The fighter that made you a hardcore fan.

[Fizzy]

Simple question. When you first started watching MMA you had a guy who was above and beyond everybody in your opinion. He was the guy who you wouldn't miss no matter how shitty the undercard was. The guy who really got you into this great sport. I'm pretty sure everybody knows who I will pick, but i'm doing it anyway damnit.

This is the fighter who got me into MMA. Back around the time of UFC 68, I was a huge WWE fan and never welcomed any other combat sports. I had heard about MMA and how this old man was fighting this giant guy. Apparently, the big guy was supposed to KO the old man easily and brutally. Being the blood thirsty fan I was back then, I decided to watch it. Come to find out that this old man was a fucking animal. He destroyed the big man who I found out was named Tim Sylvia and that really stood out to me. Since then, I have missed one or two fights live featuring Randy for personal reasons such as vacation, etc. I will always hold the utmost respect and admiration for him. So how about you guys?

 

[INDYjon22]

I catch a lot of shit for Andrei Arlovski being the guy who got me into MMA but that's because MMA is a "what have you done for me lately" kind of business. When I first began really following MMA it was right around the time Arlovski was beginning his trilogy with Sylvia. I fell in love immediately. I remember being in like North or South Carolina and seeing a big electric board plugging their upcoming fight and seeing AA. He looked like such a savage beast and I wanted to know more about him. Lucky for me he lived up to the hype. AA was such a monster back in those days and I loved watching him buzz saw through his competition. And while he has certainly lost a step....or five...since then I still love the dude to death. He is a class act through and through and gave us some of the most brutal and impressive KO's in the early days of the UFC.

 

[JWGunslinger]

The first UFC PPV I bought was back at UFC 50 "The War of 04". It was so foreign to me but I loved it, the match that stood out was Matt Hughes vs Georges St. Pierre. I was enthralled my this amazing fast paced matchup that ended with a lightning quick armbar. After that, this guy was the man to me, he was a god and the greatest warrior in the sport. I went back and watched every one of his past matches, and I mean even his fights in Extreme Challenge. His strength, his style, domination and additude made me a life long fan and I cant wait to see him go head to head with Diego Sanchez and remind us why he was the most dominant welterweight in the world in his prime.

 

[Tha Wolfpac]

For me it's simple. Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva. Man i watched this man in his Pride prime, and watched him absolutely destroy these other men in the most brutal fashion. I ll never forget when fought against Rampage Jackson and he left, Rampage hanging on the ropes after beating him bloody. After that i was like shit, this man is unstoppable. Wanderlei has slowed down quite a bit, but this man never ceases to put on an amazing show for everybody involved. He truly is a warrior. This man got me hooked onto the world of MMA.

 

[Final Form Snyper.]

To me this is simple. I have always been a fan of Chuck Liddell. I just loved the sprawl and brawl style and was TRULY happy when he finally won the Light Heavyweight Championship. If and when a casual fan asks me who is a fight they would enjoy watching I say without a doubt it has to be The Iceman. He is an exciting fighter, has a great personality and a great exciting style.

 

[The Rob]

Forrest Griffin.

Truthfully I'm not a die-hard fan of MMA or the UFC, but I do have more than a passing interest in the sport and the UFC. I attended UFC 120 last year and it was honestly one of the best nights of my life. But anyway, off track, Forrest Griffin is the reason I became a fan. His fight with Shogun Rua was outstanding, and I was excited and gripped by it, all the way to the submission come the end. I had little to no knowledge of MMA at the time but Forrest's performance got me very interested. Plus I had heard a little about Shogun going into the fight and briefly knew that he was one of the finest fighters around. So to see this nobody (from my perspective anyway) beat this well established fighter was huge. Having said that, having got interested in the UFC, I watched a lot of Forrest's earlier fights, and of course the fight with Stephen Bonar on the finale of TUF 1 simply solidified me as a fan. What an absolute war, and I recently re-watched that fight and it still amazes me. The guts and desire from both guys was the off the charts.

 

[jmt225]

The first time I saw the UFC was at a friend's house. We all went to the video store and while I was wanting to rent a couple of old Wrestlemanias, they wanted to check out the UFC... so we did. This was circa 1997 or 1998. Anyways, that day we all became big fans of Tank Abbott, however I myself didn't convert to a hardcore fan of MMA until a few years later, when I decided to buy UFC 40... Ken Shamrock's comeback fight against Tito Ortiz. I ordered the event, and that night I became a huge fan of the sport. So, I guess you can credit Ken Shamrock for me ordering the show since I was a fan of his based off his time in the WWF, but the fact is Tito Ortiz became my favorite fighter that night and he was the main reason I wanted to remain a fan of the sport. After that I sought out his old fights, and my fandom for him only increased. All his fights were exciting, he at this time was undoubtedly the best fighter in the sport, and he had a great/bad ass personality on top of that.

So, yeah.. Tito Ortiz is my answer. I'm still a fan of his today (though not as much as I used to be), just because of the admiration I felt for him when I was younger and also because he deserves the credit for making me become a big fan of MMA

 

[The Best]

It wasn't really one fighter, it was really just this fight. I remember just watching ESPN, and they showed the preview to this fight, and they had an interview with Chuck Liddell, and from that point on I've been hooked. This fight really started something great for me, and that is my love for this sport. I love mma, just everything about is just great, and without this fight, I wouldn't even know what mma stands for probably.

