I'm old school, baby. I used to watch this shit when nobody was even around to discuss MMA. I'd go to work trying to talk about the weekend's MMA event, and people were like "WWF? Did Steve Austin wrestle?" :Lok: FUCK NO!!! UFC 1-8 were badass then they had the first Ultimate Ultimate. UFC 9 was the first one that wasn't an actual tournament and after that it all went downhill. Weight classes, more rules, etc. On top of that I got stationed in Japan after UFC 11 and pretty much lost interest in it. Still like MMA but not like those early years. Remco Pardoel, Dave Bennettaue, Dan Severn, Patrick Smith, Tank Abbott, Oleg Taktararov, Marco Ruas, Paul Verelans, Kimo, Kaith Hackney, and of course Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie. :Thumbs:
I love the old ones, but they were frigging brutal. A fwe highlights: -Gordeau kicking Teila Tuli's teeth into the first row. -Gracie snapping Jason DeLucia's arm. -Patrick Smith landing those ugly elbows to Scott Morris' head. -Remco elbowing that guy's head 4 or 5 times and the guy's legs flatten out completely. -Steve Jennum becoming an unlikely champ. -Keith Hackney punching Joe Son's balls in. -Tank Abbott knocking John Matua out badly and then making fun of him. Classy. -Tito actually being in Tank's corner as part of his entourage. -Don Frye knocking out a 400lb fatass in 5 seconds. -Gary Goodridge crucifying and then mashing Paul Herrera's brains out with elbow strikes. They were interesting events, but some of those matchups were so mismatched as to be cringe-inducing.
BTW, the rules started coming in when John McCain lobbied to have the UFC pulled from the airwaves, and finally he was successful.
I just rented UFC 1 not last week since I hadn't seen it for years and it was funny to watch the beginning of the UFC. Ultimate Fighting Challege as they called it a million times by mistake. The fighters were all pretty much a joke though, it was a showcase for Royce.
The first four were showcases for Gracie Jiu Jitsu. After additional rules and timelimits were added, the Gracies bailed.
UFC 1 had the most incompetent referee ever. I think Big John took over in UFC 2. Who's idea was it to have Jim Brown as a commentator for the first few? :scratcher: He brought NOTHING to the table. He'd argue with the guys who actually knew something about technique, make ridiculous claims, and occasionally give a "Mmm, mmm, mmm..." when they showed the ring card girls. :Lok:
