Throwback Recommend good UFC events from approximately 2002-2007

[Megatronlee]

Tbh all of em

 

[Bullitt68]

Baroni was surprisingly solid on the mic.

A little rough around the edges, but very informative and able to articulate wrestling and clinch positions and technque well. Not afraid to hold his ground with Rogan.

Yep, and I love the no nonsense attitude. Him hyping up Sherk was great ("I don't need no water, get outta my face!").

And while we're talking Baroni and old school fights, his two-fight rivalry with Matt Lindland produced six rounds of mayhem. The New York Bad Ass versus The Law. Both of their fights at UFC 34 and UFC 41 are great, but I especially love the first fight. They hated each other the way that really competitive people do. It wasn't all that personal, Baroni just thought that he was the shit and Lindland wanted to prove that he wasn't.

https://bloodyelbow.com/2010/12/30/...att-lindland-and-the-greatest-ufc-feud-youve/

Funny enough, it was in the course of Baroni's rivalry with Lindland that the seed was planted for his later rivalry with Evan Tanner. Their UFC 45 bout where the idiotic Larry Landless stopped the fight and got a punch in the mouth from Baroni for it was only one of the travesties on a night when Tank and Cabbage's corners would go at it while the UFC was trying to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

Nothing was ever dull if Baroni was in the picture. He was also one of the pro fighters who'd post on here a lot. I got to talk to him once a million years ago. I wished him luck on his next Bushido outing, and sure enough, he knocked out Yuki Kondo. Not saying I'm a good luck charm or anything...

 

[Arty]

I am rewatching* events from the era when I fell in love with MMA to pass time while I am dealing with an injury. The service I'm watching on has the PPV portions of the card only.

let me know if you have favorite cards from that era. If you went to any events and have stories feel free to share.

I am unabashed in my love for finishes, knockouts, blood and violence. I also enjoy controversy or elements of "MMA history"

I'm watching UFC 50 right now, AKA the "War of 04"
Yesterday I watched ufc 34 "High Voltage"

........................
Observations:

It is weird seeing familiar faces looking so much younger. Goldie and Buffer in particular, weird to see Buffer with dark hair, Goldie has blond spiked tips for ufc 50 which look pretty stupid but I do remember that fad.

Kerri Kasem was pretty cute.

Card # 20s-30s
A lot of these fighters are clearly taking their vitamins and eating their vegetables.

Some seriously terrible cardio and ugly ugly striking technique in some fights.

Fights sometimes stall in positions you never see anymore because everyone knows how to counter.

UFC 22 Steve Judson entire pre fight segment is about how much he has trained striking defense. 30 seconds into his fight Judson stands with his hands low while Brad Kohler hits him with an overhand right Haymaker with absolutely no setup at all. Judson does not even attempt to slip or parry, he just gets KOed stiff. Amazing.


UFC22 main event promo video refers to Tito as : Teet Toe Ort tizz
(over and over)
...........

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* starting around UFC 50 I watched every event "live" and at that time, 2004-2005 my wife (then GF) was working at Blockbuster video so I watched most of the recent events at that time. I'm sure there are fights in this era I missed or events where maybe I saw 1-2 fights on YouTube or MMAcore.com but didn't see the rest of the card. Specifically I know there are some HW title fights prior to Tim Sylvia's time as champ.


"Freakshow" fights welcome.

Mismatches and violent one way traffic welcome.

Some of my favorite fighters from that era:

Robbie Lawler (plus MFS guys like Jens, Hughes, Jeremy Horn)
Evan Tanner
Rich Franklin
Nick Diaz
Frank Murr
Trigg
GSP
Cabbage (and any other meathead kill or be killed types)


Guys I could use to watch more of and learn about:

Ricco Rodriguez
Pedro Rizzo

Andrei Arlovski vs Tim Sylvia 1

 

[Clark Rogers]

If memory serves me correctly (it has been a few years) I believe that UFC 52 was the first event I watched as a party with other fight fans.

That was comain Hughes vs Trigg 2 and main event Chuck randy 2 where Chuck KOed randy, right?

And it was the same day or same weekend as the TUF 1 finale.


Epic weekend for UFC. Great card.

So this one was not my first event, but I remember it well.

My brother in law's former brother in law (his sister's husband) was a pompous asshat and got drunk and convinced himself he could kick an apple off someone's head, ended up screwing up and just exploding his ankle instead. Deserved.

Plus it was a great card and we had a huge party that night, lots of people saw asshat cripple himself trying to karate