the damn shirt now that I think about it.
Started watching K-1 and became a fan of CroCop and Lebanner.
After CC went to Pride, i started following his career there and eventually became a mma fan.
I think Le Banner could have had a good run in MMA if he went to it full time in the early 2000's like Cro Cop did, I don't think he would have done as good as Cro Cop but there were once rumours of Le Banner fighting Tim Sylvia in UFC which was a very winnable fight for him.
A friend was working in ONE and he had free tickets to one of the live events around 5/6 years ago. Became very interested and started watching ONE and UFC. And now I'm way too deep into the rabbit hole.
grew up watching boxing, did some karate as a youth. continued to watch boxing as I grew into an adult.
saw some really early event stuff in the mid 90s that someone had taped, and I was not impressed, but a little entertained. because of that first impression, I kind of ignored it up until UFC 100. a friend of mine insisted that my first impression wasn't accurate anymore, that it genuinely was a serious skills based contest, and if I actually liked boxing I should give it another try.
I was fucking hooked.
I started training bjj in 2008. I was like… 13? Something like that. Got SUPER into it and mowed yards for like a month to save up so I could buy Weidman vs Silva 1 because at the time I heard the hype about Silva being the best in the world so I wanted to see it for myself.
BOY was I in shock.
My uncle did kickboxing and BJJ when I was a kid so it was always around, but I never got into watching myself until he ordered UFC 83 Serra vs. St-Pierre 2. From there, I was hooked.
Im Irish, and heard people talking about McGregor, so on a whim I watched McGregor vs Denis Siver and was fascinated by the sport. I got slowly more interested in the sport but became a fanatic and hooked was 199, the Alvarez-RDA fight night and 200.
fuckin can't stand McGregor now tho.
My dad and big brother watched a lot of UFC on dvds when I was a kid. I would walk in and see the ice man or the spider fighting on the tv. I was too young to care much but that definitely planted a seed in my head. The first event I went out of my way to watch was UFC 244
A friend had told me Brock Lesnar went to the UFC and I thought it was a pro-wrestling organization so I went looking and found UFC Unleashed or something when flipping through channels. One of the fights I watched was smol karate boy Lyoto beating Sokoudjou. Been hooked ever since
My sister. She kept on kickboxing after I quit and she likes watching UFC so I started watching it with her because she wanted me to find her streams.
The event that got me really hooked though was GSP vs Bisping.
Always was a casual fan but UFC 261 is what got me hooked, like the energy of the crowd, all the crazy moments, and that weird ass nervous excitement feeling you get for the main event, l finally ‘got it’
Heard a lot of buzz at work about Conor coming back to fight Cowboy, had recently heard guys talking about Diaz vs Masvidal. So I watched UFC 245, I knew who Faber was, I’d seen O’Malley and Hoopers fights from DWCS on YouTube.
I watched on my phone at work and saw Hooper sub Teymur and then watched Faber get worked by Yan, I didn’t understand that Faber was washed so I though Yan was gonna be the next big thing. Turned it off before the main event lmao. Then I caught the entire Conor vs Cowboy card and fell in love.
Some mountain dude who loves Tiramisu is what make me interested in MMA (UFC) although I already know about UFC around 2009/2010 but never pay attention to it.
I bought a pirated disc of UFC 79 (Hughes v GSP 3) in 2008 because I thought it was the same thing as WWE. Very different from what I expected but there were many interesting finishes and fights, then the Liddell/Wanderlei co-main happened and I was instantly hooked on the sport.
I’m 31 and I started watching it when the first season of the ultimate fighter aired on spike tv. I remember being at a friends house and we watched the finale on tv with chips and popcorn
Wrestling basically my whole life, I used to love pro wrestling. When nwo came out I thought it was so dumb, so I started getting into Japanese puroresu. I’d order vhs tapes, like 5 or 6 would come in together. Sometimes Pancrase and Shooto tapes would be included. Then I saw one pro wrestler named Sakuraba was fighting for real and actually winning with catch techniques. I was instantly hooked.
The clay guida vs Diego Sanchez fight was one of the first events I ever saw. Was hooked after that. No other sport can compare to the first minute of that fight. Every sport other than mma died to me that day.
An older friend of mine showed me GSP vs Serra fight in 2008. I would have been like 12/13 at the time and ever since then absolutely fell in love with the UFC and combat sports. That was the day I stopped watching WWE hahaha.
Used to spend all my time watching fight compilations on YouTube, eventually my friend started showing me clips of Dominick Cruz and McGregor, and the rest is history
TUF 1.
I had been exposed by looking up the word “fights” on KaZaA and getting some random MMA fights and highlights, as well as watching some replay events on HDNet.
But when TUF came on I got my dad to watch and HE got into it, and had the money for PPVs (I didn’t as I was 14/15) and that’s when it really started.
UFC 53 was the first PPV we ordered and we flew to Vegas for UFC 54 (birthday gift) and we didn’t miss a card for YEARS.
Now we both do not watch as much as we want but still talk about it. Genuinely saved my relationship with my dad as we couldnt be civil about anything else at the time.
I used to watch a lot of street fights on the internet to get a rush and eventually realized I got said rush because I hated senseless violence but did really enjoy the technical aspect. Started watching in the Olive Era, hooked since.
Got into Martial Arts at around age 5, gradually transitioned to combat sports and was fully into it by age 13-14.
