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

I was about 15..so around decade ago....and mma was prettymuch unheard of in Australia.....seen a mates older brother watching some blurry video tape that looked like underground fighting in a ring...Some lil asian dude walked into the ring.the bell sounded and he proceeded to fly kick his opponent knocking him out cold..first kick of fight...

I lost my **** and wanted to find out asmuch as i could about this sport..

 

Short highlights videos of PRIDE-era Wanderlei, also Tank Abbott and Royce submitting Ken Shamrock. I had those on my computer for years, but I had no opportunity to actually watch the sport. But they laid the foundation so that when it started getting an actual media presence, I was ready to start following.

:hat

 

My bro and I use to rent the early UFC cards (1-15 for the most part) so I've always been a fan of MMA and combat sports in general. He introduced me to The Smashing Machine a few years later, but my interest did not peak until 04-05 when I was 18 and began to understand the dark side and politics of Boxing.. My understanding of Boxing in the modern era left a bad taste in my mouth.

The Ultimate Fighter definitely brought me back to the sport.. The guys on Season 1 were all viewers of the early days just like my brother and myself, and to see them as the Mixed Martial Artist they had become completely won me over.. The respect they had for Martial Arts, the desire to better their game and themselves as individuals was something I had not seen since training in TKD in my earlier years.

Definitely the first season of TUF because these men were of my generation :thumbsup

 

Shamrock/Ortiz rivalry

PRIDE (Fedor, Nog, Mirko)

Particularly the Nog vs Sapp fight. Nog instantly became one of my favourites!

 

id been a casual fan for years. i think i first saw it around when tank fought taktarov. but the shamrock ortiz fight is what turned me into a diehard fan.

 

Same it was Fedor that got me into the sport. I seen a highlight of him with all this epic music and I just seen the mystique he had. I had been a casual fan since seeing UFC 100 on the cover of FightersOnly but had only watched like one or two fights from that year and followed the really big UFC news to an extent.

But finding Fedor made me realise there was more to MMA than UFC. To that point I had only been a super casual fan even of the UFC but from there I started closely following the sport.

 

Around 1999,dont remember what fight,if I had to pinpoint a moment it would be Brad Kohler vs Renato Sobral

 

Just found that fight,going to watch again,I remember babalu being fat/bigger

 

Ufc 1

 

Steve Jennum - Melton Bowen 1994

I was at SoCal.

When a cop and part time ninjitsu instructer is able to throw and stun with a right cross a professional boxer then I knew this had the most unpredictability in combat sports at the time and was going to be huge.

 

I remember one time a guy on Sherdog tried to say he watched MMA before UFC 1 atsch :rofl

 

He may not be wrong.

I have. It was Ali versus Anoki. First televised mixed rules combat fight therefore I have technically.

 

Yeah that kind of counts but nah, this guys was bullshitting big time.

 

Ever heard of Vale Tudo ???? , this was the beginning of MMA , started in the 1920's , way before UFC 1

Maybe you should try MMA in your exam timetable :yep