I think MMArtist/athletes have been feeling emotions since 1993, but back then there wasn't a mic recording all of your thoughts on the fight game and whatever the theme of the podcast ...
You had a couple pages in FIGHT! magazine if you got a title shot, in which you barely had space to thank your coaches/team/sponsors, so long retired champs didn't have their every thought about fighting laid out to shertards to analyze.
I should have worded that better, it was Anderson's striking coach (and former Muay Thai rival) Pelé who left Chute Boxe in bad terms with Raphael over Ninja Rua.
Anderson followed him because, well
-first Rafael Cordeiro closed Anderson's classes in which he was teaching BJJ at the Chute Boxe headquarters after he tapped against Takase. Back then AS was dirt poor and these classes were what made him the most gold coins to feed his wifey and kiddos.
So the next day Anderson showed up at the Chute Boxe HQ drunk with a shotgun accusing Rafael of ruining his life, Rafel slapped him hard and the fighters who were there managed to talk Anderson down.
(At least that's what Cordeiro wrote in one his books)
-also, Anderson wasn't happy that the coaches spent more time with Shogun & Wand than with him after the Piranha loss (but Wand had a couple GPs, and Shogun was the rising star)
Anyway, the Nog bros invited him over and the rest is history.