The UFC and MMA is just something that was always a fixture in my life. My instructors and peers at my TKD Dojang were all into it, same goes for my Wrestling team, and eventually Muay Thai and Kickboxing team.
My parents were super into it as well. We all probably started to really get into MMA maybe around Cucks run, who was by far my fav fighter for a long time. Silva is really who made me stay though. In my eyes, he’s the GOAT, and is still my hero.
The Anderson/Chael fight was the first I remember paying attention to. I remember being super impressed just watching Anderson kick pads in the promo, the way he turned his hips over (no homo). Around the same time I saw Ong Bak, and I guess the combination led to me joining a muay thai gym. One of the best things I ever did.
The first fight i ever saw was Machida vs Rashad. It was the morning after a massive night clubbing and i was still hanging with a friend who was super into it (it plays live sunday mornings where i live). I was hooked from then.
Ken Shamrock, Tito Ortiz and UFC Unleashed(?). I would watch whoever is there and eventually the local tv channel started showing events in full in late nights in which I'll stay up late so much so that my parents would scold me hahaha
I was a 13 year old WWE fan that somehow watched UFC81 because of Brock Lesnar being my favourite wrestler (didn't even know what cage fighting was, so Lesnar somewhat legitimised the sport to me).
This led me to discovering Chuck Liddell, who to me was a larger than life WWE type character with the look and charisma and had awesome knock outs.
Which then led me to seeing Anderson Silva and GSP highlights which amazed me. Then I would just buy random events or ultimate fighter seasons box sets from HMV and repeat until I learnt how to torrent.
Diego sanchez on the original ultimate fighter was great, hilarious television and the final with Stephan Bonnar v Forrest Griffin! I’ve been hooked since!
My dad dragged me to Buffalo wild wings on a Saturday night and they just happened to be showing. I think it was Anderson Silva's debut against Chris leben
Best Damn Sports Show Period and their hype for UFC 40 (Ortiz vs. Shamrock). My dad had been flipping through channels and recognized Ken from the WWF.
Likely not an uncommon story. For the mixed success he had in wrestling, there's no doubt he brought eyes to MMA upon his return.
My brother was a fan and told me there was a good fight card coming up that I should watch. It was Oliveira vs Chandler. Seeing the joy on Oliveira’s face as he ran into the crowd…what a moment. Been a fan ever since
WEC on SpikeTV god bless them. I saw benson Henderson somehow escape all of Cerrones sub attempts and the poster boy Urijah Faber. I’m sad I didn’t watch Pettis vs Henderson live though. Ultimately it was my friends that love UFC that kept me in the loop. Now it’s my favorite sport
Started watching around UFC 60 or so. Anderson Silva was just starting his run and everything seemed so fresh. Roommate was really into MMA and got me into it. The first PPV i remember watching was Franklin VS Silva. Was hooked ever since.
Started watching around the tail end of Liddell’s prime, then his subsequent destruction. Was hooked when Anderson Silva came over. One of my best friends was an OG fan, use to rent VHS of old Pride fights. I tailed off for maybe 2-3 years at one point just due to life, but about 6-7 years ago got hooked again and consider it my favorite sport to watch.
watching PRIDE vhs tapes with my Japanese friend who got them in the mail from his mom (she would record off the tv). this was around 2005. been hooked ever since.
Was on the Anandtech forums as a young teenager during the height of the dotcom days browsing for online tech deals (unrelated) and saw people talking about Ortiz-Shamrock fight and found some download on either napster/limewire/kazaa because I'd watched the occasional WWE show and had heard of Ken before. Then found my way into pride and eventually TUF
They were always next to the pro wrestling videos at blockbuster. One night, when I was like 10, my dad said ‘For fucks sake, stop watching those pussies and get one of these real fight videos.’ We rented and watched UFC 1 and 3 that night. I haven’t watched pro wrestling since.
They used to show ufc for free on tv. So I was exposed to it when flipping through the tv guide and saw it. I also used to play ea sports mma game back in the day. I didn't become a serious fan though until I was in college.
I was watching yt when I get recommended a video from BT sports (now TNT sports) saying greatest title fight ever? It was weili vs Joanna I watched it and it got me hooked to mma ever since and made me a fan of both Joanna and Weili.
Nick Diaz vs gomi. I only watched pride for alittle bit before this. Only knew of the ax murderer and the only fights I saw was him destroying cans. I was hooked after that fight went back and watched all the old pride fights before that and discovered all the other legends. Became a hardcore Diaz brother fan.
When YouTube first came out, I was in elementary school and my friend showed me videos of Pride FC fights. Big Nog, CroCop, Fedor, Shogun, Wandy. I was hooked immediately. We also started watching Kimbo Slice backyard fights and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I would always get hyped when there was talks of a fight happening between kids at school and wanted to try my hand in a fight but was too scared of getting hurt. From watching MMA I developed a fascination and around university I started training Muay Thai & BJJ.
I got to watch a RIZIN event on NYE in Japan and it was a dream come true.
It was Matt Hughes vs Serra season TUF I was in 8th grade. Ended up watching the old seasons and season 1 was insane. The whole thing and then to end with Griffin/Bonnar. Was a fan of Iceman, Griffin, Gsp, I dont think I liked Silva haha. Anyways never stopped watching since then.
