Tell us about the UFC man because I know of you but I have no idea about this.
Oh man!! Here let’s have a bit of a history lesson then!
The UFC was extremely controversial when it started up hah! Uh… it actually started when a few people just asked, “Who would win in a fight between a judo fighter versus a karate master or a wrestler?”
Pretty much it didn’t have a lot of rules other than no eye gouging and no biting, there were no weight classes, there were no restrictions really. It only ended when the doctors called it to stop, a fighter tapped out, someone got knocked out, or, as a lot of the marketing hyped up and raved about, someone died.
One of the first, or rather the first fight in UFC history, was a sumo wrestler, Teila Tuli, versus Gerard Gordeau, who pretty much looked like a stick figure in comparison. The fight lasted twenty six seconds and ended because Gerard roundhouse kicked Teila in the face and knocked a tooth out. Two teeth actually stuck in his foot too. Twenty six seconds it lasted!!
Back then it was bloody and brutal, and that was the hook. The hook really was the controversy. It was called Human Cockfighting by a lot of people.
When people knew about the UFC it started getting noticed alright? The first court case was UFC 8. It was allowed, but after that there were more court cases. Rules tried to be put in place, but it was more to stop the fights from happening at all, like that was gonna happen. They packed up and moved the fight in a night a few times, yeah people got pissed, but the fighters could at least y’know, FIGHT. After UFC 12, one of the greatest turning points happened because New York deemed it illegal. When New York does something, people follow, so things had to change.
Rules came in because of certain fights. Weight classes came about, gloves were made, it was turning into an actual sport, but it was still labelled as human cockfighting.
People started leaving when the nineties were ending.UFC was totally saved by the Fertittas. They built a lot of the strip when Vegas was booming and they got hooked by the talent of some fighters they saw.
Of course people could see the UFC was in trouble but the Fertittas said, “We’re buying the UFC.” And they did in 2001. The first event was in Donald Trump’s stage. That fight almost went down in flames, but it didn’t.
Nevada was where things started to get back up. The first fight, UFC 33, was the first fight in Vegas, the first one back on paper-view. Right as everything was shut down pretty much because of terrorists of September 11th, but the people came. The fights bombed and things went over the tv time limit, but still man, people came!!
Things really were uncertain for a long while, things kicked back up because guys said “Fuck it. Let’s do it.” and they put money into this.Even still, no one wanted to touch it. “Two men enter, one man leaves” was still very loud about the UFC. So they bought time on tv after they were told they weren’t going to be given the chance otherwise. It almost turned into a personality contest, this guy has a good story, but he sucks. So they looked for guys who could fight and in comes The Ultimate Fighter.
Dana White, one of the guys who had stuck with this place, our president, gave the speech of a lifetime to these guys who said after weeks, wouldn’t fight, and it was completely on the spot. It was awesome.
Look it up. Because it changed things.The spirit of that 2005 fight, blew things out of the water.
They gave both the guys in that fight a contract. It was BEAUTIFUL.
Another deal for another go round on Spike TV was cut in pretty much the alley after that fight.
Things really looked up and the UFC turned into a super sport.
Other fighting organizations were bought, people got brought in, and others from around the world started saying, hey, we’ve got these fighters, why don’t we bring them here? We want to watch these guys fight these other guys. SO IT HAPPENED.
UFC 100 came along. July 11, 2009. Those fights were amAZing. It was a huge deal. Everything went wrong back in 1993, but it picked right back up.
Fighting is a worldwide thing, so people started thinking about translating it to the world. People tailgated at 9 in the morning in Australia. In Abu Dabi, the stadium was built then torn down. In Canada, the Rodgers center could hold something like 50 000 people I think.
UFC now has offices around the world with people who believe in this.
Women in the UFC? Dana said “Never”. Strikeforce had some good fights, and it had women. The first day Dana talked to the women who became the first fighters in the UFC, he got excited for that fight. Guys walk out a fight, kiss on the cheek its all well and good yeah? The women? They’re getting out of the fights still screaming eh!
Don’t fuck with the women.
Just. Don’t.
That’s really why I like fighting, because of the history we’ve had and the UFC is still around, people believe in the fighters. The pure energy you get in a stadium full of people is absolutely one of a kind and it is…. ahh bud it is beyond amazing. I got started, I don’t even remember how now that I’ve gone an’ said all that haha, but its one of those things that you just hit the ground running with.
It is just… AWESOME.
