What was the first MMA fight that felt really big to you?

UFC 2 for me. Because leading up to the first one I wasn't sure it was going to be real, but after seeing it, I couldn't wait for the next one. And I wanted Pat Smith to get another shot and boy did he ever deliver, holy shit.
 
Tito vs Ken 1 UFC 40

That fight had everything you wanted in terms of rivalry, star power and on that huge WWE style stage. As well as being an awesome fight…. Or one sided beating


This was my choice as well.

UFC 40 was so impactful to me that from UFC 40 onwards I've watched every single PPV same day viewing. By 2006 I had either owned or rented every single PPV pre UFC 40.
 
Call a super fight or a unusually big fight. What was the first MMA fight you remember felt like a special fight to you?

For me it was probably Chuck Liddell vs Tito Ortiz. The first fight. Because the long build up. And the history between then.

The next one was Chuck Liddell vs Randy Couture 2. The two coaches from TUF season 1. Finally gonna do the rematch for the title.

Also kinda from the same era: Crocop vs Fedor.
 
Pride GP 2005 was like a dream, so many great fights. Even though we couldn't watch it live in my country.
 
I dont think it was followed by a lot of people and mainstream wise by nobody. At least in western europe
Perhaps so, but everyone who followed combat sports was watching and talking about it. Nobody talks about mma in the “mainstream” these days either if you want to look it like that. Open any major online newspaper and the only place mma is mentioned is the sport section, unless something freaky happens.
 
People were talking about fedor vs crocop ? Seriously ? Dont get me wrong, i still think its the biggest one with khabib vs conor but it was huge in the mma and lets say the martial arts world in general, but outside of those nobody knew who those guys were. And its totally logical, how tf a 2005 fight with 0 tv coverage, 0 mainstream media coverage can be at the center of everything ??? No way.

Yeah if my memory serves me right, Fedor vs Crocop was the first mega fight for me personally, then Tito vs Chuck 2 was the first huge more mainstream fight for American fans, then Chuck vs Rampage 2 was the fight that broke into the overall sports mainstream with major ESPN coverage and such.

I had never seen a bar as packed for a UFC event as it was for that fight.
 
Im going to just name a few that i remember felt massive to me. Tito chuck 2 Chuck randy 2. Diaz gomi. Penn Hughes 2
 
Perhaps so, but everyone who followed combat sports was watching and talking about it. Nobody talks about mma in the “mainstream” these days either if you want to look it like that. Open any major online newspaper and the only place mma is mentioned is the sport section, unless something freaky happens.
Yep but thats what the thread is all about. Whats big in MMA. In combat sports, big means tyson vs holyfield 2. Conor vs khabib was big in that sense.
 
Chuck vs Rampage 2. That was the first fight where non-MMA fans were actually interested.
 
GSP vs Penn 2. I started watching in 2007, and by the time this fight came around I was a big fan of both guys and super nervous about it.
 
I went to a party for Chuck vs Randy 2 PPV
Which also had Hughes vs Trigg.

Knowing the host was a UFC fan, I taped the TUF 1 finale card as a little gift to the host for having us over to watch fights, so he popped that tape in a VCR in his bedroom and it basically ran as background, and people would go back and forth and in between the fights on the PPV they would watch the TUF fights.

That was the first time I watched a live event, had seen stuff on cable or blockbuster prior to that.

Fun night
 
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