Those were the events that made us fall in love with MMA.
The new fans have no idea of how good it used to be.
Here is UFC 31, for example:
Main Card
Heavyweight - Randy Couture (c) vs Pedro Rizzo
Welterweight - Carlos Newton vs Pat Miletich (c)
Light Heavyweight - Chuck Liddell vs Kevin Randleman
Welterweight - Shonie Carter vs Matt Serra
Heavyweight - Semmy Schilt vs Pete Williams
Light Heavyweight - Matt Lindland vs Ricardo Almeida
Prelims
Lightweight - B.J. Penn vs Joey Gilbert
Welterweight - Tony DeSouza vs Steve Berger
The above card had the HW championship and the WW championship belts on the line- I am pretty sure that was half of them as the 185 division was brand new and didn't have a champion yet (I think).
The fight between Rizzo and Couture is one of the best fights ever. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favour and watch it.
The card also had a top contender match in the up and coming Liddell vs Randleman (who had just lost the HW belt).
Serra was undefeated and had just won CBJJ and was up against UFC veteran and showman Shonie Carter, a very exciting match-up (Great finish).
Semmy Schilt vs Pete Williams was a great mid-card fight. Both were solid vets with good records. Semmy being 7 feet tall was rather intriguing as well.
Lindland vs Almeida was a fight between a recently awarded Olympic silver medalist (wrestling) vs a very accomplished grappler and BJJ player in Almeida.
The above can already be considered an amazingly high quality card but the prelims gave us the debut of BJ Penn. The prodigy was the most exciting BJJ player at the time. If you followed BJJ at the time, you had heard of the Prodigy.
There are no PPV's these days that can hold a candle to the quality of that card.