Your introduction to MMA?

[SDM]

Just wondering how/when others got into the sport.

I used to rent old WWF/WCW tapes at Blockbuster when I was a kid and I saw the first two UFCs and picked those up. I didn't understand what I was watching and was really disappointed that it wasn't like wrestling at all. Thought it was boring as hell. I was probably 10-11 at the time.

In modern times, I got into the sport in early 2008, when I watched one of the free cards. Since 2009, I've been pretty fanatical, went back and watched old cards, etc.

[skflives]

I was checking out videos on youtube when I came across a highlight video someone had made of Mirko Cro Cop. He seemed like a real scary dude.

[CPT]

Similar story for me, right down to renting WWF/WCW tapes at Blockbuster. However, I liked it at first, at least enough to rent a few more events, but was then totally turned off by the Shamrock/Severn II fight.

I had a vague idea that it still existed, and caught events every now and then at my friends with illegal cable/satellite hookups' houses, but didn't fully get back into the sport until...The Ultimate Fighter; mainly because it came on after Monday Night Raw. I was reborn, a TUF n00b.

I went through a stage where I got really into MMA, watching just about all of the UFC and Pride events, along with some random King of the Cage and other small promotions stuff, but now I pretty much just watch the major stuff.

[Cammo101]

Growing up, one of my best friends had one of those descrambler cable boxes that allowed you to see all the channels for free, even the PPV and porn ones. One night we were bored at his house and came across the PPV of UCF 10 (I think) and started watching. It was the one where Mark Coleman first came onto the scene and just killed everyone. I dug it and watched it at his house occasionally afterward.

When the first season of TUF aired on Spike, I started watching it and have pretty much been hooked ever since.

[Headliner]

Same with wwf VHS tapes.
Plus I loved bloodsport and only the strong. I became a big Gracie mark as well as shamrock fan.I started buying all the VHS tapes as a video store who owned them all started closing.
The wwe ran a program called brawl for all where it tried to be more real Severn was in it so I was psyched. He pulled out and Bart gun won.
I later followed it as a belfort and Coleman fan. I followed shamrock In The wwe where I loved him.

I faded after that until TUF with Rampage being the only MMA fighter I probably really knee off of the modern era. TUF was huge for the sport

[j127]

I got into MMA very, very late. Like mid-2000s late. My university friend kept bugging me about UFC and Pride fighters, giving his analysis, and talking about their matches. Caught a few UFC pay-per-views but wasn't super-interested still.

The rise of GSP and Rampage Jackson being bought from WFA got me hooked though.

[REDDzone]

Growing up, one of my best friends had one of those descrambler cable boxes that allowed you to see all the channels for free, even the PPV and porn ones. One night we were bored at his house and came across the PPV of UCF 10 (I think) and started watching. It was the one where Mark Coleman first came onto the scene and just killed everyone. I dug it and watched it at his house occasionally afterward.

When the first season of TUF aired on Spike, I started watching it and have pretty much been hooked ever since.

We had a descrambler box as well. Can't remember the first UFC we watched, but I do know we had been watching UFCs prior to Tank's debut (UFC 6?). So probably started with 3 or 4. Watched 5-7 events, stopped.

Caught Pride events randomly for a few years.

Really got into it in the last 3ish years. I watch any MMA possible and have watched most notable fights at this point (at least from the major promotions).

[funkatron101]

I saw the first UFC. I HATED it and everything about it. The lack of rules and athleticism embarrassed me. All I saw were a bunch off uncoordinated "Martial Artists" that looked like they may pass for school instructors for children. I felt it deserved every bit of criticism it received. In hindsight I can understand the awkwardness around the whole event, but at the time it was embarrassing to me, and it turned me off for many years.

I will fully admit that I didn't get into it until the Ultimate Fighter. That's when I saw the growth in the sport. There were actually athletes now, who cross-trained and actually looked like they knew how to handle different situations. Rules that were well established. I knew I wasn't going to see a fat Sumo wrestler who had no business fighting a striker, or some boxer being cute with having one boxing glove on. Once I saw how far the sport had come, I quickly latched on and discovered Pride. I was hooked ever since.

[High 5]

I had a friend in high school that was obsessed with martial arts and one day he made us watch this "Best of Ken Shamrock" DVD at his house and I thought it was the stupidest thing I had ever seen. But a few years later I got sick of being left out of conversations with a couple of my other friends so I started watching just to have something to say. Now I know more than they do.

I'm a big time MMA noob compared to you guys. Rampage/Griffin was my first PPV. I have seen a ton of older fights since then, though.

[REDDzone]

High5 the beauty of the relatively short life of MMA thus far is that even "noobs" (like us) can get to know so much about the sport in such a short period of time. Watch so many important fights, catch up on history, and even become familiar (visually) with techniques.

[Bernman]

My friend was a big pro wrestling fan (wasn't really myself, thought it was lame outside of Scott Hall/NWO) and I think that was his connect to MMA like a lot of the others here. In '97 or so he introduced me through a few earlier UFC event tapes. I liked the striking aspect as a boxing fan, but didn't understand the nuances on the ground which which was a large part of the action.

Didn't have an impetus to follow it afterward until it first appeared on cable TV in 2002 as part of the Best Damn Sports Show. I thought it was pretty cool there was availability of a typically PPV sport for free. And I had ample opportunity to catch the action because I was laid up with a knee injury at the time. The fight which really enthralled me was Robbie Lawler vs. Steve Berger. Lawler seemed like a young, cool guy and of course he brought an entertaining style to the table. Lawler got the exciting knockout and that action compelled me to learn the ground game so I could appreciate more MMA. I did so through a few subsequent PPV's with the aforementioned friend and UFC or Pride events that were held on either FSN or Spike.