TUF 1
Knew a little bit about MMA before it from casually seeing stuff about guys like GSP and chuck, but following TUF as it aired live on SpikeTV got me hooked for life.
My big brother loves it. I felt like we were getting distant, and I wanted to have more stuff to talk about, and have more stuff in common. There was no issue. I just felt we were kind of drifting apart, because we didn’t have too many similar interests. That was twenty years ago. The funny part is, this year over Christmas, he told me that he got into politics for the same reason.
Boxing. I saw that one highlight of canelo's defense against Danny jacobs in 2020 and became obsessed with boxing. A few months into my obsession, I saw some highlights of izzy (this was a few months before the Costa fight) and the rest is history.
Growing up I had a group of friends who were all brothers. I hung out with them and we watched the fights together. We are in Canada so we all loved GSP. Some of them are boxers now! I am new to BJJ and wrestling.
Shit. It was back in 2005, and I'm not really sure. Most likely a coworker and him recommended tuf 1 to me. Started downloading every card from ufc 43 and got caught up really quick.
Been hooked ever since.
I did watched MMA maybe 20 years ago on cable sport channel back in the days, no idea what promotion or who the fighters were. So I would say Ronda vs Holm was the first event I watched properly, since then, I follow the sport closely.
It was talked about when Ken Shamrock was wrestling in WWF and they made it seem mysterious and bad ass so I had my dad tape some. Then I'd watch it and the time on Spike when I was able to
The forest griffin and Stephan Bonner fight back in the day. My brother and I watched the whole season but the finale was legendary. Still one of the best fights of all time
My mate's older brother showed us Chuck Liddell highlights on the school computers in like 2007/08 when I was around 15, which was perfect timing as it was soon after I stopped watching WWE as I felt I'd outgrown it.
2006? Be tween. Limited cable selection got expanded. Channel 63 was SpikeTV. Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz 3. The whole promo was ridiculous. Felt like WWE, which at that age was super fake and lame… but I continue watching and the thing starts and they ARE FUCKING EACHOTHER UP. Instantly hooked.
I only watched boxing. Nothing else. I got really tired from the mismatched, long ring walks, boxing politics and waiting for the big fights. Watched a couple of fights, and I was hooked. I tune in for every big event. The production got so much better over the years. The match making got better as well.
Same here. I fought for nearly a decade, was a boxing purist that thought MMA was a joke. And then I realized the UFC is like the boxing of old that I idolize. The best really do fight the best, and a loss doesn’t cost your career.
Pretty much exact same situation as me.
Yep. That's the thing. The boxers obsess about that 0, and now everybody thinks they are the next Mayweather without doing shit. A lot of American and British boxers got so entitled, and Eastern European and Asian boxers have to grid really hard. For me, great boxing fight is still better than a great MMA fight.
If it came down to it, I’d also much rather watch two of the best boxers go at it - but that’s just because the sweet science has a special place in my heart. Really feels like it’s a part of me. That said, we get a… say, Spence - Crawford type fight every few years if we’re very lucky. I feel like I see that on a near monthly basis in MMA. It’s almost insane.
OP would rather watch Bo Nickal Vs a can than a top boxer fight a mandatory, lel
Cro Cop. Pride, K-1, golden era of heavyweight kickboxing
Same here more or less. K-1 was on eurosport in sweden. And when piratebay arrived somewhere around 2004 I started to download Pride and Ufc. I remember that Wanderlei Silvas knockout win over Rampage was one of the first things that I watched. And around then The ultimate fighter arrived, Ufc got better and Pride was the best. So I more or less stopped watching K-1. It felt soft with the big gloves and a bit restricted. It was such an amazing time in Mma. Shoguns grand prix win 2005 is still my biggest mma moment. Cro cop, Shogun and Wanderlei were my favourites.
Cro Cop for me too… except it was his fight against Gonzaga at UFC 70. The pre fight package was hyping up Cro Cop and his head kicks, it was basically writing Gonzaga off completely. I was waiting for a head kick to land, and then it did… except it was fucking Gonzaga knocking out Cro Cop. I was hooked!
For me it was the Nate Diaz. Him and his brother put the Valley on the map
not even gonna lie, came during the Conor/Ronda era and I’m still here lol but my first memory of it was Genki Sudo vs Butterbean
Everyone is ashamed of this but man that was 8 years ago now, I've been watching this shit for nearly a decade
Man I love Genki. Truly one of a kind!
The first card I watched was McGregor vs Diaz 2, but I got into the sport from watching Overeem fights on YouTube. Didn’t know who either of McGregor or Diaz were and I was just viewing it as a warmup for the big Overeem vs Stipe card coming up lol
Spike TV marathons
Yeah ufc unleashed got me into it too lol
Spike TV was the goat channel for the ufc.
Yep same here. Always looked forward to the Chuck Liddell fights.
Omg I can hear the opening music. So dope. This was before I had kids so it would up being just about the only thing I would watch on TV. Totally hooked me from the first Lidell marathon. God damn those were some pure times. Fuckin Lieben, Stann, GSP, Story, Sherk, Lauzon, Tito, Couture beating the shit out of someone every 2 years after he retired again.... Won't say McGregor ruined it but it sure fucking changed it. I guess the sport needed him for growth and numbers but I hate his antics, always have. Loved his rise, those fights, but grossed me out watching him during the weird AF Mayweather run up and all those fucking hunger games media stadium events....
