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

[D'z]

I was 13/14-ish. And was already an MMA fan because of all the VHS tapes in the "Miscellaneous sports" section with a generic title like "No holds barred cage fighting" or "Battle cage warriors" featuring guys like Oleg, Severn, Shamrock, etc.

 

[KootenayKid]

-2 years old when UFC 1 premiered. Took karate when I was a kid but didn't get into mma until my mid teens because I was put off by it.

Rory Macdonald is the biggest reason I'm into mma now. Hometown guy that I heard was making waves so I took more notice.

 

[Weidman]

4. 2005. CroCop

 

[frye666]

I was in my 20's. An amatuer boxer. We always had talks about who would win in a fight so this was a golden vhs rental for us. And it was an eye opener. I didn't have a clue what was happening most of the time.

 

[Gilday]

Would've been -3 years lmao

Started watching MMA when Lesnar joined (Don't hate me)

First card I watch the whole way through was UFC 90, which is why Anderson and JDS are 2 of my favourite fighters.

 

[Ingjr]

I was 37. Went to a few "Tough Man" contests in the early 80's late 70's. It was a welcome transition.

 

[DespicablePeep]

14 and had to wait for the VHS tapes to show, but then in the late 90s Pride showed up and I never bothered with UFC untill Pride went down

 

[ModernMatt]

UFC 1 was 9, first time I watched was UFC 67 when i was 21. Was a buddies place playing poker and they were already fans and they would pause the poker game to watch the PPV. So I just started watching and been watching MMA since and been to a few 5 live events, 3 Montreal and 2 Toronto

 

[BlueBullet]

I was 22 (Shotokan Karate also). Only watched UFC1 many years later...

 

[rambosabeast]

1, 2013, started training + UFC 158

Started training at Compound MMA in Oceanside and just got interested in UFC. WW division had all sorts of excitement at that time too; Nick Diaz, Hendricks, Lawler, Condit, GSP, and I was losing interest in NFL/NBA.

 

[OrigFan255]

17, rented it on VHS.

Was it in the main section or the sealed off Adult section?

 

[TCanaveira]

Huh -8. Only 17 years old

Started watching mma in 2016, mostly because of all the attention the sport was getting from the Conor fevor. First ufc i watched was UFC 202. Became addicted after UFC 205. Since then i've watched multiple events from the past on fight pass.

So yes i started watching because of Conor...

 

[djason1988]

I was 5, but didn't start watching until about 2007 when I heard about this traditional karate guy running roughshod over the lhw division (machida). As a traditional karate guy myself, I was intrigued.

 

[kwd1253]

I was 10 and I watched it on PPV that night. I was watching WCW or wwf one of the two. My dad hate fake wrestling. He told me we was going watch wrestling, he said it was new wrestling series called ufc lol. Needless to say I never watched WCW or WWF again after ufc 1. Seen 180 lbs guy run through the field was amazing to watch. But my favorite was 5 then 4. Watched every ppv until most went to pride. Think around 2001-02 I stop watching ufc. Watched pride until they went under.

5. royce and Ken finally had rematch it was a good 35 minutes no stop fighting. Then Dan sub Dave

4. royce sub Dan

 

[CorpseApathy]

So yes i started watching because of Conor...

You're not the only one it seems, I think it's great he brought in new life to the sport. New fans, old fans, as long as you're respectful and willing to learn, you're okay in my book.

I'm still learning all the time, new techniques, new training methods, fightsport psychology, it's an amazing time to be a fan, as good as any by my reckoning.

 

[turbotime]

I was 6, didn't see it live but my local rented the events out so I would rent them. I wrestled, boxed and did jiu jitsu because of them. I really got into it when my uncle recorded Tyson/Holyfield and Frank/Ortiz in the late 90s, on the same VHS and let me borrow it. I can't tell you how many times I watched that card. Good times.

 

[Gnomecuddler]

Was 13. Back then I recall hearing / reading about it because a Dutch guy competed.

Never saw actual footage until many years later

 

[JkMMA]

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.

This is a picture of me during UFC 1 in 1993..

 

[Credo]

Was it in the main section or the sealed off Adult section?

It was, and you had to give the store owner a special treatment to be ”worthy” of renting it. Great times!

 

[AssassinFacedBaby]

Was a massive WWE fan so its only natural that I started watching MMA (more specifically UFC) when Brock had his first fight against Mir.