When and why did you become a UFC fan?
- Thread starter Randy Fandy Fo Fanders
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Brawl at the Hall- UFC 38. I was there. I was living in the UK at the time. I was already a Matt Hughes fan because I grew up in Centralia and Vandalia Il, which is pretty close to Hilsboro. Was not too far from the post fight antics. Hooked ever since.
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When I was talking to Helio Gracie and told him to send his sons Royce to USA and Rickson to Japan so they could show the world the tricks I taught them.
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Almost the same as you, except it was around 1998 and it was Roger's video.
I've always been kind of drawn to violence, guess I'm just messed up like that hehe.
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Technically, I started out as an MMA fan. And I still am to some degree. And it totally came about once it became available on basic cable and/or broadcast television.
Being perfectly honest, my primary reason for for being a UFC fan is its easy availability and frequency. A secondary reason is the quality of the competition. But if the UFC became tougher to view while another promotion became more available, I could definitely see myself switching over.
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Diego Sanchez vs Clay Guida. knew a little about it before but never paid attention.
also this was the first time I heard of shogun. and I thought this video was trolling because I thought rampage and chuck were the greatest lhw's in the world lol.
also this was the first time I heard of shogun. and I thought this video was trolling because I thought rampage and chuck were the greatest lhw's in the world lol.
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Shortly after I saw Renzo Gracie upkick Oleg Taktarov in the face on some spanish channel in the mid 90s thinking it was pro wrestling. The next weekend I found UFC 1 on VHS at blockbuster.
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At my martial arts class. A bunch of the guys were talking and I heard them saying stuff like "then the karate guy kicked the sumo guy in the face". They were always talking about Jackie Chan so I asked which movie was that? and they said, no, it's the Ultimate Fighting Challenge or Ultimate Fighter Championship they had watched the night before and told me about it and it sounded like the fucking coolest thing I had ever heard of. Watched UFC 2 and that was it, hooked for life.
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Yeah, we all grew up on Chuck Norris, JCVD, Kung Fu movies and such. BJJ shattered a lot of illusions. Of course, if Art Jimerson had landed that one punch he was looking for, we're probably not having this conversation.
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Complicated one for me to answer.
...but the tl;dr version is that I decided on a whim to watch the Thompson/Till Fight Night card while randomly doing nerdy martial arts research and happening across a Wikipedia article on Wonderboy.
My first real exposure to the sport was UFC 129. I watched the PPV at a friend's house when I was in... 8th grade, I think. His family were big fans. We ate pizza and shot the shit. I don't recall the main event or even most of the fights at all for that matter. I do vividly remember Nate Diaz getting taken to Suplex City by Rory, which I thought was cool as fuck. I didn't know much about the sport, but my friend and his family all hated the Diaz brothers and were excited to see him take such a beating. Other than that, I also recall Randy getting his tooth kicked out by Lyoto and retiring. Other than that... nothing. I thought it was cool as a kid and it left an impression, but it didn't really make a fan of me then.
Over the next several years, I would catch bits of fights here and there while channel-flipping. I remember watching Jones fight Rampage and being a "fan" of his due to his varied and unorthodox fighting style. Pretty sure I also saw him fight Rashad. I remember my brother and I watching Clay Guida fight... someone. Don't even know, we were just laughing at this weirdo with long hair who was in constant motion around the cage and tossing his head yet never seemed to get tired.
I also saw Tim Kennedy's sprawl-n-brawl affair against Roger Gracie when I was slightly more knowledgeable about fighting just due to learning about it from other sources. Likewise, I followed Tim outside of his UFC career so that was neat to happen upon.
I didn't watch another PPV until Rousey vs. Zingano. My family and I got swept up partially into the Rousey craze. My best friend (different one) was hanging at my house that night and on a whim we decided to order the PPV. I remember all of them complaining about how many prelim and undercard bouts there were and how late you had to stay up to see the Main Event... which ended up ending in seconds lmao.
