Do you feel bad for fans who missed the dawn of MMA?

I feel bad that they aren’t alive anymore…

And some days I feel like they’re the lucky ones.
 
It's good for the old school fans, they get to win the dick measuring contest as to how long they've followed the sport for.
 
TankAbbott4Eva said:
It's good for the old school fans, they get to win the dick measuring contest as to how long they've followed the sport for.
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It isn't about that, not for me anyway.

True Mixed Martial Arts is a great sport, far more advanced now than then. The training, the nutrition, the PEDs, everything about the game has advanced in a massive way.

But back then it was still new, there was still a mystique. We still saw matches between completely different fighting styles instead of between generic "mixed martial artists". It was like real life Street Fighter, and it was fun.

We also weren't cynical and spoiled like today. The rosters were small so you not only recognized but were very familiar with almost every fighter on every card, and learning about new ones was exciting.

It was a different era, with a different feel, and I'm glad I got to enjoy the parts I experienced.
 
I was around before MMA even existed. I was there for the birth of the sport and it was pretty cool but I dont feel like anyone who missed it really missed anything. Before the UFC existed, we used to buy videotapes of events in Japan.
 
Not really, but more like annoyed when those people argue what they don’t know what they’re talking about.
 
TheMaster said:
Thats the thing though...it only looks ridiculous in hindsight. At the time if you had asked most people who would win at least half and maybe more probably would have picked the boxer. And that would have included a lot of martial artists and obviously boxers.

These epiphany moments were falling like rains of gold coins at the time in terms of understanding realistic combat and we took it for granted; grappling; defense to grappling; kicking doesn't work; kicking does work if you master range, takedown defence etc etc etc.



Exactly. Like if you grew up on martial arts movies and games and one day it actually 'became real'. Then we saw generations of combat lore tested in real time.
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yup. I've since done a PhD on the plausibility of recreating/identifying grappling techniques from historical texts (I focus on literary texts and use the Icelandic Sagas for argument/evidence) and argue the importance of embodied knowledge (i.e., having personal grappling experience) in doing so.

And I'd be lying if I said that growing up watching actual fighting techniques/styles being tested in a friggin cage didn't act as a catalyst ;)
 
Howard Moon said:
It isn't about that, not for me anyway.

True Mixed Martial Arts is a great sport, far more advanced now than then. The training, the nutrition, the PEDs, everything about the game has advanced in a massive way.

But back then it was still new, there was still a mystique. We still saw matches between completely different fighting styles instead of between generic "mixed martial artists". It was like real life Street Fighter, and it was fun.

We also weren't cynical and spoiled like today. The rosters were small so you not only recognized but were very familiar with almost every fighter on every card, and learning about new ones was exciting.

It was a different era, with a different feel, and I'm glad I got to enjoy the parts I experienced.
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Fair enough bro. In some ways I’m glad I never got obsessed with it in the day, would have been very hard to follow and watch.

My love for the sport did coincide with discovering streaming that’s for sure, once I figured that out it was gold!
 
I was there for the dawn of MMA and can confirm today's fans are not missing out on much.

As much as I enjoyed Pride, the early days of TUF, GSP and Anderson's runs, etc., the talent level today and the quality of fights are objectively better.
 
Anyone that is real with themselves probably acknowledges that MMA pre-2000 sucked.

2003-2013 was amazing though and probably peak MMA.
 
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Taric said:
Anyone that is real with themselves probably acknowledges that MMA pre-2000 sucked.

2003-2013 was amazing though and probably peak MMA.
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While the quality may not have been there, the excitement of discovery of what works in combat, the raw feel, the unique characters, and the fact that every event was 'an event' meant it was still way above the oversaturated content that we have today.

UFC 3 >>>>>>>> 300

and its not even close.
 
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