Originally posted by: ResoluteProtector Date: June 05, 2010 at 12:37 AM Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/when-did-you-start-watching-mma.26443/
abc0331 said:
UFC 33.
Then got in to PRIDE once I discovered it on the internet a few months later.
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Lot of long fights on the 33 card.
Originally posted by: weknowhowtolive Date: June 05, 2010 at 12:42 AM Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/when-did-you-start-watching-mma.26443/
I voted in the 100 range because thats when I seriously started following as much as I could, but I watched on and off on clip shows and PRIDE stuff before UFC, and I watched a couple seasons of TUF on and off, but didnt really know any of the smaller names or anything. I probably knew the bigger names and had seen a lot of UFC and non UFC before 100, but thats when my friends made me watch regularly and find out more.
Originally posted by: ResoluteProtector Date: June 05, 2010 at 12:49 AM Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/when-did-you-start-watching-mma.26443/
Originally posted by: YukonCornelius Date: June 05, 2010 at 12:52 AM Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/when-did-you-start-watching-mma.26443/
Whenever Hughes vs. Royce Gracie was. I remember that being my first PPV and Joe Rogan constantly yelling "This is a changing of the guard!" after Hughes dominated.
i was a casual fan around tito/shamrock because i was into wrestling at the time but slowly made the transition and was 0% wwe, 100% ufc by lidell/tito. seen most ppvs since, actually started to follow the whole sport of mma during the last year or so of pride.
1st experience with it was with VHS tapes of the 1st 20 UFCs. I would rent them once in a while.
Took a big break from for a while.
Then, My brother got in the TUF 1 and he kept pushing me to watch it but I didn't get into TUF until season 4. Been a huge fan ever since.
watched them casually during the 90's whenever me and my friends would get them from blockbuster...really got into them when they started putting alot more of it free on tv so id say around the first tuf?
i wanted to add that my dad was really into boxing and as a kid i went to watch all the big boxing events since the mid 80s. so fighting has always been my favorite sport.
we rented the first ufc vhs tapes as they came out, but i wouldnt call it getting into mma because i liked it merely for freak show factor matches.
it sucks because now he wont watch the ppvs with me because he equates the ufc with being too brutal. i cant convince him it isnt as barbaric as it was.
I was strung out on the couch with my girl, watching CSI on spike, when it was over an episode of UFC Ultimate Finishes came on, I was too lazy to get the remote and ended up watching the marathon, been hooked ever since. I think it was around the time of the Arlovski-Sylvia rubber match.
When I got my illegal satellite up. 2001ish. pride events got me addicted, ufc is like the drug dealer that plays on my addiction. Strikeforce and dream are like the drug dealers that try to be like pride but continually fall short.
I see most people claim since UFC 1. I seriously doubt that. But, I suppose it does lend credibility when you're arguing and trying to pretend you know everything
I started with UFC 52. I don't know squat.
Somewhere in the 50s, not 100% sure any more. But, I remember it was a Chuck Liddell fight (wasnt too into MMA at the time). Roommate convienced me to watch it, and it was cool. We skipped a bunch, but into the 70s, we ordered EVERY PPV that we could, watched as many fights as possible. I probably haven't missed a card since somewhere in the 80s.
But, it was later into my MMA viewing is when I started paying a LOT of attention to the fighters, and the fight styles. It went from just being a casual fan, to being a little more knowledgeable about the sport.
tomfake said:
Whenever Hughes vs. Royce Gracie was. I remember that being my first PPV and Joe Rogan constantly yelling "This is a changing of the guard!" after Hughes dominated.
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Same for me. That was the first PPV I watched. I remember watching TUF season 3 off and on as well. And I watched the UFN where Mike Swick KO'd Gideon Ray with about 20 punches in 20 seconds and thinking "wow, this is awesome"
sourpuss said:
I see most people claim since UFC 1. I seriously doubt that. But, I suppose it does lend credibility when you're arguing and trying to pretend you know everything
I started with UFC 52. I don't know squat.
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I remember hearing a quote from Bas Rutten about a year ago about this topic. He said something of the effect that if everyone really watched the early UFC's as people claim then the sport would have never had the finicial problems that it had, and it would have actually been a bigger event than that year's super bowl.
I think many people got exposed to the VHS"s that came out right after for a little while and many hopped back in to it as the sport came out of the darkages. I remember my father renting UFC 2 and 3 and I remember thinking, what the hell is this? My father is just like what another poster stated that he won't watch the new fights as much because he equates it with the old days still.
I got back in to the sport as a fan around UFC 33 and have not really missed an event since the late 40's.
I'm not claiming that other people are claiming that they got in to the sport as early as they said, but I think many of us knew about it in the early days but did not get hooked until a few years later for what ever reasons.