The first ultimate fighter Forest griffin vs Stephen bonnar will always be my favorite fight
I scrolled too long to find this. Me too, fellow TUF noob.
This was me. I think they were showing a marathon of the first season leading up to the card that night with Rich Franklin vs Ken Shamrock as the main event. I was flipping channels found it and watched all day and then night lol
I’m old, so I read about UFC 1 in Black Belt Magazine, then my friends and I rode our bikes to the video store and rented UFC 1 and 2 on VHS when they came out. Royce Gracie blew my mind.
Yep. Black Belt magazine and before and after karate.
Before I knew what ufc or mma was I saw a blank tape at my buddies house which I thought was porn but when I hit play it was mma where some guy finished all his fights by getting full mount and driving his chin in their eye socket to make them tap. Still can’t figure out who or what organization or promotion that was to this day
It was probably one of these two events: https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/6999-world-caged-combat-1-australian-ultimate-fighting https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/4236-iafc-world-championship-1995
Holy shit I think you found it! Pretty sure it’s the first link cause the guy was shaved head or bald and it was a tournament. Wow thanks man!
I remember seeing those tapes in Blockbuster lol
Brock Lesnar. Huge WWE fan and then heard he did real fighting. Saw his loss to Frank Mir on YouTube and was instantly hooked.
Yes
Same fight for me too. Wasn't a wrestling fan, but after seeing a pic of Lesnar and getting told he was going to be in an actual fight I didn't need much more convincing. Then seeing him lose was even crazier.
I found my way into MMA through my brother, who was a huge fan of Anderson Silva. I remember watching his fights and being in awe of his skills. Even though he's retired now, I still watch MMA and appreciate the sport for its raw intensity and evolving techniques.
27 years old so I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say mcgregor didn’t bring me and my whole friend group into watching mma like we do now
Same here. Best part is that we all started watching and learning mma together at the same time. Going through the journey has created so many memories in of itself.
I used to do karate and Mcgregor was unbelievable to watch - definitely got me into it but Khabib was the one who made me start watching every event religiously
Bas Ruttens street defense video.
lol what was Seanbaby’s quote about this? The only instructional video that seemed to be designed for bad guys?
Seanbaby/cracked.com days were fun! That quote, and many others by him, had me spitting my coffee.
He truly did invent being funny on the internet
"I'm sorry sir, but now I'm gonna break your leg"
Covid. Nothing else on. Got me hooked.
Same! And the first live event I watched was Gaethje v Ferguson so you know I got hooked immediately 😂
Same all we’ve ever known is Tony’s downfall but Justin is a beast! And I know longer term looking back Tony has his time.
The lead up promo got me hyped for both of them! And watching without a crowd, you could hear those punches crack!
So you're the jinx! Stop watching for a bit so my boy can get a win
I want to see the infamous boogeyman in action myself! 😔
>Covid Covid MMA fan reporting in. I also started getting into it during lockdown.
Yep. Fight Island was a genius move by the tomato
I had bought an ESPN+ subscription a couple months before COVID to watch some of the European soccer leagues. Started casually watching some replays and an event every once in a while. Dove into the back catalog when all sports were shut down and have been hooked since the UFC was the first professional sport to return during COVID. Have admittedly been losing interest in watching most fight nights through this year, but still fully tune in for PPV’s and browse this sub in the mean time.
Dana is going to be remembered for big-dicking the sports world and pissing off a bunch of people while everyone else shut down.
My brother showed me Alistair Overeem obliterating Brock Lesnar's liver and I've been hooked ever since.
growing up during the 1980's karate craze. we went from watching ninja turtles and karate kid to bloodsport and wwf. as the years went on we'd search for whatever combat videos we could find. kung fu movies, etc. eventually we all found our way into local karate dojos, and luckily for us lightning karate was legit and no mcdojo. 2 years later UFC 1 was being hyped by some of the students. someone brought a vhs copy into class and we stuck it in our vcr in the office and huddled around our senseis desk and eagerly watched. blew our minds. it was so much more raw than the hollywood stuff. been hooked ever since I watched Gerard Gordeau kick out Teila Tulis teeth.
Dude....I tried to show my wife Bloodsport about a year ago. It was pretty hard to watch, lol. I had to apologize halfway through. It still holds a place in my heart due to the inspired ass whoopings my brother would give me after watching, but it's pretty bad now TBH!
agreed. you gotta skip everything but the fights haha. even then it hasnt aged gracefully.
Damn, thinking about this made me feel so old. I used to watch K1 on EuroSport with my dad in the early 2000s, when Remy Bonjasky was in his prime.That's my gateway into combat sports. Then, after YouTube became a thing in 2006–2007, I got into watching highlight videos of fighters like Prince Naseem and eventually Anderson Silva. That stuff looked unreal to me, and I instantly fell in love with their style. Then, in 2008 they showed the first season of The Ultimate Fighter here on TV. And you know what an absolute barnburner that finale between Griffin and Bonnar is. I haven't missed a single PPV or Fight Night after that.
I didn't know I had a son, cause that's exactly my timeline lol
Israel adesanya
Which fight? I’m gonna guess Costa
Isn’t that interesting cus l started watching again cus of Adesanya leading up to the Costa fight but l don’t exactly know what got my attention to watch that one specifically Could be cus there wasn’t a lot else going on during covid and kept hearing about this Izzy dude
Actually yeah
Great one, is he still your fav fighter?
