Media Which fighter made you a fan of MMA?

[regmma123]

Imagine saying that soon this trembling, flexing little dude who got shogun chuckling was going to be king of ufc and worth $200 million.

Judging by this picture the 5 sexual assault allegations are believable

 

[pick999]

The rock

 

[pātrēärkē]

Royce Gracie. Seeing him beat all those monsters in the early days of the UFC was like nothing I had ever seen before

 

[Tweak896]

Cro Cop. I think it was on youtube highlights and I really dug into MMA.

 

[DjolexMTL]

I came late to the party, but Cowboy Cerrone with his 4 piece combinations on Rick Story at UFC 202.

It was my first real PPV and I got hooked from there. There was Perry, Rumble and Conor on that card

 

[MeganFan]

Faber and BJ Penn

Wanderlei also terrified the shit out of me when I saw Pride highlights on FOX Sports

The first time I saw Tank abbott on a UFC video from Blockbuster when I was a kid I thought he was invincible

 

[BarbellzNbacon]

Was not a fan at the time, but attended Cesar gracie vs frank shamrock. Cung Le's mma debut, Melendez, Josh Thomson, nate Diaz, Guida were on the card. Instantly became an mma fan.

 

[Coconutwater]

I’ve never seen an MMA fighter with a more violent highlight reel.

 

[fica]

fedor. guy was machine fearless at that.

 

[krelianx]

Sakuraba.

 

[LSXMMA]

Shogun Rua at Bushido 1. I was 3 years out of high school and a buddy of mine and a guy he worked with became roommates. This guy was a few years older than us and was obsessed with MMA. My buddy got into it and was telling me about it. I came over to their house to drink and watch the fights.

I don't remember much up until the Shogun fight and even the Shogun fight at the beginning didn't have my attention but as soon as Shogun escaped the heel hook and stood up and tried to soccer kick him it got my attention. That was the moment I was hooked.

 

[Travis Alexander]

Matt Hughes for me.

which is weird since he’s a country born wrestler and I was a black kid from the city that started out at boxing gyms… but something about his epic fights were just must see TV for me everytime he fought. He is the reason I walked into my first MMA gym to learn grappling.

 

[wolffanghameha]

Watching JMMA/Strikeforce on YT in general, in 2011. I think Sakuraba, Wanderlei, Sudo and KID were the first to get me obsessed.

 

[Safton]

I had watched UFC cards before as a kid, but very sporadically and didn't really think much of it. It was the Thompson vs. Till card that really turned me into a semi-hardcore fan who caught every event religiously and got me invested in the sport, the fighters, and the general goings-on.

 

[gentel]

I really don't know what prompted me to watch but Adesanya-Whittaker 1 and Usman-Covington 1 were the start of me following UFC and I've watched almost every card since

 

[GOATtalks]

Conor. It’s funny to see him getting mentioned so little, when in reality he should be the answer for a third or maybe even a half of this forum users

 

[Ibm]

Chuck Liddell. Hes also the only fighter I have always rooted for in every fight.

 

[textwarrior]

During the mid 90's, I just respected the zoo MMA was. All the pioneers made me a fan, Like Randy Couture, but Vitor Belfort was the person I became instant fan...Ken Shamrock was cool but I liked Frank over Ken...Chuck came in....Vitor Belfort is probably my number one fighter ever in MMA. Wish he stayed away from 205 and fought at 185...he was a killer when light...but slowed down at 205...

IDK...I liked so many of the pioneers..but Vitor would be one of my top picks..Bas Rutten too...Frank Shamrock too..Sakuraba...but at the end of the day..Vitor Belfort for me.

 

[TankAbbott4Eva]

Anderson Silva, first live event I saw was his fight against Forrest Griffin, yeah I was a fan for life after that ha ha

 

[NovaJon93]

Miguel Torres vs Yoshiro Maeda was the one that got me hooked to start watching all the time.