What's your MMA Story?

[hudda123]

Hey guys,

I'm relatively new to the site and I was kinda curious...whats your MMA story? What made you fall in love with this sport?

I grew up without tv or internet and my only access to MMA was VHS of the UFCs through the years from when I worked in a video store.

I watched UFC 1-21 and really enjoyed it but there was a period where I didn't get any access to the ufc once the video store stopped carrying the videos.

Then I moved away for university and had access to the internet/ufc for the 1st time in years. I watched Karo Parisyan vs Nick Diaz and instantly fell in love with the sport and decided that I will never miss an event ever again.

Today I got one of the biggest PC items I will ever own:



My question is...whats your MMA moment? When did you realize that you never wanna miss another MMA event?

[NsLoki]

Mine goes all the way back to 1993. Royce Gracie vs Ken Shamrock. Gracie was unreal back then. I was hooked from that moment on.

[snye.guy]

i've watched it sporadically since ufc 1 from what i could, weren't many video stores carrying it, had to settle for crappy dubbed tapes. the fight that hooked me was diaz and lawler, the one that reeled me in and made me really appreciate the sport was gsp/penn 1. seeing gsp get his arse handed to him in rd 1 and being able to comeback the way he did. looking back i think this is where he turned the corner to where he is today, still one of my fav fights.

the first ppv i bought with my own cash and didn't mooch or split with buddies was rampage v liddell and damn the ufc because i haven't missed one since.

[ChargerChris]

Mine goes all the way back to 1993. Royce Gracie vs Ken Shamrock. Gracie was unreal back then. I was hooked from that moment on.

This for me as well except I was fascinated with Ken Shamrock. He was a real life action figure. Not only did I want to be a fan but I wanted to become a MMA fighter right then, as opposed to the sport karate fighter I was at the time.

[afl5013]

My boy invited me over for the fights, so I just went to hang out. Turns out it was Fight Night when Rashad head kicked Salmon into oblivion. So after that night, I said "Oh, he's my boy. Let me know whenever he fights."

Months went by without me hearing anything about UFC until one day my friend (whose favorite fighter is Chuck Liddell) told me "your boy is fighting my boy, we gotta watch it together". At this point I didn't even remember the previous fight I saw, but went with it anyway. I got to the party, and everyone was talking smack on the underdog Rashad. So I stood behind him, not knowing what I was getting myself into. Not one person in the room was rooting for Rashad except me, and when he KO'd Chuck, I stood up and screamed while the rest of the room remained silent for a good 5 minutes. I kinda felt bad because at the time, I had no idea what I was talking about, but that single moment is responsible for me loving MMA as much as I do and will have me going crazy during the 145 main event, when Rashad wins his title back.

[NC30715]

sorry afl bones is gonna destroy him lol

mine would be to also be like afl my buddy made me go to hooters with himto watch the fights and i had no idea what i was getting myself it was chuck and tito 2 i had heard a little bit about both guys but never looked much into went to hooters ate some wings watched the fights i fell in love with mma and tito ortiz broke my heart he got his a-- kicked but i loved the sport and have been hooked every havent missed a ppv since and love the ultimate fighter and so stoked about all the free card shows with all the ppvs

[res1277]

my story goes back to gracie vs dan the beast severn, seen the fight and a week later run into the beast at a restruant I was working at, I wanted to ask him so bad, hey arent you the guy who just got tapped out by royce gracie last week? at the time I was like 15 or 16 years old and I was a probably as big around as one of dans legs, so I didnt think it was a good Idea, but he was a soft spoken friendly down to earth guy, Ive been a fan ever since

[frizzzlecake]

I always enjoyed combat sports and watched a few fights hear and there. People at my highschool loved TuF so when i was at peoples houses i would watch the show. But never could really relate to a fighter. Then I saw Dan Hardy's Red Mowhak slap Mike Swick around and was hooked on watching him fight. Then I started watching WEC on Versus and Loved Cruz's fight style and backed him since his first Joe B fight. The second one for the title was/is my favorite Cruz and WEC fight.

[ColtsVols]

I watched the earlier UFCs on VHS when it first came out. Kinda got away from it. Then started working with a guy that watched it all the times he let me barrow a few of the UFCs from like 10-20 and i've been hooked ever since. Now i have like prob. 110 UFC events on DVD from 31-current and like 6 of the earlier ones. Most the guys i work with now have never watched it now the majority watch it every time they can.

[Garthug]

I came into it in a bit more of a roundabout way. I was a big wrestling fan as a kid, and one day I realized that I had rented all the old WWF and WCW VHS tapes at my local video store. Right nearby were the first few UFC events, so I rented a few of those. UFC 3 and UFC 8 specifically were the two that really got my interest. I was a fan, but high school life was more important, and while still a fan, UFC and later WWE fell by the wayside.

About a decade later I got into collecting basketball cards. During the lockout last year, I picked up a few UFC cards and found Unleashed and later Best of Pride, which got me up to speed with the MMA world. As a father of three, I have neither the time nor the patience (or the money) to sit through an MMA event. I DVR the live events and skip all the fluff to watch the fights.

Basically, it seems that most people here are fans first and card collectors second, while I'm kinda the other way around. Weirdly, I got back into the UFC scene through the cards.