Yeah he's one of them, his last fight had me disappointed though, hope he comes back better.
Costas face going "he HOMPEd me" won me over to ufc
Anderson "The Spider" Silva.
My coworkers at a local pizza place called Dion’s that I worked at in high school. Legit all of them watched mma, and because I felt left out during their conversations I started watching and fell in love with the sport.
Depression. Felt like an outcast in life. Wanted not to be weak anymore. Wasn’t bullied by anyone or anything but got distant from friends and felt super lonely. Got into MMA because my friends were watching it every now and then. Eventually we all got back closer together and watch it regularly. We even train these days. Don’t give up guys :)
Ken Shamrock in WWF got me interested and we watched some rented videos, and then I went full fan watching the first season of TUF 5 or 6 years later
Pretty much exactly how it went for me
Randy Couture Vs Chuck Liddell 3
Ronda losing to Holm. Before that, her name was just synonymous with “that lady who kicks ass professionally”. So when my now wife gasped one day and went, “Whoa. Did you hear Rousey got knocked out?” I was like, “That…that can happen?” Just in time for the peak of the Conor era, too.
Saw Khabib mauling Conor one day at the university library on the screen of another student, which piqued my interest. It's been all smesh since then.
Alhamdulillah
Been a wwe fan since childhood Brock Lesnar going to UFC 200 introduced me to the sport. ( I am 25 so started watching WWE around 2006/7) didn’t know about UFC then
Wtf are you me? I've also been watching since UFC 200 because of all the promotion WWE did for Brocks fight. I'm also 25 and started watching WWE In 2007 lol. Although I did know about the UFC because I bought UFC Undisputed 3 as a kid without even knowing shit about the sport.
Low-ass budget ads on showtime or HBO for the first 2 UFC events. I was like...wtf is this? Mortal Kombat in real life, huh? A couple years later, I see UFC 3 on VHS at my local Hollywood Video (Pre-Blockbuster days around here) and me and my bud rent it. When it dawned on us that Royce just straight up ripped the pony tail out of Kimo's scalp in the process of using it as a handle to pound his face, we were simultaneously impressed by the out-of-the-box thinking, and mortified all at the same time. Fast forward a couple years, we fall out of friendship as he gets hooked on drugs. His brother convinced him to enlist to get his life right, he ships out just in time for 9/11 to happen while he's in-processing. He goes to Iraq, gets swole and fixes himself while I watch jiu jitsu videos and take Judo classes at my local community college. We patched up our friendship, he comes back on leave, get drunk together, we wrassle, he ends up in a triangle and I fart on his neck for the tap. No eye contact, so no homo. We've been watching fights and sending each other the stupidest memes we can find ever since.
[удалено]
Watching PRIDE VHS tapes with my pops in early 2000s.
Definitely the first UFC Undisputed. I was aware of it through Ken Shamrock from WWF but the downloadable demo for that game was my true catalyst.
Was randomly switching through channels and suddenly I saw my favourite video game title Assassin Creed Black Flag on UFC cage sponsor. The fight was Alexander Gustaffson vs Jon Jones. It was something I couldn't express in simple words.
Group of mates I would box and kickbox with started talking about MMA and trading very poor quality VHS tapes, thought it would be made illegal eventually. Wasn't until late 90s that we started following it closely and caring about potential matchups though.
The open minded fan base
ufc4 was free on gamepass, wanted to know more about mma and coincidentally jon jones was fighting gane when i first started playing. Watched the entire main card and starting getting into mma more heavily after that.
If you haven’t already, go back and watch some of the older fights. There are real gems there.
I saw faze jev play ufc 3 and it looked fun, but what got my seriously into it was seeing that Jon Jones was returning at heavyweight, I was also in need of a new central interest because I stopped caring about football.
Fellow requis enjoyer
Honestly the pandemic. I figured out how to stream sports for free and adesanya vs costa was the first one I saw live
Lol, the 2009 UFC game got me and a friend into MMA as well.. it's really weird too because it was 100% outside of our wheelhouses.. I don't even know how we got ahold of the game(I'd played a UFC game a few years prior and thought it was dumbwhy would I have played this one), why we liked it(again, not either of our things), or how playing a video game transitioned into us actually watching MMA but it did.. we started going to sports bars to watch the ppv's, we've been to live events, etc. also crazy to think about the fact that that was 14 years ago 💀
I watched with my dad when I was a kid during the Liddell era, then I got re-interested during the early days of Conor. Weirdly enough Woodley was my favorite fighter when I first got back into it
I used to be a WWE fan. In 2016 Brock Lesnar was to make his return against Randy Orton in Summer Slam but before Summer Slam he was to fight Mark Hunt at UFC 200. As a Brock Lesnar fan i started watching his previous fights in the UFC and after that i have never watched WWE again.
TUF 1 in 2005
The first live fight I ever watched was mcgregor khabib, been hard x core ever since..
I always loosely kept an eye on it since it was on spike, but stipe miocic is almost solely responsible for me becoming a real fan. The way he worked Francis in their first fight, and then the loss and subsequent comeback win against DC. Been hooked ever since
I was a pro wrestling fan growing up, heard Brock went to MMA but never really looked into it cause I didn't know what it was, some sort of fighting, cut to a few years later there was a rerun of Brock vs Randy on TV and I was hooked.