I have been hooked and haven't once watched boxing ever since. MMA makes you realize how incomplete and obsolete of a fighting style boxing really is. I actually prefer a nuanced back and forth jiu-jitsu battle to a striking war these days. Ideally, both are incorporated. Bellator's combatants have been doing a great job of it this season. There are some underrated established fighters in that organization who could be mid level in UFC to contenders (Alvarez, Lombard, Hieron, Good, Warren, Strauss, Reis, Pitbull) and some promising up and comers (Askren, Conrad, Woodard, Chandler, Friere).

[Nemesis21]

A childhood friend of mine who I used to watch WWF with, first got me hooked watching boxing. Was at his house for De La Hoya/Mayweather fight, before that fight he should me the Gonzaga/Cro Cop fight which was a month earlier. I thought Cro Cop was dead. Seriously.
Started watching fights with that friend was hooked from then on. Used to always record UFC Unleashed and WEC WrekCage. Started watching TUF seasons, and watched the TapouT 2 seasons on Versus.

[K1NG]

UFC 64 was the first PPV I watched. After seeing Silva manhandle Franklin, I was hooked.

[Shaazzam]

Grew up a big boxing and wrestling fan. I was a huge Tyson fan and loved Nikita Koloff.

Saw the first UFC when I was about 15 in a friends basement with about 20 people. Watched a few more, probably the first 5 and then I wasn't able to find it anymore. Got back into I think for UFC 46, Penn v Hughes and Couture v Belfort.

[High 5]

High5 the beauty of the relatively short life of MMA thus far is that even "noobs" (like us) can get to know so much about the sport in such a short period of time. Watch so many important fights, catch up on history, and even become familiar (visually) with techniques.

Yeah, with the internet and the UFC and Pride replays on Spike it wasn't difficult to become knowledgeable on notable fights in MMA history. I feel like I have been watching for a decade.

[Posey H8er]

High5 the beauty of the relatively short life of MMA thus far is that even "noobs" (like us) can get to know so much about the sport in such a short period of time. Watch so many important fights, catch up on history, and even become familiar (visually) with techniques.

Yeah, with the internet and the UFC and Pride replays on Spike it wasn't difficult to become knowledgeable on notable fights in MMA history. I feel like I have been watching for a decade.

so freaking true.

ufc 95 was the first event i watched completely. i had watched some random ufc replays on spike before, but i never really understood the sport or cared to. i was aware of chuck, brock, and a few others, but that was it. i watched rampage vs jardine, chuck vs shogun, and machida vs rashad in the next few events. chuck was my favorite then.

but i started religiously researching mma before ufc 100, i got caught up in the hype. but the thing that got me hooked to mma was a dana white video blog. he was in nyc promoting the video game and i think he walked outside that stupid ice cream place he likes, and on the sidewalk outside someone had written with chalk, "SIGN FEDOR!" i immediately looked up Fedor, saw a fat guy on wikipedia, and was instantly hooked. the rest is history. i feel like i have been watching this sport for 10 years. old pride fights got me hooked, not the old ufc fights. it's weird because i didn't make a conscious effort to do that.

[Spicy P]

I've always had a strong interest in martial arts. My father used to be involved with Shaolin Kung Fu when he was young so he got me to take up and train in martial arts when I was a kid. Did Tae Kwon Do for about 11 years and fought competitively in tournaments as well. Was only one rank away from my black belt before I stopped. Also tried Judo for a couple of years. My dad used to watch and order nearly every MMA/Kickboxing PPV event and one day I sat down and watched one of them and got hooked ever since. I think I started watching the UFC back when Tito Ortiz was big and when he was fighting guys like Shamrock, Liddell, Couture. I've always hated boxing, but enjoyed MMA.

[spykelee]

Funny how so many of us transitioned from wrestling...

I remember I borrowed a friends VHS tape of some WWF PPV back in the day, and along with the WWF PPV, it also had some WCW on it (First time i ever saw it) and it had the first 6 UFC's. I can remember watching classics like Shamrock, Gracie, Severn, Tank Abbott, Marcos Ruas? Paul Varleans, Pat Smith, Steve Jennum etc. I loved the UFC even back in those days, maybe even especially so in those days, as the knockouts where so vicious... However other than those 6 events, it took ahwile before I got to see anymore... not from a lack of being a fan or not, it was just so obscure, and I lived on farm with no cable or satellite, so I just never saw it much again until post college, just prior to TUF firing up...

Now i work for a major television sports station that is huge into MMA, and I've seen so much MMA I can't even keep track of it anymore. I mean, pride, pancreas, elite xc, bodog, wec, dream, K1, MFC, TKO etc etc... It's weird to be such a big fan now, as having seen so much of it replayed over and over again, I've forgotten probably 5 times as much as most average fans would ever care to know... That's why I love this board though. It is packed with well above average, very knowledgeable, well spoken MMA fans. Not the modern day musclehead idiots that are so prevelant...

[K1NG]

I forgot to mention that I grew up a huge wrestling fan. I watched it religiously during my childhood ever since I was a baby (I remember matches that happened when I was 3). When it started falling apart after the WCW-merger, I kept watching for a couple years until I couldn't stand seeing the same Edge vs. Cena PPV every month. Then I tuned in to UFC 64 and MMA has filled the void.

[Blame Rasho]

It was the Gracie/Severn fight where he just took him down in a choke. I remember it was like some tournament which was badass because I think Gracie and Severn fought 3 times in the same night...