Your Age At UFC 1, When & Why You Started Watching MMA

13 and I started watching them around 14 when they started popping up at the video rental store. I saw them all until about UFC 12 then during the dark years I didn't even know the UFC was still putting on cards until I played the Dreamcast video game in 2000.

I saw a few Pride Cards here and there (via my sisters hacked satellite dish) and would pick up some dvd's here and there if I saw them, but it wasn't until TUF that I really got consumed again.
 
I was 11 and in a judo class with my father and younger brother when UFC 1 came out. We heard about a brazlian judoka in a no holds barred setting wearing a gi and choking big dudes out left and right. Thought the concept of that was the greatest thing since sliced bread but it didn't make me watch the sport. It being illegal and me being young and without a computer it wasn't really feasible. It did make me continue training judo until my college years though.

I attempted to watch the newly formed Zuffa era UFC with Tito and company in 2002 but I didn't like the format or fighters. Ended up finding a video of Big Nog vs Sapp in 2003 and that's when I became an avid fan of MMA. I came back to watching the UFC when PRIDE folded in 2007.
 
19 and some change. Watched here and there in mid /late 90's. Mostly boxing then. But, some Pride, UFC, and King of the Cage.
Got into MMA in 2002-2003. A friend had shown me some Saku and CC fights, and old UFC. I remembered some.
 
6 years old at UFC 1.

I was a big pro wrestling fan but started to get tired of WWE's shit around 2002 so I started watching a lot of non-WWE stuff. I tried watching UFC on and off between then and 2004. Eventually started watching 'worked shoot' style pro wrestling matches which led me to follow a bunch of their 'fighters' to their MMA matches, which led me to stop watching wrestling and start watching PRIDE in early 2004, then UFC shortly followed.

So for all the shit I've gave CM Phil, I'm here because of pro wrestlers but pro wrestlers who could actually fight.
 
IDGETKTFO said:
Do you also remember those cylinder looking things that got you every channel, it was even before the cheater boxes. I remember those getting zapped on me.
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No, was that like early 90's or before. i had a box from around late 80's to mid late 90's..
 
I was like almost two years old.

I began watching in the middle of last decade. Tito making random appearances everywhere played a part in how I got to know about the sport.
 
7, I was immediately intrigued by the video box covers boasting different martial arts battling each other. However the first UFC I rented was UFC 3 which was kind of a disaster with Royce & Ken dropping out of the tournament. Instead I began renting Pancrase videos after recognizing Shamrock on one of the covers. I found that I preferred the rule set at the time & the better prepared fighters.
 
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Was 1 when UFC 1 happened. TUF 5 is where is started. Been hooked since.

Wear my TUF noob badge with honor.
 
caliboi74lv said:
No, was that like early 90's or before. i had a box from around late 80's to mid late 90's..
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Yeah it was late 80's maybe early 90's. It was before set top boxes. It went inbetween the coax from the telephone pole and directly into the tv. The cable company would drive around and at the pole, send a voltage spike and kill it. If you were lucky to not have it connected at the time, it would still work.
 
strongstylekarate said:
I was about in Grade 1 to 3 the moment I saw UFC with Shamrock and Gracie and find it too violent, then I switch back to WWE (WWF then).

The moment I realized WWE is fake and experience the Ortiz-Shamrock era I got hooked, especially the Liddell and PRIDE (because of K-1 Crocop)...
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It took you that long to realize wwe was fake? I knew wwe was fake the moment I saw it at like age 6-7. Maybe because I was exposed to a lot of school ground fights as a kid. I remember seeing 2 older kids who may have been 5th graders, I was in 1st grade fight. The fight resembled a sloppy mma fight. It started standing like a boxing match, then they clinched up. Guy threw some knees. Then did a clinch take down, then they rolling on the floor taking turns being on top and punching each other. When the one guy was on top, I had front row seats to this fight. I yelled. Spit in his eye!!! Lol. I was like a corner man. He actually did it and blinded the poor bastard and really started to wail on the guy. Then the teachers came and broke it up. That's a real fight.

When I saw wwe for the first time I realized there is no heat or pop to the punches being thrown and I noticed right away the cooperation needed to pull off a lot of moves like the standing suplex, and other moves where I can clearly see a guy posting up on another man's hips so he doesn't have to carry the full weight etc. I noticed this at like 6-7 so when UFC came along I was happy to see real fights. But with real fights under current UFC rules, it can be boring. They didn't have time limits and there was no stand ups like what we have now for stalling. So I would cast forward to the bloody action parts. I didn't see UFC 1 live. But I rented them years later when I was like 13-14. I was 9 when UFC 1 happened. Even though I knew wwe was fake, it still didn't stop me from being a fan. I enjoyed the spectacle and the storylines. I also knew that what they did, if a botch happens you could DIE or be crippled for life. Look at owen Hart or Darren Droz. Or even stone cold after being pile driven by Owen Hart. Mankind taking 11 unprotected chair shots to the head etc. All of that is REAL.

