Old school fans: how did you follow the sport back in the day?

Statute of Limitations. My Bro was a Pirate. Kept us in content in real time when possible, and could get anything within a few days.
<{danayeah}>


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I made a comment in the Shogun and Fedor thread about how hard it must have been to follow the sport back in the day, probably especially in the "dark ages" when the UFC didn't have PPVs available on cable (I believe this happened pre-Zuffa?)

I started following late 2000s so by then torrents were available, then they started showing a lot more free content on cable and there were lots of "other" ways to watch events so i've been spoiled.

Anyway tell us your war stories. One dude whose name escapes me was saying he got a Pride event ruined by a commentator at a UFC event, though there was a 1 year (!) propagation delay in the event and him getting to watch it!
Prime Time Video ftw! Local video rental stores were great.

After that, if you knew how to use the internet, poor quality videos and live streams in native languages were available.

Next was torrents and better quality live streams.

Now, good subscriptions.
 
Before TUF? Before Youtube?

Blockbuster.
Ordering PPVs.
Buying DVDs.
Buying Magazines (if you could find them)
Sherdog.
Watching Japan events at 3 in the morning or on tape delay.
Sometimes Subfighter.com would post highlights or full fights if they were short enough.

You had to be dedicated. A casual could not survive.

I miss subfighter.

They actually sponsored me way back when very cool guys.

Ironlife was fantastic too.

I've posted it before but an example of how hard it was watching back then.

I used Sopcast, I think. Anyway some sort of audio stream program.
It was Kerr's return. Against Yamamoto I think.

It was a feed of the commentary, may have been someone translating the Japanese commentary.

I don't remember for sure. But what I do remember...

I was all excited for Kerr. Then I hear that he got a takedown.

"Kerr with a double leg"
"He's taking unanswered shots"
"He's out"

I'm all happy, Kerr just won with a double leg slam. And finished him with strikes!!!

Then it dawn's on me.

Kerr was the one that went out... DDTd himself.

Followed by depression...
 
I used to follow the play by play Sherdog did way back in the day when the UFC finally got back on PPV. I'd read the play by play of them doing the Pride events. I remember being shocked when I read on SD's play by play that Tra Telligman had beaten Igor Vovchanchyn by decision.
 
I am not wrong. I said I dont remember that ever happening and it probably didnt here in the states.

<Fedor23>
No that guy's comment stood out to me too

I don't know if his story (where he was admittedly drunk and watching hockey) totally adds up. Every time I've watched live Japanese MMA it's been 4-6 AM and he's in Quebec which is another 2 or 3 hours later than me in California?
 
Here are some things IDK if they count as old school or not but:

You used to never get to see prelims -- anywhere. The only way to watch prelims was to be at the fights.

So then the UFC started showing the prelims free on Facebook. After facebook came youtube.

When fightpass came out, everyone was super pissed because the fights were going to be there instead of either of the free sites.
 
VHS tape from Blockbuster and then in the early 2000s WinMX for dl’ng events and also Pride.

anyone use WinMX?
 
No that guy's comment stood out to me too

I don't know if his story (where he was admittedly drunk and watching hockey) totally adds up. Every time I've watched live Japanese MMA it's been 4-6 AM and he's in Quebec which is another 2 or 3 hours later than me in California?
Its weird to me!

A bar showing PRIDE in 2000??

There was almost no audience for that,that a bar would consider showing it,at that time.
 
I started around the Tito or Rich Franklin era, by that time i used to download from torrents, only until a few years ago i started watching live, streaming and on Cable, here its still on FOX sports.
 
blockbuster and some hole in the wall gaming stores strangely enough had a lot of Pride tapes i'd buy, i think it was because they imported a lot of rare/impossible to get Japanese figurines and shit so they'd bring in Pride tapes too
 
in the 90s i watched through the black box, early aughts i'd get my pride and ufc dvds from media play. those days when pride events were on a week long tape delay and you had to wait on sherdog's staff to upload pics and spoilers were rough.
 
My friends older brother had a "black box" or whatever and we got UFC 1 the night it came out on Nov 12th, then watched some early ones after on the black box iirc then it stopped working. Blockbuster, media play which had a lot of random shit, a few other places I don't remember but Superbrawl, KOTC, gladiator challenge, IFC, Bas Rutten Invitation, kickboxing etc. VHS were in stores here and there. Ordered VHS through the mail when that started being a thing and by the time Zuffa bought it I had the money to order every ppv when those started again at UFC 30 iirc. I still have about 300 VHS' (I would also record the ppv's and boxing ppv's hence why so many) that I don't have the heart to throw away.

there used to be this program where you could watch live streaming Pride events. forget what it was called.

I remember when that started, it was so bad though lol and was close to the time ppv was available (and downloading) iirc. I think it was through a media player.

The things we did to watch mma even when UFC events were many months apart, and the newer fans non stop cry about there being too many events.
 
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VHS, then later DVD. Ufc and Kotc were easier to find than Pride. Extreme fighting championship was the toughest to find. The first TV event I watched for free was World Combat Championship with Renzo and Bart Vale.
 
I saw Emelianenko fights on TV in early 2000s and then found fights of Shogun, Nogs and others in the net.
 
Its weird to me!

A bar showing PRIDE in 2000??

There was almost no audience for that,that a bar would consider showing it,at that time.

There was basically zero U.S. audience. IIRC the 2000 GP was the 1st Pride event offered as a ppv in the U.S. It aired as a same day ppv on a half day delay. Because of the no time limit exception in Sak/Royce fight it had to be delayed to ensure it would fit the ppv time slot. That fight in fact was heavily edited for time before airing on American ppv. So someone on the North American continent saying they saw that in real time on ppv does not ring true to me. My .02
 
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I think it was torrent or black box, I had no money to pay for Tito vs Ken Shamrock but I watched it. I think herring vs fedor was torrent?
 
VHS…DVD….the local video store carried them…I used to love going in there on a Friday night, they even sold milk duds..
 
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