BlogKick: Do you remember your first time?
Posted on February 1, 2011, 07:42 AM by Ryan VenturaI actually remember it like it was yesterday. Let me take you in a trip in my time machine, back to the year 1994. I was young and naive, didn't know too much the world yet. Growing up as a young kid in Vancouver, Britsh Columbia, Canada at the time I was a big Martial Arts movie buff. I loved watching movies with Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jean Claude Van-Damme, Steven Seagal just to name a few. I loved playing Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat on my Sega Genesis (or Megadrive for you people not from North America). I lived for Saturday Morning Cartoons, watching the Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Power Rangers. All fun and games aside, just from reading this you can tell Martial Arts was a big part of my young life. My dad and I regularly watched Boxing at home. My grandpa growing up in the Philippines trained in Karate, Judo, and Boxing, so he passed on a bit of his knowledge to his grandchildren. But it wasn't until a family friend of mine popped in a video tape that forever open my eyes and instilled a passion in me to this day. UFC 1 to me at a young age was like real life Street Fighter, with elements of Bloodsport combined with an old school WWE cage match. I had no knowledge of the ground game, no understanding of grappling, or any of the basics the fans of today know about.
When I first saw Gerard Gordeau step into the Octagon with Teila Tuli, Gordeau kicking Tuli in the face and seeing Tuli's tooth fly out of his mouth will be a image forever imbedded in my mind. Seeing Royce Gracie and his gi to me was like seeing a real life Ryu. Just like Ryu from Street Fighter, Royce was taking on opponents much bigger than him and proving to the world that his style of Martial Arts was superior. The first Ultimate Fighting Championship event caught my imagination at the age of seven years old. From that event I was hooked, my family friend ended up getting one of those illegal cable boxes, also bought a bunch of UFC video tapes from the old infomercials. At the time it was hard being an MMA fan, hell the term “Mixed Martial Arts” didn't even exist yet. But every single event, from Superbrawl to the early UFC, whatever event I could get my hands on I watched.
Everyone never forgets their first time. Today at the age of twenty three, I still try my best to watch all the fights with wide eyes and an open imagination like that of the seven year old version of me. With a stacked February for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, featuring some of the greatest fighters this sport has ever seen, I suggest you fans to close your eyes, and remember your first time. Look back and try to think about what made you fall in love with this wonderful sport in the first place. Trust me, you'll have a greater appreciation and I look forward to witnessing more memorable moments. One day, you'll be able to show these fights to your grandchildren and tell them how great people like Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko were. From there you'll probably have another generation of seven year old children who dream like me and become passionate about this great sport we love.
Do you remember your first time?
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RCV
Comments
I grew up watching Boxing...still a big fan, but I'll never forget the days of Mr. Chuck Liddell, he introduced me to MMA, and I became a fan of the sport...forever.
*...nice blog.
Yeah I was into WWF, Stone Cold, and Goldberg... I wrestled in High School. I remember one day I walked into a Movie Store and saw VHS's of UFC 1 and 2. I bought them back in '99-'00(somewhere around then). I took the tapes to my Coaches and No ONE knew what UFC was. After a week or two everyone wanted see them. Now after wrestling practice we started doing Submission Wrestling and joking around, cause there was no where we could actually train in Amelia, Va. I always told everyone UFC would start coming on TV... then I think in '02 it did.
UFC... MMA... NAGA... Strikeforce...etc. is where it's at. Everything else is getting boring. Honestly I wish there was a Wrestlemania, Superbowl, World Series, etc. for MMA. All Organizations would fight each other every other year or so. That's my dream...
My first time was with a girl named Fran. I was sweating a lot. I tried to get into an advantageous position. It went back and forth a number of times before I was just too spent to continue. Since then I've been hooked and gone back many time for more. I often enjoy practicing by myself as well.
My first time was when i was 8. My dad rented the first 3 UFC's. my dad was trying to explain what royce was doing...but at 8 i was ignorant and payed no attention...Fast forward to the first Chuck and tito fight and i was finally hooked.
my first introduction into mma was about 3 years ago, i thought to myself these dudes are ****en insane and i would never do that no matter how much i got paid, now im fightin in the amateur leagues for free
it had to have been the UFC 71:Redemption trailer,...i started watching UFC unleashed about a year earlier on SPIKE with my older brother but i wasn't that into it then i just thought "oh cool" but when i saw the way they made Rampage look in the trailer i had to go see wat he was gonna do to Chuck! that was my first PPV and i've been hooked since!...I hated watching in a bar cuz it's so rowdy and i can't concentrate on the fights so I've ordered every event since UFC 83 at home!(thats when UFC was first available in canada for my cable provider)
pride27, ron waterman vs. crocop, when he got soccer kicked i was hooked, as 7 years ago i was more interested in the violence of mma, not particulary because i like bloodsport, but because i admire fighters and boxing was stagnating and becoming full of millionaires who i would never call a 'warrior' in a billion years
My first time was in the back seat of a...oh wait MMA, right, I remember watching Bas Rutten fighting Shamrock in Japan. UFC wise one of the most memorable things I can think of was also with Shamrock, but it was the 30 minute match he had with Royce.
My first time was on a caravan holiday and the owners had left a couple of UFC vidoes. UFC 1 and 3 I think. Was hooked straight away and then was lucky enough to find a shop in Birmingham that stocked these videos.
I kind of remember watching pride but i didn`t really know what i saw there. i think i saw shamrock vs. frye. But the first time I really watched a mma fight on purpose was UFC 81, the Lesnar Mir fight. I knew Lesanr as a Pro Wrestler, i guess thats why i watched it. But that was the proto type of an mma fight. the bigger guy just manhandled the other guy until the other guy beat his oponent with superior technique. really impressive. from that point on i was hooked.
great article haha
my first time was when i was 12. i saw the original BJ Penn vs Matt Hughes card. my friends stepdad was a huge MMA fan he ordered it one night when i went over to visit my buddy and ive been hooked every since