They get hurt simulating a show on hurting each other. At one point I wanted to be a prowrestler. Even went to prowrestling school many years ago out of high school. I paid like 600 dollars for a 2 week crash course. At the end of the 2 weeks I even worked a match. That was the criteria. It wasn't anything special but I worked a match longer than what Goldberg usually pulled off!
 
i would've been 5 when ufc 1 took place, got into following mma around 2003 by stumbling into pride and ufc clips on those p2p filesharing programs of the time
fights like wanderlei-rampage were just spellbinding, it was a new world for me

hendo koing bustamante in final conflict 2003 was the very first fight i watched live, on a stream someone posted here iirc
 
CorpseApathy said:
Writing a paper on MMA for my return to college, any feedback is appreciated, and might make it into the final draft.

I was 12 when the UFC debuted, but didn't started watching until I was maybe 14-15 years old. I used to ride my bicycle to the local, "16, 000 Movies" store to rent the events on VHS, a franchise that was eventually purchased by Blockbuster.

I had taken Shotokan Karate, and was taking Tae Kwon Do when I started watching. Like most fans back then, I had never seen any real NHB or Vale Tudo style competitions, but a lot of boxing and other TMAs.

It was more than just watching a bloodsport, (although that was definitely part of it) but I was also interested in seeing how all these martial arts and their practitioners would stack against each other. Watching Gracie tie up all these larger, tough fighters showed me how easy it could be to neutralize years of training, rendering all that work basically useless.

Watching the sport evolve from it's infancy has helped tremendously in understanding the sport as it exists today.
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I was 12. I was at a friends house who had a satellite dish, and his dad had ufc 1 on. We watched it live on ppv. Been hooked since.
 
I was 16 when UFC 1 happened. I heard about it from a few people. I watched them by picking up the VHS at blockbuster when they came out. For some reason they did not have UFC 1 for a while. I had seen 2-5 on video before they got 1 at my local blockbuster. Of course I already knew what happened but had to pick it up. I kept watching them on video up until about UFC 12 or so. After that I would get MMA DVDs through mail with OG Netflix. I got back into it pretty regularly around '03-'04 before the first TUF. I watched most of the Pride events that had occurred up to that point and kept up with those along with UFC from there.
 
IDGETKTFO said:
Yeah it was late 80's maybe early 90's. It was before set top boxes. It went inbetween the coax from the telephone pole and directly into the tv. The cable company would drive around and at the pole, send a voltage spike and kill it. If you were lucky to not have it connected at the time, it would still work.
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I don't remember those. maybe different in California. or i didn't know about them. just a box
 
26 for UFC 1. Watched it and was hooked for life.
 
-2003
-Pride
-age indeterminate

But re: UFC 1...I didn't grow up with TV. Was outside actually fighting rednecks at the time, most likely.
 
I was -1 for UFC 1.
 
CorpseApathy said:
Writing a paper on MMA for my return to college, any feedback is appreciated, and might make it into the final draft.

I was 12 when the UFC debuted, but didn't started watching until I was maybe 14-15 years old. I used to ride my bicycle to the local, "16, 000 Movies" store to rent the events on VHS, a franchise that was eventually purchased by Blockbuster.

I had taken Shotokan Karate, and was taking Tae Kwon Do when I started watching. Like most fans back then, I had never seen any real NHB or Vale Tudo style competitions, but a lot of boxing and other TMAs.

It was more than just watching a bloodsport, (although that was definitely part of it) but I was also interested in seeing how all these martial arts and their practitioners would stack against each other. Watching Gracie tie up all these larger, tough fighters showed me how easy it could be to neutralize years of training, rendering all that work basically useless.

Watching the sport evolve from it's infancy has helped tremendously in understanding the sport as it exists today.
Click to expand...
I was born in 1991. Growing up I would see GSP and nick Diaz highlights and stuff like that but never took it seriously until ROnda Rousey. Watched a PPV at a friends house (190). It was a blast. Then became a Conor fan and then just a fan of the sport. Now I like watching the prelims and seeing up and coming talent. And Michael Joseph Perry is the truth.
 
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