 

[Cookie]

I don't know if I'd be considered a "hardcore" fan (I haven't been one for that long, after all) but I do consider myself to be a pretty big fan. The person who got me into wanting to learn more and immerse myself in the sport is Wanderlei Silva. Around the time I started to become interested in MMA, a lot of people recommended to me that I watch a lot of his fights from Pride and slowly but surely I made my way through them. Obviously the real turning point for me was his trilogy with Rampage. It was just incredible to watch and it was probably the first series of fights I encountered that I could and wanted to watch over again. I was not only entertained but could totally understand the intimidation an opponent of The Axe Murderer faced - he was fucking nuts. I loved it. From there on out I was introduced to more and more exciting fighters along the way and then I started to learn more and more about those people too. It all took off from there.

I realize people may scoff at this but I'd also give credit to Chael Sonnen. The reason is that his build up to his fight with Anderson Silva got me so invested into that fight and I had never felt such investment in a fight as I did watching that one (until Edgar/Maynard II) because I was able to watch it all unfold and witness it as it was happening. As epic as some of the legendary fights are, I never got to see them at the actual moment they happened so being able to see Chael nearly defeat Silva after all of that epic trash talk (and before his fall from grace) was just amazing and heartbreaking all rolled into one. It made me realize how tense and unpredictable the sport could be. You really never know what's going to happen and anything is possible. It was a huge turning point for me as a fan for sure.

 

[Arkham Noir]

I'm not a huge MMA fan, but there is one man who I have followed for the past five years and really got me interested in watching. Some of you may have heard of him, his name is George St-Pierre.

My introduction to GSP was an article I was reading in my local paper several years ago. The article was about George and how he was a huge star in the world of MMA, yet was barely known in his hometown. I decided to look him up and was captivated by his fighting and his over-all demeanor. He was/is a very serious man who understood the importance of hard work and respecting his craft, yet still knows how to enjoy life when it isn't time to go to work. He wasn't looking to ride the UFC train to stardom and fame; he wanted to become a respected fighter who was known throughout the world as one of the best that ever lived.

Great fighter and my hometown boy. St-Pierre is why I started watching MMA.

 

[Wolf Pac]

Tito Ortiz. It wasn't just for the fights but also for the drama. He caused a lot of havoc in & outside the octagon, most notably with Ken Shamrock which remains my feud favourite MMA feud. Tito was badass, he was like the Stone Cold of UFC in his day.

 

[Tech N9ne]

I watched the first UFC on PPV and recorded it on VHS. So I watched the first event quite a bit. It was really crazy back in those days. Less rules and fighters were involved in multiple matches each event. Royce Gracie was touted as the best fighter. He proved when skilled enough, size truly makes no difference in who could win or who was even favored to win a match.

Ken Shamrock was quite often a foe of Gracie back then and had numerous close matches with Royce. I wasn't much of a Gracie fan but I respected how good he was. I basically went for whoever was the opponent of Gracie just hoping someone would beat him lol...

Overall I tuned in just because it was "real" fighting and combined numerous aspects of combat all in one fight. My first love for MMA was not because of anyone in general, it was because of my interest and love for the sport itself.

 

[Window Licker 101]

This is a weird one here. I was watching UFC 102 (the first event I ever watched live, I had heard news and rumblings of MMA & UFC) and the co-main event between Keith "The Mean of Dean" Jardine and Thiago Silva was just away to start. Instantly, Thiago Silva's radical tattoo's grabbed my attention. The dude looked like a freaking serial killer. I would not have wanted to be Keith Jardine (who looked like a meth cook.) One minute thirty five seconds after the bout had finished, Silva had viciously knocked Jardine unconscious and trash talked his downed opponent. On top of his savage knockout, Silva mean mugged the camerman and pulled off a "slit throat" taunt ala Chris Benoit in his WWE days. With his agressive style, I quickly youtubed all the footage I could of Silva and watched his destruction of Drwal and Alexander. Hooked on such an exciting fighting style, I watched over events for fighters with a similar style and BOOM I'm hooked on MMA

 

[Left4RKO]

For me it was Tito Ortiz,I loved his fights with Shamrock and The Iceman,but what got me into a full time MMA fan was Kenny Florian.I became a fan of Kenny when he was in the first season of TUF,his style of fighting is truly impressive.

 

[vthokie8]

I had been watching UFC on and off since UFC 3, and I was a big Don "The Predator" Frye fan, but watching Rampage in Pride really turned me into a hardcore fan. As an MMA and wrestling fan, he was the perfect medium for me and still is my favorite fighter win, lose or draw.

 

[RAUl Mf. L0wk0]

I wasn't really into other combat sports besides boxing and I was a big pro wrestling fan and I didn't know much about MMA. All i knew about it was Ken Shamrock was a UFC fighter at times. My uncle who was a hardcore fan since UFC began would always order MMA events and invite me to go, but i was never really interested in going. Until i went one day and I watched UFC 63: HUGHES VS. PENN II. I was instantly hooked on MMA and I would watch any MMA I could get a hold of. I caan think of many fighters that made me a hardcore fan, but one really stand out and thats BJ Penn.

Even though I'm always picking against this guy, he is the man. He's most definitely one of the Greatest of all time. He's fought as a Heavyweight, Welterweight, and Lightweight. And you know when Penn comes into a fight, its going to be an exciting war. He's fought the best from Machida to Hughes to GSP. He always brings it and I'm a big fan of his BJJ. Once he slaps on that RNC its all over.

 

[joegrizzly74]

For me it was all started by Michael Bisping. On The ultimate fighter the sh*t he talked and the fights he put on really go me interested. With that being said Randy couture is a real big reason too.