Your first UFC

mirwillbeback

Hi all,

Just thinking of the sudden increase in interest of the UFC and wondering a few things ;

1. First UFC event watched on TV / DVD / Video

2. First live UFC attended, if any

3. How you heard about it

1)
For me it was 1996 watching UFC 2 on a vhs tape ordered from america.
2) First live event was UFC 50 in Atlantic City, so different to now. 16 people at weigh in, relaxed atmosphere and fighters just strolling around. I git to chat to Rich Franklin in MacDonalds on fight day.
3) A loan of a video tape of a blood sport with no rules and I watched in awe. Because US TVs had a different color scheme, the video was black and white. Pat Smith vs Scott Morris had me hooked.

I suppose I could ask another question - was it better back then as a niche sport?

Thoughts please?

scudzilla

1. First event i saw on tv/video was UFC 52, Couture v Liddell

2. First live event i went to was UFC 70 in Manchester (CroCop v Gabe), went to every UK/Irish event up until UFC 93 then refused to pay premium prices for mediocre cards so don't bother anymore, Used to stay at the same hotels the fighters stayed at too, had some great times, remember sitting back in the bar at The Hilton in Newcastle after UFC 80, it was a who's who of MMA. Had a good old chat with stitch, an argument with bisping, breakfast with Werdum and his lovely wife

3. My mate won tickets for UFC 38 in London and came back, told me all about it

cletus

1. First event(s) I saw were UFC 1 & 2. Dodgy vhs back in '96.

2. First live event was UFC 93 in Dublin.

3. I had started training martial arts, and it just happened that the guys I was training under were also training with/connected to (at the time bjj blue belt) Mick Aldridge. I remember we would do karate at the start of the class, then some jiu jitsu at the end, but we had no mats so it was on a wooden floor. I just assumed that all ma's did grspplingvas well as striking

Professey Chin

1. Probably UFC 1 from a terrible quality VHS rented out.

2. UFC 72 in Belfast

3. From being a WWF fan and Ken Shamrock. Wondering why he had "the worlds most dangerous man" nickname and seeing it from there.

Mr. Manager

Same as above - my brother got me UFC 1 from HMV when I was underage and it took me about 13 years before going to an event.

UFC Fight Night: Gustafsson vs. Manuwa

They used to have MMA on Spike TV (possibly still do, don't know) and I had been around Karate, Judo and Wing Chun for a few years from a very young age so always liked the idea of mixed martial arts.

Awesomeness

1. I cant remember exactly which one my first was. I was fairly young but would catch some here or there on different places

2. First live event was sitting ringside at UFC 72 belfast. Got to eet a bunch of fighers plus joe and dana

3. Caught a clip on some channel and was immediately interested

Mr. CooL ICE

UFC 88. Housemates were watching it. I remember the first fight I saw being brilliant and vaguely remember a 'ginger lad with an afro' throwing another guy around for the whole fight, but losing due to being deducted points. That 'ginger lad' wasn't ginger and was actually Nate Marquardt against Thales Leites.

Liam O

First was probably this one

First real one was probably somewhere in the 60s. Had seen bits and pieces before then, say I became a fan around the 80 odd mark.

1.First UFC event watched on TV / DVD / Video:

Actually not sure what was the first event I watched was but it was around the 2007/2008 when I watched my first one. Straight after that I bought as many DVD’s I could and tried to catch up

2. First live UFC attended:

First live event was UFC 105 in Manchester 2009. Such a great event. And actually haven’t watched it back since

3. How you heard about it:

My brother started getting into it and showed me some of the fights and I was absolutely hooked ever since.

ComfortKid

UFC 133 I think? August 2011

Anderson Silva and Cro Cop were on it.

Haven't been to an event I don't think I ever will either I much prefer to watch it at home.

I heard about UFC when I was a child because of Ken Shamrock being in the WWE

Wrongway1985

1. First UFC event watched on TV / DVD / Video

UFC 75: Champion v Champion ; As it was on at a reasonable hour on Setanta/Espn?

2. First live UFC attended, if any

Mcgregor V Brandao

3. How you heard about it

Began watching TUF 3 repeats with a friend hadn't yet seen finale possibly or guess that would be answer 1

Petermc83

1. First time i seen the UFC was Randy Couture vs Tim Sylvia. cant rem what numbered PPV it was.
2. Mc Gregor vs Brandao.
3. Seen a few ads on Bravo i think.. was always a huge WWF/WWE fan and was getting bored of the product.. UFC seemed to take my love for combat sports & entertainment to a new level.

jjdonegal

1. Think the first event I watched "live" as on Bravo was Ortiz Evans 1. Trying to avoid the results to watch it the next night on Bravo was so much easier back then :-)
2. Ufc 89 was first. Have only been to 4 overall; all Ireland / UK - have to do the Vegas trip sometime :-)
3. Actually through the TV show Friends I think - anyone remember the Pete episodes where he became a UFC fighter? As someone earlier said; Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn in the WWF reinforced it and I tried to get information on it from wherever before the Internet days! Maybe wwf came first but was defo one of those!

ShaneU

1) Would have been around 2006, ultimate fighter 1 finale maybe

2) McGregor vs Brandao

3) No idea

Dtp1979

Or the good old days when bravo used to show it. 'Twas the era when Matt Hughes ruled

thewheel2.0

1. Unfortunately only a fan since McGregor v Brandao (Would have loved to have known about UFC earlier)

2. I'm planning on going to UFC 200 if the funds are there

3. Lads in college were hyped for McGregor v Brandao, I haven't stopped watching UFC since.

That_Guy

1. First UFC event watched on TV / DVD / Video

2. First live UFC attended, if any

3. How you heard about it


1 - First UFC event I saw on TV was UFC 100. It was a replay of the main card and a friend of mine showed me Brock Lesnar/Frank Mir 2. Was absolutely hooked on it from then.

