UFC - 20 Year Thread

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Don Frye and Bas Rutten are the two most personality charged fighters I've ever seen. This pair are beyond charismatic if you ever hear an interview with them. They are David Schultz or some shit. Like real characters who have a million stories to tell about their life. Both came from the pre-modern era boom period as well, so I dont think they get nearly the praise they should. Both could have (and I reckon would have) crossed over into wrestling if WCW hasn't have died. They both did worked matches in their life time, and Don was talking with the WWF in 2001. Once WWF bought out WCW, they weren't looking to bring anyone else in. And Bas was made for pro wrestling. Both could have been massive.

 

That's what was great about Brock. He may not have verbal charisma. But he's got natural charisma. That's why he's been a huge name in UFC and WWE. There's just something about him that scares you. He's a county boy with retard strength who doesn't watch the telly and works long shifts when he's not training. He's just not a normal person. Interesting people sell tickets.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

How I got into it?

 

 

This was a big PPV for the UFC, one that likely helped them stay afloat until the often-mentioned success in 2005 of the Ultimate Fighter. Given that former WWF star Ken Shamrock was in the main event, you might think it was the pro wrestling crossover that drew me in, but that wasn't the case. I was 12 at the time and my uncle had been taping WWE shows for me. I wanted him to tape Survivor Series for me but he ordered UFC instead. I was pretty pissed, considering I was missing the first Elimination Chamber, but decided to give it a go. I really enjoyed the show, capped off by Shamrock showing great heart against Tito Ortiz in a one-sided beatdown, following a scintillating Chuck Liddell KO of Babalu in the co-main. Given that I had no cable and I was still heavily into my pro-wrestling fandom, that was a one-shot deal.

 

Ultimately though, it was a pro wrestling crossover that got me fixed on UFC. In 2007, Brock Lesnar made his UFC debut. I was a huge fan of Lesnar during his initial WWE run, so much so that he became by far my favourite wrestler in the short time he was active, and I nearly jizzed my pants when he entered negotiations with WWE in August 2005. In the end, the fact that negotiations broke down then ended up being the best thing for him, as Vince wanted him back on far less money, lower on the totem pole, while guys like Batista, Cena, Guerrero and Benoit ruled the roost. Lesnar joining the UFC gave his career a massive shot in the arm, allowing him to return years later to the E as a huge star that could dictate his own terms.

 

But again, I still loved WWE and even though I got cable in late 2006, my PPV dollars still went to the 'rasslin, and I sought out Brock's fights on Youtube. This changed in 2009. My interest started to wane in WWE, I didn't like how sanitised and kid-friendly the product was becoming. I needed something more gritty and adult. Enter the next big UFC event.

 

 

I didn't watch this event live, I caught the main event online, perhaps Lesnar's most dominant Octagon performance in manhandling Frank Mir. I caught the DVD a couple of months later, which prompted me to reinstall cable and throw myself head-first into the world of UFC. This event had something for everyone- the brutality and showmanship of Lesnar, the technical prowess of GSP, the crazy Hendo bomb on Bisping, the blanketing skills of Fitch, and on the undercard, a glimpse into the future as Jon Jones handles Jake O'Brian.

 

My first UFC PPV purchase was UFC 119, which was main evented by that dire Mir vs Cro Cop fight that Wand mentioned. I was undeterred, as the Sherk vs Dunham and Lytle vs Serra fights were lots of fun. From there, I ordered near every UFC event, becoming fanatical just as I did with wrestling. I attended my first live UFC event in 2011, UFC 127. Fitch was there to rob me of some enjoyment by blanketing BJ Penn to a draw, but the Lytle vs Ebersole fight and the walk away uppercut KO from Mark Hunt made it well worth the price of admission.

 

Favourite Fights

 

Lesnar vs Carwin- UFC 116. If I didn't know better, I'd swear this was scripted. Lesnar takes a bludgeoning in the first by renowned KO artist Shane Carwin, the first HW his size and barely survives. He then opens the second round by smiling and winking through a hamburger meat face, then quickly takes down a gassed Carwin and locks in an arm triangle choke for his first and only submission victory. Just to add to the drama, this was Brock's triumphant return from life-threatening surgery. Beautiful stuff.

 

Leben vs. Akiyama- UFC 116. The co-main to the above fight, two zombie warriors left it in the cage in a fight without the drama of the back-story or a championship, but it exceeded the main event in terms of sheer violence and will to win.

 

Silva vs. Stann- UFC on Fuel 2013. You know those crazy exchanges you see on Dragonball Z? This was the real life embodiment of that, complete with a feel-good ending- well, as much as a vicious KO can be feel good.

