How Did You Get Into MMA?

[Turd Ferguson]

We're all pretty big MMA fans here. Some of us are more dedicated fans than others, but needless to say, the following of the sport has really exploded here since I joined back in October. I figured it would be kind of cool and interesting to find out when exactly we all started watching MMA, and what our first exposure to the sport was.

My first exposure to MMA came back when I was around 7 or 8. I watched the PPV preview channel, and they showed a trailer for an upcoming UFC (it must have been either UFC 3 or 4), with Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock promoting a fight against each other. I had just been really getting into pro wrestling, but as I saw the trailer for this, it hit me that there was something a little more "real" about it than the WWF or WCW. You could tell that these guys really wanted to get their hands on each other, more than a wrestling promo ever would convey, and I wanted to find out more about the UFC and what exactly it was.

A couple years later, I found a few events at the video store when I was looking for Royal Rumbles to watch. I wound up renting UFC videos instead, and I was hooked. Unfortunately, they only had a limited selection. Throughout high school, they used to show PRIDE fights on my Fox Sports affiliate though, and that was pretty much how I continued to follow MMA. Then, season one of The Ultimate Fighter happened, and that was how I really became hooked on the UFC, and Comcast's HD Channel showed old UFC fights all the time for free. This is how I think I really became more of a fan of the sport, as I started getting more exposed to guys like Matt Hughes, Frank Mir, Chuck Liddell, and Randy Couture. For the longest time, I thought Tim Sylvia was a good fighter, because the first fight I ever saw of his was when he knocked Arlovski out in the first round to win the title. I think it really helped that the first UFC event in years that I watched (for free on Comcast's HD Channel, no less, and two weeks after it aired) was the awesome UFC 52, which consisted of Couture/Liddell II, Hughes/Trigg II, and GSP vs. Mayhem Miller. I've been a dedicated fan since.

 

[Fizzy]

Well back when I was younger I was a HUGE fan of wrestling. I never missed a Raw for 13 years, and I started to finally get bored of it, I started searching for a new combat type sport. So one day I searched google trying to find a combat sport, and boom I saw a few Randy Couture fights and I loved the sport ever since. I started trying to learn everything I could about it, and am still learning. I watch MMA everyday, and am not bored of it at all. I have bought man dvd's related to MMA, and watch every fight I want on the computer.

 

[Blue Chipper]

I've always been a huge fan of physical violence. It's why I loved wrestling as a kid. When MMA started growing, my interest in it immediately peaked. I would slowly start watching it, however, at first, I didn't quite like it. Overtime, though, with more and more exposure to it, I began to love it. I would go to blockbuster exclusively to find old MMA events. It wasn't a singular guy or event that got me interested, when I learned more and more about it, when I started to understand the art and sport involved, that's when I really got into it.

I continue to enjoy MMA, particularly UFC, on a daily basis, and I understand the art involved. I love MMA almost as much as I love wrestling. Wrestling has been a mainstay in my life, and now MMA has also approached that merit.

 

[jmt225]

I can remember the first time I watched MMA. I went to my Dad's for the weekend, and we went to one of his buddies house's. That day, me and the guy's kids (who I grew up with, basically) went to the video store and they wanted to rent UFC videos (even though I wanted to get some old Wrestlemanias, lol). We did, and that day we watched all the old classics that included fighters like Ken Shamrock, Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, and the guy who everyone ended up loving the most... Tank Abbot. That was my first MMA experience.

However, it didn't make me a fan. I didn't become a true fan of the sport until UFC 40. I ordered that show as a Ken Shamrock fan (mostly because of his WWF stuff), and by the end of it, I was a Tito Ortiz and UFC fan. After that show, I sought out nearly every Tito Ortiz fight I could find, and my love for the sport all grew from there.

So, yeah.. basically UFC 40, and Tito Ortiz, are how I became a fan of MMA.

 

[Ice Cold]

First MMA exposure for me was back in the early 90's when it was King of the Cage. It was all about Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn and then eventually like JMT it was Tito Ortiz who really caught my attention as well as Vitor Belfort, I use to like him quite a bit. Still, I am not a big fan of MMA but I will watch it when nothing else is on. I just can't get behind any of these guys, don't like any of them really. At least Dan Sevren and Ken Shamrock weren't bullshitting anyone, they were legitimate tough guys who kicked ass, they didn't front as martial artist of some kind because someone showed them some moves from a martial art like a lot of these guys.

 

[Buffalo Dave]

What got me into MMA was the show UFC Unleashed, I would watch it from time to time. Then came TUF 3 with Tito and Shamrock, which I knew was a heated rivalry, so I watched it a little bit. What really got me into watch it was Matt Hamill, and how he competed being deaf. After watching Tito beat Shamrock's ass at the Fight Night on Spike I really didn't watch it after that untill Brock Lesnar was about to make his debut at UFC 81. It was a good card and there were fighters that I heard of like Gumby, Nog, Slyvia, and Mir plus Brock making his UFC debut. For some reason that card just fully drew me in, and I just wasn't a casual viewer after it, I wouldn't even say fan back then because of how little I was into it before UFC 81. So thanks to Brock for drawning me in, and becoming the hardcore fan I am now as I have rarely missed a UFC event since then.

 

[Rhonda Rousey's Sports Bra]

I'm not as big a fan as the rest of you but I really only started watching regularly last year. The first PPV I saw was UFC 100 and I've been hooked ever since. Really though my story is a bit like jmt's, when I was younger, around ten I think, I would go to my dad's house and we would always go rent movies at the local movie place in town. I'd always want to get wrestling videos and one time they didn't have any that I hadn't seen before, so we rented a few of the early UFC tapes. It didn't hook me right away but it did get my attention, I remember seeing Ken Shamrock and he became my favorite, I don't know why or what fight it was but I liked him. Not too long after that I started seeing him in the WWF, which really killed me being a huge UFC fan and turned me into more of a wrestling fan than I already was. If Shamrock would have stayed in the UFC I probably would have been a much bigger fan than I am now because I would have kept getting the Ultimate Fighting Championship tapes.

 

[Cmac3311]

I was 15 or 16 years old and my friend invited me over to his dad's friends house to watch UFC, it just so happened it was the Light heavyweight tilt between Vitor Belfort and Tito Ortiz, since that fight I have been obsessed with MMA. I love watching Pride fights, K-1, Pancrase, Cage Rage, and especially UFC. I love watching TUF and I have even trained in MMA.

MMA hands down is my favorite sport.