Even though I fancied myself a "fan" of Rousey, Jon, Kennedy, etc. I wasn't really worthy of the title as I hardly followed the sport. Barely even a casual tbh. After Jon's legal troubles and Rousey's loss, I didn't give the UFC a second thought until 2018.
I was doing some research on karate and kickboxing one day for some fiction I was writing when at the bottom of the Wikipedia page under Notable Practitioners it said: "Stephen Thompson (UFC Fighter)" or something to that effect. Curious, I followed the link and read his article. I found Wonderboy and his martial arts background incredibly intriguing, especially how he made it work at such a high level and yet I'd never heard of him. And look here, he had a fight coming up against some undefeated British guy... maybe I should tune in...
I watched the Thompson/Till Fight Night card bottom to top. The Prelim bout was, as I recall, a surprisingly scrappy exchange between Gillian Robertson and an overweight Meatball McCann with lots of fun wrestling scrambles and grappling exchanges that ended with Gil tapping Molly with an RNC in Round 2. I was hooked immediately and my family got into it as well for the first time since the Ronda PPV (including my middle-aged mother). Shame the Main Event was a bit of a bore.
From that point on kind of became a bit of a weekly ritual/bonding thing for us all after a week of work: sitting around the TV, chilling, and watching the fights. They're less into it lately, though. Since 2018 I have missed very few bouts and I've progressively been educating myself on old events and the sport outside the cage and/or the UFC.
Over the next several years, I would catch bits of fights here and there while channel-flipping. I remember watching Jones fight Rampage and being a "fan" of his due to his varied and unorthodox fighting style. Pretty sure I also saw him fight Rashad. I remember my brother and I watching Clay Guida fight... someone. Don't even know, we were just laughing at this weirdo with long hair who was in constant motion around the cage and tossing his head yet never seemed to get tired.
I also saw Tim Kennedy's sprawl-n-brawl affair against Roger Gracie when I was slightly more knowledgeable about fighting just due to learning about it from other sources. Likewise, I followed Tim outside of his UFC career so that was neat to happen upon.
I didn't watch another PPV until Rousey vs. Zingano. My family and I got swept up partially into the Rousey craze. My best friend (different one) was hanging at my house that night and on a whim we decided to order the PPV. I remember all of them complaining about how many prelim and undercard bouts there were and how late you had to stay up to see the Main Event... which ended up ending in seconds lmao.
Even though I fancied myself a "fan" of Rousey, Jon, Kennedy, etc. I wasn't really worthy of the title as I hardly followed the sport. Barely even a casual tbh. After Jon's legal troubles and Rousey's loss, I didn't give the UFC a second thought until 2018.
I was doing some research on karate and kickboxing one day for some fiction I was writing when at the bottom of the Wikipedia page under Notable Practitioners it said: "Stephen Thompson (UFC Fighter)" or something to that effect. Curious, I followed the link and read his article. I found Wonderboy and his martial arts background incredibly intriguing, especially how he made it work at such a high level and yet I'd never heard of him. And look here, he had a fight coming up against some undefeated British guy... maybe I should tune in...
I watched the Thompson/Till Fight Night card bottom to top. The Prelim bout was, as I recall, a surprisingly scrappy exchange between Gillian Robertson and an overweight Meatball McCann with lots of fun wrestling scrambles and grappling exchanges that ended with Gil tapping Molly with an RNC in Round 2. I was hooked immediately and my family got into it as well for the first time since the Ronda PPV (including my middle-aged mother). Shame the Main Event was a bit of a bore.
From that point on kind of became a bit of a weekly ritual/bonding thing for us all after a week of work: sitting around the TV, chilling, and watching the fights. They're less into it lately, though. Since 2018 I have missed very few bouts and I've progressively been educating myself on old events and the sport outside the cage and/or the UFC.
...but the tl;dr version is that I decided on a whim to watch the Thompson/Till Fight Night card while randomly doing nerdy martial arts research and happening across a Wikipedia article on Wonderboy.