 

Hunt vs. Struve- UFC on Fuel 2013. Just because of my fandom of Hunt and the incredible career comeback he made, capped off with this performance against a man a foot taller than him. In addition, he delibrately fought Struve on the ground to show an improved ground game. Mixed martial arts for the win!

 

Miller vs. Lauzon- UFC 155. Lauzon took an immense amount of damage in the opening frame and continued to fight his ass off. You'll notice all my favourite fights are about the warrior spirit, more than technique or even the spectacular finish, it's all about fighters that truly have the heart.

 

Favourite Moments

 

Sorry, I'm counting the Showtime Kick, it's been plastered all over UFC programming and happened in a Zuffa-owned organisation, so

 

Others include Tito's win over Bader, the Barboza spin kick KO, Aldo celebrating amongst rabid Brazilian fans, Anderson's triangle on Sonnen, and finally, Weidman's victory over Anderson, because being a cocky SOB finally caught up with the GOAT.

 

Favourite Fighters

 

Brock Lesnar, Chris Leben, Chris Lytle, Jon Jones, Anthony Pettis, Mark Hunt, Jose Aldo, Charles Oliveira, Carlos Condit and Wanderlei Silva. There's others, but those are the first names that flooded into my head.

 

Favourite Pictures

 

I had pics but it kept coming up with a dynamic pages error, I have no idea what it means or how to fix it- anyway, the pics were- Anderson front kick on Belfort, H-Bomb on Bisping, Lesnar sitting on the cage after Carwin win, spin kick by Barboza and gif of Dana being pissed about Brock losing (that wasn't the error, I checked).

 

Worst Fights

 

Mir vs. Cro Cop (UFC 119), Kongo vs. Jordan (UFC 149), GSP vs. Diaz (UFC 158- sorry, it was terrible), Rashad vs. Lil Nog (UFC 156), every Jon Fitch fight bar Hendricks and E. Silva.

[JNLister]

A great memory would be the fact that the Leben-Koschek fight (with the awesome set-up) aired directly after the Raw with Batista finally turning on HHH. I was in the US that week so excited waiting for that Monday that I actually cancelled a hotel booking based on it not having Spike TV.

[hbk4life]

How I got into it

 

It would have to be UFC 40 that got me interested in it properly as well. I'd watched tapes of the first few events before that and enjoyed them but wasn't too hooked on it. The Shamrock wrestling crossover got me interested in his fight with Ortiz and I started to watch it a bit more. It was after UFC 47 that I really started to follow it and watch it regularly, the first Ortiz vs Liddell fight and the whole fued that went with it. I've watched it ever since.

 

Favourite Fights

 

Nogueira vs Couture (UFC 102) - Two legends going back and forth, I loved this fight! I was never a big Couture fan so the result made it even better, especially after what happened in Nog's previous fight against Mir.

 

Silva vs Sonnen 1 (UFC 117) - I'd never looked forward to a one sided beat down so much. How wrong was I. The build up was great and the fight was something you couldn't take your eyes off at the time. I'm a huge Silva fan so for 4 and a half rounds I was pretty much watching in disbelief only to explode with joy as Sonnen tapped.

 

Henderson vs Shogun (UFC 139) - A complete war, right to the last minute I thought Rua could still somehow finish Henderson on the ground.

 

Sanchez vs Guida (TUF 9 Finale) - Most of Sanchez's fights are good, this one was great.

 

Edgar vs Maynard 2 (UFC 125) - Crazy fight, I still can't believe Edgar survived the first round.

 

Favourite Moments

 

The Silva triangle on Sonnen, Big Nog knocking out Schaub in Brazil, Lesnar crushing Mir at UFC 100 and JDS winning the title against Cain.

 

Favourite Fighters

 

Anderson Silva, Wanderlei Silva, Big Nog, JDS, Carlos Condit, Rashad Evans, Diego Sanchez, Dan Henderson, Shogun, Josh Barnett, Anthony Pettis and GSP.

 

Worst Fights

 

Shamrock vs Severn 2 at UFC 9 probably is the worst, but I had already read how bad it was before watching the event, so at least I wasn't left disappointed. I can't say the same for Mir vs Cro Cop, what a load of shit that was.

[jimufctna24]

I have never seen the "great dance" between Shamrock and Severn. GG vs Jordan is crap, but Rogan's commentary and a decent knockout in the third, mean I do not hate it like most do.

 

I forgot to add BJ Penn to my favorite fighters list, which I have now edited.

 

UFC 100 is probably my favorite card ever, it was great on every level.

 

Oh and if we are talking 90's

 

My favorites were the guy in my sig, and Rutten. I do like Frye as well, even if he is a mental case.

