What was the fight/moment that got you into MMA?

I've always been into combat but MMA as we know it today hooked me in with Vitor Belfort. I am a die hard boxing fan so who better to help me make the transition!

 

BJ Penn was my inspiration , the minute i seen this guys skills i was hooked

 

First time i started watching mma was in 07 when my friend showed me the fight Rampage vs Shogun

 

Shooto pre-UFC.

 

That it did but you wasn't around in the 20's and i doubt you have access to any of the content pre Youtube either :bart. Plus there were barely any organised formats and the footage was very hard to come by. MMA didn't truly hit our screens in the West until the first UFC's. Unless you want to count Inoki vs Ali.
That said my first MMA fights were Pancrase with Bas Rutten then i went back and started watching the early UFC's and fell in love with Kevin Randleman :love
So....much... Violence! Almost bought a tear to my eye...

 

Every MMA fans likes to pretend they were in this sport from the ground up. That's a crock of shite. Most of these guppys started watching MMA when Bonnar Griffin "dis" Graced our TV screens.

 

Well actually it probably started when the first caveman hit another over the head. The very entertaining Chimpanzee style of fighting was born and has been enjoyed by pissheads worldwide since.

 

It was seeing the ads for UFC 1. They were great fight clips from all these different disciplines with guys getting knocked out and thrown around left and right. I've never seen that pre-PPV video package again. I have it on an old VHS tape somewhere. I should upload it to Youtube sometime.

 

I'll never understand your hate for Bonnar/Griffin. That was a rough and tough fight. There's no way you can't appreciate it. Is it more the fact that the UFC touted it as the greatest UFC fight of all time for so long? At least that's been replaced by Hendo/Shogun now.

 

It was the moment that MMA ceased to become an irrelevant niche freakshow.

That fight was the making of the UFC and, indirectly, the death knell for PRIDE, which Scurla is so ridiculously invested in that he has its logo tattooed on his body. He has literally branded himself as a PRIDE fanboy. atsch

:hat

 

Scur, show us a picture of the tat.

 

When Brock first start in Pride. It was the late 90's I think.

Lynchburg

 

watching wandy kick the **** into Sakuraba. around 2000 ish i think?

 

That's true but I too, Don't see your hatred for Bonnar-Griffin. It was sloppy, technically awful fight but is largely responsible for a lot of the growth of MMA in those years and it was pretty exciting too so whats not to like :good

 

Yeah I know about Vale Tudo but the guy clearly hadn't. I was just telling a story :hey

I was just posting that as you seemed to be implying I was lying or something :good