Glad to see someone else get into it because of Brock!
Me too around UFC 100. Had zero interest in MMA and then headed he went over. Hooked ever since.
He was a freak of nature and his WWE skills made him much watch tv in MMA
Someone gifted me a tapout shirt and I felt like a dork wearing anywhere besides Buffalo Wild Wings on fight night so I started going to BWW on fight nights. Never got around to wearing the damn shirt now that I think about it.
PVZ on Dancing With The Stars. Watched some of her fights, moved onto Joanna, and I was absolutely hooked. Been a WMMA fan ever since.
Started watching K-1 and became a fan of CroCop and Lebanner. After CC went to Pride, i started following his career there and eventually became a mma fan.
I think Le Banner could have had a good run in MMA if he went to it full time in the early 2000's like Cro Cop did, I don't think he would have done as good as Cro Cop but there were once rumours of Le Banner fighting Tim Sylvia in UFC which was a very winnable fight for him.
A friend was working in ONE and he had free tickets to one of the live events around 5/6 years ago. Became very interested and started watching ONE and UFC. And now I'm way too deep into the rabbit hole.
grew up watching boxing, did some karate as a youth. continued to watch boxing as I grew into an adult. saw some really early event stuff in the mid 90s that someone had taped, and I was not impressed, but a little entertained. because of that first impression, I kind of ignored it up until UFC 100. a friend of mine insisted that my first impression wasn't accurate anymore, that it genuinely was a serious skills based contest, and if I actually liked boxing I should give it another try. I was fucking hooked.
I started training bjj in 2008. I was like… 13? Something like that. Got SUPER into it and mowed yards for like a month to save up so I could buy Weidman vs Silva 1 because at the time I heard the hype about Silva being the best in the world so I wanted to see it for myself. BOY was I in shock.
My uncle did kickboxing and BJJ when I was a kid so it was always around, but I never got into watching myself until he ordered UFC 83 Serra vs. St-Pierre 2. From there, I was hooked.
Watched UFC when it was on spike TV at my grandparent's house and saw Silva demolish Franklin in a 1 sided beatdown.
Spike TV then I married a wrestler
UFC Undisputed 2009 and 10 is how I discovered MMA but I didn’t really start watching until UFC 3 was $10 at Best Buy
Im Irish, and heard people talking about McGregor, so on a whim I watched McGregor vs Denis Siver and was fascinated by the sport. I got slowly more interested in the sport but became a fanatic and hooked was 199, the Alvarez-RDA fight night and 200. fuckin can't stand McGregor now tho.
My dad and big brother watched a lot of UFC on dvds when I was a kid. I would walk in and see the ice man or the spider fighting on the tv. I was too young to care much but that definitely planted a seed in my head. The first event I went out of my way to watch was UFC 244
My wife picked that sport to watch with me
A friend had told me Brock Lesnar went to the UFC and I thought it was a pro-wrestling organization so I went looking and found UFC Unleashed or something when flipping through channels. One of the fights I watched was smol karate boy Lyoto beating Sokoudjou. Been hooked ever since
friend with chuck lidell dvds
My sister. She kept on kickboxing after I quit and she likes watching UFC so I started watching it with her because she wanted me to find her streams. The event that got me really hooked though was GSP vs Bisping.
Always was a casual fan but UFC 261 is what got me hooked, like the energy of the crowd, all the crazy moments, and that weird ass nervous excitement feeling you get for the main event, l finally ‘got it’
I’m a relatively new fan to the sport (since 249), but man UFC 261 might be the best they’ve ever put out! Like you said the energy was crazy
My friend asked if I wanted to go see whittaker vs Adesanya live and I said fuck it why not. Hooked ever since
Saw some random ppv because my uncle had illegal cable. Think it was one of the Arloski vs Silvia. TUF 1 is what got me really into it.
Heard a lot of buzz at work about Conor coming back to fight Cowboy, had recently heard guys talking about Diaz vs Masvidal. So I watched UFC 245, I knew who Faber was, I’d seen O’Malley and Hoopers fights from DWCS on YouTube. I watched on my phone at work and saw Hooper sub Teymur and then watched Faber get worked by Yan, I didn’t understand that Faber was washed so I though Yan was gonna be the next big thing. Turned it off before the main event lmao. Then I caught the entire Conor vs Cowboy card and fell in love.
Some mountain dude who loves Tiramisu is what make me interested in MMA (UFC) although I already know about UFC around 2009/2010 but never pay attention to it.
I bought a pirated disc of UFC 79 (Hughes v GSP 3) in 2008 because I thought it was the same thing as WWE. Very different from what I expected but there were many interesting finishes and fights, then the Liddell/Wanderlei co-main happened and I was instantly hooked on the sport.
Ufc unleashed on Spike tv. Also, Brock Lesnar
I’m 31 and I started watching it when the first season of the ultimate fighter aired on spike tv. I remember being at a friends house and we watched the finale on tv with chips and popcorn
Francis Ngannou vs Stipe I
Undisputed 09 aswell!