[Bus Surfer]

I actually got fully into into it after playing the UFC Undisputed demo on the Xbox. I had seen a few of the early UFC 's many years before, but like a lot of other people, I quickly dismissed it as barbaric rubbish. 2 knuckle draggers trying to knock each others teeth out sprang to mind. I remained uninterested throughout the Shamrock/Tito and TUF stuff that pulled a lot of people in. But when I heard Brock Lesnar had become heavyweight champ, I had to take a look. Played the demo to death and did some reading on Wikipedia and I was shocked as to how much depth there was to it all. So many little intricate things mattered. It really wasn't just 2 bums fighting for a ham sandwich. My first full UFC was UFC 98 and I've been hooked since.

 

I guess I have Brock Lesnar to thank.

[wandshogun09]

Ah I forgot to add Bas Rutten to my favourite fighters list. I kept it to the current fighters to avoid taking up a whole page but if I was including the old school guys, Bas would be right at the top.

 

I love Don Frye and Renzo Gracie as well. And the recently retired Matt Serra. Talk about charisma and big personalities - Bas Rutten, Don Frye, Renzo Gracie and Matt Serra - there aren't any bigger than those four.

 

Bas as a fighter was awesome as well. Way ahead of his time. He came along about 10-15 years too soon. I'd love to see what a 21 year old Bas Rutten could do today with all the advances in training and diet. You look at his record and he's only lost to prime Ken Shamrock x2, prime Frank Shamrock (which he avenged twice, going 2-1 overall over Frank), and Masakatsu Funaki (which was only Bas' third MMA fight). Those are the only blemishes on his record and those three were pioneers of the sport and still in top form when Bas fought them. After the second loss to Ken, Bas went unbeaten for the remaining 22 fights of his career. And he doesn't get nearly the credit he should for the improvements he made in his grappling after the Shamrock losses.

 

Bas was quality. Still is. Maybe the most likeable and down to earth guy in the sport. Even though he's outspoken, you never really hear anyone in the sport have a bad word to say about Bas.

 

Watched the documentary Ebb mentioned in first post and it's excellent. Over 90 minutes long and a lot of good interviews and stuff looking back from the beginning.

 

Where are people watching this? I still haven't seen it. Was hoping BT Sport might show it over the weekend before UFC 167 but it doesn't look like it.

 

The most ridiculous thing from the earlier UFC's was some of the promos and, equally, the absurd win/loss records guys were claiming to hold.

 

Ha, John Matua always springs to mind when people bring this up. The ring announcer said Matua was something like 700-0 "on the island". Then Don Frye knocked him out in 8 seconds.

 

I love all the ridiculous names for the martial arts back then. Joe Son-Do, Five Animal Kung Fu etc.

 

Sanchez vs Guida (TUF 9 Finale) - Most of Sanchez's fights are good, this one was great.

 

Sanchez is one of the most exciting fighters ever. When you look back at his career, seriously, there might be no-one else in MMA history who's had as many crazy fights as Diego. Maybe Wanderlei Silva but that's it.

 

Nick Diaz - non-stop grappling war.

Karo Parisyan - crazy FOTY contender.

Joe Riggs - brutal KO.

Clay Guida - insane FOTY contender.

Paulo Thiago - wild fight, with a big comeback from Sanchez.

Martin Kampmann - bloodbath, back and forth war.

Jake Ellenberger - a fight so good Dana made all non-title main events 5 rounds after watching it.

Gilbert Melendez - another crazy FOTY contender.

 

Most fighters don't have one of these type of fights in a career. Diego's had one after another for years now. He's as mad as a box of bollocks which just adds to it, and he comes into fights looking like this;

 

 

And more often than not, leaves looking like this;

 

Nutter.

 

I have never seen the "great dance" between Shamrock and Severn.

 

Do yourself a favour and keep it that way. Severn vs Kimo from Pride 1 is right with it as well. Severn has the dubious honour of having probably the worst UFC fight and the worst Pride fight ever.

[Rey_Piste]

Yeh they released the first 6, i think the next official UFC release over here was UFC 35.

I stand corrected, it must have been the first 6 I watched on video back in the day, my memory is pretty hazy from back then because I spent far too much of my time getting stoned.

[KingOfMetal]

Wand,

 

If you google it from one of the torrent sites you'll find it easy enough. I got a HD rip last night and will likely watch it proper this afternoon

[Egg Shen]

The most ridiculous thing from the earlier UFC's was some of the promos and, equally, the absurd win/loss records guys were claiming to hold.

 

Ha, John Matua always springs to mind when people bring this up. The ring announcer said Matua was something like 700-0 "on the island". Then Don Frye knocked him out in 8 seconds.

