When did you guys started watching MMA?

[Takes Two To Tango]

I'm making this thread/poll for @TCE

For me UFC 1 - 1999

 

[JonnyBonesPharmacist]

Watched a couple "shoot fighting" ppvs before the first ufc

 

[linvillegorge]

Fall of 2000/spring of 2001. Freshman year of college. Roommate was a wrestler/BJJ guy. He just got his black belt a few years ago.

 

[TCE]

I'm making this thread/poll for @TCE

For me UFC 1 - 1999

Thanks, bro.

Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock for me. That fight literally got me hooked, because I remember watching Ken in the Attitude era of the WWF. My brother showed me this fight and I was intrigued to see how he would do in a real fight.

 

[SKYNET]

I grew up on boxing and Tae Kwon Do as a child. By the early 90s, my dad and I were watching Toughman Competitions on PPV as an alternative to mainstream boxing coverage.

Then we watched UFC 1 live, that night everything changed, the rest is history

 

[Reach4theSky]

Watched UFC 1 live in a pool hall back in 93..

Took me about 2 years before I saw UFC 2 at the video store..

 

[JKS]

For me it was 1993 when UFC first started, my dad and his friends would get the PPV. I watched the first few events, rented on VHS and then stopped watching or a few years and then came back around 2003 and been watching since then.

 

[Bobby Boulders]

I was in 6th grade when I really started paying attention, 95-96. I saw UFC 1 that my friend's dad had recorded off the PPV, some time between 94-95, but I didn't really pay attention and was talking about VR Troopers most of the time, so I don't count it.

 

[mahavishnunj]

UFC 1-5 or so, then I got heavy into boxing and thought mma was for morons. 2007 I discovered boxing is for morons and got balls deep in mma. Now I'm a filthy casual, where I've been for several years.

 

[MotorCityCobra]

Paid attention to it since it started but was young.

I'd say Tito Ortiz-Ken Shamrock on i haven't missed an event. And didn't miss any of PRIDE. So long time.

 

[wwkirk]

I just know there have to be a lot more TUF noobs around!

 

[CrimsonFan]

I would rent the video tapes from blockbuster when I was a kid. I was also a big wrestling fan so I originally started watching them because I liked Ken Shamrock.

I think it was around TUF 1 when I really got into it though.

 

[Ares Black]

UFC 2

 

[jeff7b9]

Friend on HS lacrosse team showed me blockbuster VHS of UFC 6 I think in about 1996 or 1997. At that point I saw all the ufcs that blockbuster had, which was 1 thru maybe 6 or 7. Then got more focused on chasing tail, drinking and doing drugs during college years.

Started watching every event in real time around 2005 after 1st shoulder surgery when I saw Ultimate knockouts 1 on late night cable, then "Best of Pride FC" with Jay Glazer and Frank Trigg. Joined here and was called a "Tuf noob" around that era.

 

[Meatspin]

Ufc 1 on VHS

 

[Ares Black]

I just know there have to be a lot more TUF noobs around!

I remember when TUF Noob was a scathing insult. Now some TUF Noobs have been fans for 20 years.

 

[Eater of Souls]

UFC 1. But where I trained a guy had just come back from Brazil a couple of years earlier (stationed at the Embassy) and told us all about Vale Tudo. Very hard to get any information about it at all until the UFC showed up. The all of a sudden all over the internet everybody was a "NHB fighter."

 

[moreorless87]

I'd watched the odd bit of MMA in the late 90's but Nog/Sapp is what made me a fan of it.

 

[Joe_Armstrong]

I always thought this is a great fight that is rarely mentioned

 

[El Panteron]

I put "rise of McGregor/Jones" as timeframe but it's not exactly right, my first live PPV was UFC 217, tuned in for the three title shots and the return of St-Pierre.
Before that I used to watch Korean Zombie fights randomly.