Your Earliest Mixed Martial Arts Memories?

Memories :good

 

:deal

my very first look at mma was tank abbott vs oleg taktarov on VHS at a mates place.

i remember thinking tank might literally kill oleg and was shocked at how brutal it really was.
I watched it with a mixture of fascination and shock. it was like watching a snuff film and tank was like a real life comic book character.

 

I remember a mate of mine was telling me that this WWF (shamrock) guy was partaking in real life cage fighting, I'd seen JCV movies but didn't think it actually was legal. Being a boxing nut for close to 30yrs i wanted to see it first hand, unfortunately it was barred in Australia and my mate got me an illegal copy of the Ortiz v Shamrock fight which i found amazing.

Not long after that my gf (now wife) hired a movie from the video store thinking it was a boxing dcoc which she knows i love, it turns out to be the smashing machine which was a great watch, couldn't believe id never heard of this sport and the Japan connection made it seem like a really cool underground pit fighting feeling.

Not long after that when i was living in England did i stumble across the TUF 1 with Chuck and Randy and have watched ever since.

 

The first UFC as soon as it came out and there were a couple of other similar tourney's I can remember and have watched it from the very start of that type of tourney set up.

 

I caught what I think was Lindland vs. Baroni in the UFC at a friend's house on cable. Can't remember very well now, except that the groundfighting surprised me, and I liked the style vs. style potential of MMA.

 

Vitor Belfort.