Sharing the UFC with others....

When I first got into watching the UFC, I was a sophomore in college. The year was 1995 and as soon as I watched my first tape, I was hooked. I jumped into being a fan with both feet. The internet was just getting going back then and information was sparse. I got by with renting UFC's from the video store and finding what results I could on the internet. My first live PPV was UFC 8 in February of 1996. And I've seen every one either live, on PPV, or video and dvd's since then.

To say that there weren't many other UFC fans when I started being one would be an understatement. The UFC had caused an initial buzz but was still more spectacle than sport at that time. It was like an exclusive underground club that not very many people knew about. Style versus style was still very much alive at that time, with wrestlers coming into the UFC to challenge the supremacy of Jiu-Jitsu.

I attended my first live UFC at UFC 18 in January of 1999. It was in New Orleans and since I had no other friends that kept up with the sport, I went by myself. That was a common theme, as I attended several live events by myself during that time period.

The UFC has come a long way since those times. You have instant access to mixed martial arts news and events all over the world. MMA programming is all over cable television, including live UFC events on Spike TV. Major sponsors are starting to back the UFC. Hundreds of thousands of new fans are popping up all of the time. Most people now have at least heard of the UFC if they aren't fans. And you know what? I can't decide if I like it.

Don't get me wrong, being able to go to a sports bar and watch and discuss the UFC with other fans is a dream come true. Having weekly programming and fights on television is amazing. But I think part of me longs for the underground feel of the early events. When you had to work hard and research to know who the fighters were, where they were from, and what styles they used. When groundfighting seemed mystical and magical instead of technical. All of that is gone. And now I have to share the sport I love with the general public. An uninformed, uneducated public. A public that now brings ignorant rants and opinions, like they have always brought into mainstream sports, into my sport. And that includes most MMA journalists, who's opinions are often so far from reality that I wonder what sport they are watching.

The only positive side of any of this is that now I am the old vet. I'm the guy who knows every fighter, who they have fought in the past, who won, and can provide insight on how future fights will turn out. I've turned into the guide that has helped many of my friends along the way to being fans. But I can still get aggravated by the people who call themselves huge fans now. The people who say, like one person did to me recently, that "they became a fan after they watched that one guy die in the UFC a long time ago". I know I should probably call them on craziness like that(since that never happened for you new fans), but I just nod and smile and wonder what it must be like for old football coaches to listen to fans yell at the television that a team needs to blitz more or pass more. Very similar to my experience I would imagine.

I won't, however, be like the fans of a musical act that quit being fans once the band gets popular. MMA and the UFC are like old friends to me, and I couldn't imagine not keeping up with them. So I guess I'll continue to bite my tongue when I see random meatheads at a bar tell a group of girls he fights in the UFC or used to fight in the UFC. And then when I'm watching the UFC in a big group and the guy next to me asks me what just happened when someone taps to a triangle, I'll smile and happily explain it. I suppose you take the good with the bad. But I may watch an event by myself every once in a while, just for old times sake.

Until next time,
Jason