2 - UFC Dublin last year my first MMA event ever. Absolutely amazing.

3 - Heard about it from my friend who showed me UFC 100.

Hoki

1. TUF 1 Finale / UFC 52 - Couture vs Liddell.

2. UFC Fight Night - McGregor vs Siver in Boston.

3. Randomly came across TUF 1 on Tv one night & always had a passing interest from that point until about UFC 111 (GSP vs Hardy) & from then on the obsession was in motion!

empacher

1. First UFC event watched on TV / DVD / Video

The first Tuf series

2. First live UFC attended, if any

Havent attended a live event, going to go to one in vegas. But need the moeny first. Kind of want to do a mad week of it and waste a load of money gambling etc. Want to stake at least $1000 dollars on a roulette bet. so its going to be costly.


3. How you heard about it

Saw somebody talking about it on a forum, think maybe reddit.


I suppose I could ask another question - was it better back then as a niche sport?

Yes and no. I dislike seeing the crap spouted on facebook by people who started watching it recentley. Most of them are repeating something they saw on ufc emebeded or some joe.ie article. I do like how big its gotten though, and the recongition the athletes are getting.

3hn2givr7mx1sc

I'm not sure what the first one I watched was. I have a feeling it was one of Lesnar's first cards. The earliest card that really sticks out in my mind is UFC 93 though.

Never been to a UFC event, just a few local ones. Including McGregor v Sowinski!

Fairly sure it was all the Lesnar hype that got me into it.

riffmongous

1. Saw some japanese stuff back in 2005 but I dont remember any details anymore.. saw UFC 55 shortly afterwards where my main memory is sitting through all the main event hype and getting into it, then Arlovski knocking out his opponent in a few seconds

2. never been to a ufc, only a few small shows and probably never will at this stage, I don't have the interest anymore

3. I was a big fan of Kurt Angle from the wwe and got into amateur wrestling and while googling clinch techniques I came across the thai clinch and mma..

Mellor

1. First UFC event watched
Fist snippet ever was some repeats of the early days. I don't even know which event it was. I vaguely remember Shamrock and Tank Abbot.
Then caught random fights over the Years. An pre-champ GSP fight where he wore a beanie hat stand outs. very casual viewing.
Was ver much later that I started watching them in "live", around UFC 90.

2. First live UFC attended
UFC 110 in Sydney

3. How you heard about it
Like other previous, I first read of it through both that episode of Friends and Ken Shamrock in the WWF. Both were prob the same time.

Easy Rod

First event watched - Around the days of Couture/Liddell trilogy. We used to stick it on in the background during Sunday night poker games. Became an obsession after TUF 1 then.

First Live event - UFC 93.

First heard about: Some combination of WWF/TV mentions

dickwod1

mirwillbeback wrote: »

1. First UFC event watched on TV / DVD / Video

UFC 50

mirwillbeback wrote: »

2. First live UFC attended, if any

UFC 93

mirwillbeback wrote: »

3. How you heard about it

Bravo uk tv, Hooked instantly, I can remember watching the ultimate knockouts / ultimate submissions during the week then on a Sunday night we would watch the numbered card from Vegas,
I used to come in from work and type ufc.com into my desktop computer and go and have my dinner and hope the website would be loaded by the time I ate my dinner,
No broadband back then just a really slow phone line lol

Simply Red

1) UFC 66 - Liddell vs Ortiz

2) UFC Dublin this year, took me a while to get to an event

3) Think I came across it one night on Bravo and left it on, hooked ever since

John_D80

First UFC event watched: UFC 1 waaaaay back sometime in early 1994. I still re-watch it from time to time. It really was a special event. No way anyone could have known what it would become after that.

First UFC event attended: Dublin this year. 21 years after I started watching the UFC. Couldn't make it to UFC 93 or the last fight night in Ireland. Been to countless other live MMA events though.

How I heard about it: Best mates older brother got a hold of a very grainy copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a VHS tape of UFC 1 and put it on for us. Been hooked ever since.

John_Rambo

I thought the title meant your first UFC fight (partaken).

With the rise in popularity I've found myself being very polite to people these days!!

You never know... It could be you!

Hococop

1) first ufc I saw was when tank Abbott fought wes correria ( ufc 45)

2) never been to one

3) my first answer, just flicking through the channels pretty sure it was on the bravo channel and watched 2 guys beat the **** out of each other and thought it was brilliant, don't think it was ufc 45 as I remember Liddell fought when I was watching and he was the fighter that got me interested in mma

riffmongous

Bravo has a lot to answer for, I didnt even think it was that common a channel, I only had it in my uni apartment

dave1982

Yeah bravo for me too, tiki v Robbie Lawler. I remember think wtf is this ? Was amazed by it. Took me a while to get into the ground game maybe because back then fighters took you down to grind out a decision. Now I love the ground game. Probably my favourite aspect of mma.

Went to UFC 93 met loads of fighters. Mark Coleman probably most intense person I ever met. Very agitated in lobby of hotel by 02. One fella got photo with him and goes good luck in fight tomorrow night. Coleman goes wtf you mean, good luck anyway.