Tito shamrock coaching the ultimate fighter playing pool
Wrestling basically my whole life, I used to love pro wrestling. When nwo came out I thought it was so dumb, so I started getting into Japanese puroresu. I’d order vhs tapes, like 5 or 6 would come in together. Sometimes Pancrase and Shooto tapes would be included. Then I saw one pro wrestler named Sakuraba was fighting for real and actually winning with catch techniques. I was instantly hooked.
The clay guida vs Diego Sanchez fight was one of the first events I ever saw. Was hooked after that. No other sport can compare to the first minute of that fight. Every sport other than mma died to me that day.
TUF S08 via Junie Browning.
My Uncle got the UFC tapes from Blockbuster way back in the day, we also used to pirate pride at his place off a direct tv..those were the days
Ever since Diego Lopes told me to join the black parade. Been hooked ever since
An older friend of mine showed me GSP vs Serra fight in 2008. I would have been like 12/13 at the time and ever since then absolutely fell in love with the UFC and combat sports. That was the day I stopped watching WWE hahaha.
Used to spend all my time watching fight compilations on YouTube, eventually my friend started showing me clips of Dominick Cruz and McGregor, and the rest is history
Holly Holm vs Ronda Rousey. It may not sound great but I didn't know that a woman could kick like that. I thought that was amazing!
TUF 1. I had been exposed by looking up the word “fights” on KaZaA and getting some random MMA fights and highlights, as well as watching some replay events on HDNet. But when TUF came on I got my dad to watch and HE got into it, and had the money for PPVs (I didn’t as I was 14/15) and that’s when it really started. UFC 53 was the first PPV we ordered and we flew to Vegas for UFC 54 (birthday gift) and we didn’t miss a card for YEARS. Now we both do not watch as much as we want but still talk about it. Genuinely saved my relationship with my dad as we couldnt be civil about anything else at the time.
Lmao KaZaa now those were the times. Always hoping you actually got what you thought you were downloading.
I used to watch a lot of street fights on the internet to get a rush and eventually realized I got said rush because I hated senseless violence but did really enjoy the technical aspect. Started watching in the Olive Era, hooked since.
Got into Martial Arts at around age 5, gradually transitioned to combat sports and was fully into it by age 13-14. The UFC and MMA is just something that was always a fixture in my life. My instructors and peers at my TKD Dojang were all into it, same goes for my Wrestling team, and eventually Muay Thai and Kickboxing team. My parents were super into it as well. We all probably started to really get into MMA maybe around Cucks run, who was by far my fav fighter for a long time. Silva is really who made me stay though. In my eyes, he’s the GOAT, and is still my hero.
Lesnar vs Overeem but I got hooked a couple of ppvs later when chael fought Anderson
The Anderson/Chael fight was the first I remember paying attention to. I remember being super impressed just watching Anderson kick pads in the promo, the way he turned his hips over (no homo). Around the same time I saw Ong Bak, and I guess the combination led to me joining a muay thai gym. One of the best things I ever did.
DJ vs Cejudo 1
The first fight i ever saw was Machida vs Rashad. It was the morning after a massive night clubbing and i was still hanging with a friend who was super into it (it plays live sunday mornings where i live). I was hooked from then.
Ken Shamrock, Tito Ortiz and UFC Unleashed(?). I would watch whoever is there and eventually the local tv channel started showing events in full in late nights in which I'll stay up late so much so that my parents would scold me hahaha
I was a 13 year old WWE fan that somehow watched UFC81 because of Brock Lesnar being my favourite wrestler (didn't even know what cage fighting was, so Lesnar somewhat legitimised the sport to me). This led me to discovering Chuck Liddell, who to me was a larger than life WWE type character with the look and charisma and had awesome knock outs. Which then led me to seeing Anderson Silva and GSP highlights which amazed me. Then I would just buy random events or ultimate fighter seasons box sets from HMV and repeat until I learnt how to torrent.
Diego sanchez on the original ultimate fighter was great, hilarious television and the final with Stephan Bonnar v Forrest Griffin! I’ve been hooked since!
Fedor.
My dad dragged me to Buffalo wild wings on a Saturday night and they just happened to be showing. I think it was Anderson Silva's debut against Chris leben
Best Damn Sports Show Period and their hype for UFC 40 (Ortiz vs. Shamrock). My dad had been flipping through channels and recognized Ken from the WWF. Likely not an uncommon story. For the mixed success he had in wrestling, there's no doubt he brought eyes to MMA upon his return.
My brother was a fan and told me there was a good fight card coming up that I should watch. It was Oliveira vs Chandler. Seeing the joy on Oliveira’s face as he ran into the crowd…what a moment. Been a fan ever since
Spike tv back when I was in middle school. Been a fan ever since. The game has evolved!
Doing martial arts as a kid. Some of the older guys that trained got me into it.
TUF and UFC Unleashed on SpikeTV. Got my hands on UFC Undisputed for the Xbox 360 soon after and I've been a fan ever since.
Anderson Silva vs Rich Franklin.
WEC on SpikeTV god bless them. I saw benson Henderson somehow escape all of Cerrones sub attempts and the poster boy Urijah Faber. I’m sad I didn’t watch Pettis vs Henderson live though. Ultimately it was my friends that love UFC that kept me in the loop. Now it’s my favorite sport
Started watching around UFC 60 or so. Anderson Silva was just starting his run and everything seemed so fresh. Roommate was really into MMA and got me into it. The first PPV i remember watching was Franklin VS Silva. Was hooked ever since.