 

 

you're getting your wires crossed Wand. Matua is the guy Tank Abbott KO'd at UFC 6, he came out claiming to be a master in the 'art of bone breaking', now if that doesn't get you on board, nothing does. Tank didn't give too hoots, he simply went about his business...

 

 

The dude Don Frye KO'd in 8 seconds was Thomas Ramirez, he too claimed something ridiculous (ill have to go back and watch the tape), im pretty sure it was saying something he's never lost or been knocked down in 500 street fights. Then Don came out and Knocked him out with a jab!

 

 

another old tale about the disciplines was with Gart Goodridge, he came out claiming to be a black belt in Kuk Sool Wo. In reality, Goodridge couldn't even spell it, he was simply asked to represent the art (whatever the fuck it is) and a school that taught it in return im guessing for a free gi and a few quid.

 

Goodridge is a fucking legend, he's someone that should be celebrated this weekend. He has his place in MMA folklore but he's generally remembered for his Japanese Pride/K-1 run.

[wandshogun09]

Thomas Ramirez! That's right, that's who I was thinking of. I always mix him and fellow fatty Matua up.

 

While we're going old school, I can't believe I forgot to mention this guy;

 

 

"I went in there...cool as a cucumber on a iceberg in the Antarctic. Chillin'"

 

"What are you gonna do when you look across that cage, and you've got a 457 pink and yellow, polka dot, striped Magnum pointing at you?"

 

"They're all fussing about bottles in the pool. Like 'Hey Shonie, it's not Shonie's pool it's a community pool.' The fuckin' community ain't here. I ain't seen one pair of titties in that pool yet."

 

"Charles McCaaarthyyy...it is not yoouu."

 

"I'm tryin' to keep my cool, I'm doin' the best I damn can. I'm tryin' to fly a little icognegro, y'know, under the radar. And they just tryin' my patience."

 

"I got Baby Mama Drama."

 

"You know I laugh at shit like that. I used to fight in nightclubs fighting five guys at one time. I've been shot at. I've had knives pulled on me. My baby mama number two threw a fuckin' flat iron skillet at me. You think I'm afraid of your little antics? C'mon."

 

"Now motherfuckas, pay attention. You have to look at me for six fucking weeks. And I'm in the motherfuckin' house, doing my motherfuckin' thing, any motherfuckin' time I motherfuckin' want. You motherfuckas wishin' you could do what I'm motherfuckin' doing up in this motherfucka. 'Cos now you motherfuckas can't do a motherfuckin' thing other than change the motherfuckin' channel. But some motherfucka's gonna call you and say you need to go back to that channel and watch what this motherfucka just motherfuckin' said."

 

Legend. I love Shonie Carter.

[jimufctna24]

A story I read in Clyde Gentry's No Holds Barred Book, is that in the 90's they got a audition from a monk who claimed who could kill a fighter with a death touch, they decided not to give him a go, but it would have been a right laugh if they had (provided he was a phony that is)

 

Goodridge was a funny one, the crucifix and elbows to Tank Abbott's mate were horrible to watch, rumor is that Goodridge heard that Tank's mate was racist, if he was he sure got his revenge.

 

Some of those early UFC's are a bit too brutal for me if I am honest.

[PowerButchi]

Ramirez was an exponent of PAKUA CHAN~! Undefeated "in over 200 bare knuckle challenge matches on the island".

 

Early UFC also gave us a fucking awesome Scott Ferrozo heel promo. One of the best I've ever heard in anything, pisses all over your Sonnens.

[JNLister]

We shouldn't forget all the imitation groups that sprang up in the early days, some of which were really fun for a few years until people learned just enough jiu-jitsu to be boring and every match was a 30 minute stalemate.

 

I saw one recently from Russia in the late 90s that was fantastic in its amateurishness, with most of the competitors looking like the manager of a Turkish or Bulgarian team you'd see in a Europa League game, fighting in a t-shirt and tracky bottoms. Every match went about two minutes, which was 90 seconds of leathering each other, both guys falling down, then one immediately grabbing a leg and yanking as hard as possible.

 

I still think that in the 2006 match Gracie's aura was killed less by Matt Hughes and more by having to fight in his pants.

[hbk4life]

Sanchez is one of the most exciting fighters ever. When you look back at his career, seriously, there might be no-one else in MMA history who's had as many crazy fights as Diego. Maybe Wanderlei Silva but that's it.

 

Yeah I love watching Diego, he isn't everyones cup of tea but surely everyone loves his fights. I'd of happily watched 5 rounds of all those fights you mentioned. The guy gives his all and never gives up till the fight is over, he's just a bit mental.

 

The early events could be pretty brutal, right from the first fight at UFC 1 when Gerard Gordeau kicked Teila Tuli's teeth out in under a minute!