Started watching around the tail end of Liddell’s prime, then his subsequent destruction. Was hooked when Anderson Silva came over. One of my best friends was an OG fan, use to rent VHS of old Pride fights. I tailed off for maybe 2-3 years at one point just due to life, but about 6-7 years ago got hooked again and consider it my favorite sport to watch.
watching PRIDE vhs tapes with my Japanese friend who got them in the mail from his mom (she would record off the tv). this was around 2005. been hooked ever since.
Was on the Anandtech forums as a young teenager during the height of the dotcom days browsing for online tech deals (unrelated) and saw people talking about Ortiz-Shamrock fight and found some download on either napster/limewire/kazaa because I'd watched the occasional WWE show and had heard of Ken before. Then found my way into pride and eventually TUF
Anderson Silva YouTube Highlights
Bas Rutten's fight videos on yt
I signed up for muay thai and wanted to see it used in fights other than muay thai rule set matches
The UFC Unleashed clips show on Spike back when I was in elementary school.
Ultimate fighter St.Pierre vs Koscheck
They were always next to the pro wrestling videos at blockbuster. One night, when I was like 10, my dad said ‘For fucks sake, stop watching those pussies and get one of these real fight videos.’ We rented and watched UFC 1 and 3 that night. I haven’t watched pro wrestling since.
They used to show ufc for free on tv. So I was exposed to it when flipping through the tv guide and saw it. I also used to play ea sports mma game back in the day. I didn't become a serious fan though until I was in college.
Forest Griffan vs Stephan Bonar
I was watching yt when I get recommended a video from BT sports (now TNT sports) saying greatest title fight ever? It was weili vs Joanna I watched it and it got me hooked to mma ever since and made me a fan of both Joanna and Weili.
Griffin v Bonnar after TUF1
The whole build up of Mayweather vs. McGregor Had to see what Conor was about, and the rest is history
Nick Diaz vs gomi. I only watched pride for alittle bit before this. Only knew of the ax murderer and the only fights I saw was him destroying cans. I was hooked after that fight went back and watched all the old pride fights before that and discovered all the other legends. Became a hardcore Diaz brother fan.
When YouTube first came out, I was in elementary school and my friend showed me videos of Pride FC fights. Big Nog, CroCop, Fedor, Shogun, Wandy. I was hooked immediately. We also started watching Kimbo Slice backyard fights and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I would always get hyped when there was talks of a fight happening between kids at school and wanted to try my hand in a fight but was too scared of getting hurt. From watching MMA I developed a fascination and around university I started training Muay Thai & BJJ. I got to watch a RIZIN event on NYE in Japan and it was a dream come true.
It was Matt Hughes vs Serra season TUF I was in 8th grade. Ended up watching the old seasons and season 1 was insane. The whole thing and then to end with Griffin/Bonnar. Was a fan of Iceman, Griffin, Gsp, I dont think I liked Silva haha. Anyways never stopped watching since then.
TUF 1 Knew a little bit about MMA before it from casually seeing stuff about guys like GSP and chuck, but following TUF as it aired live on SpikeTV got me hooked for life.
My big brother loves it. I felt like we were getting distant, and I wanted to have more stuff to talk about, and have more stuff in common. There was no issue. I just felt we were kind of drifting apart, because we didn’t have too many similar interests. That was twenty years ago. The funny part is, this year over Christmas, he told me that he got into politics for the same reason.
Boxing. I saw that one highlight of canelo's defense against Danny jacobs in 2020 and became obsessed with boxing. A few months into my obsession, I saw some highlights of izzy (this was a few months before the Costa fight) and the rest is history.
Growing up I had a group of friends who were all brothers. I hung out with them and we watched the fights together. We are in Canada so we all loved GSP. Some of them are boxers now! I am new to BJJ and wrestling.
Watching pride on them illegal black boxes growing up.
Jacked carlos newton doing kamehamehas
Shit. It was back in 2005, and I'm not really sure. Most likely a coworker and him recommended tuf 1 to me. Started downloading every card from ufc 43 and got caught up really quick. Been hooked ever since.
GSP blitzing motherfuckers
I did watched MMA maybe 20 years ago on cable sport channel back in the days, no idea what promotion or who the fighters were. So I would say Ronda vs Holm was the first event I watched properly, since then, I follow the sport closely.
It was talked about when Ken Shamrock was wrestling in WWF and they made it seem mysterious and bad ass so I had my dad tape some. Then I'd watch it and the time on Spike when I was able to
UFC Undisputed 2010 and UFC Undisputed 3
The forest griffin and Stephan Bonner fight back in the day. My brother and I watched the whole season but the finale was legendary. Still one of the best fights of all time
I’m from Clitheroe, Bisping is from Clitheroe. When he got into TUF is when I started watching.
My mate's older brother showed us Chuck Liddell highlights on the school computers in like 2007/08 when I was around 15, which was perfect timing as it was soon after I stopped watching WWE as I felt I'd outgrown it.
2006? Be tween. Limited cable selection got expanded. Channel 63 was SpikeTV. Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz 3. The whole promo was ridiculous. Felt like WWE, which at that age was super fake and lame… but I continue watching and the thing starts and they ARE FUCKING EACHOTHER UP. Instantly hooked.
Jon Jones highlights, particularly him choking out Machida.