August 9th 2008

August 9th 2008.

This was a date in which I fell in love with a sport that I did not know existed.

I was coming home from a night out and turned on the TV to see what was on as I wasn't really tired.

I turned over to ESPN to find this Ultimate Fighting Championship on. I had never watched or heard of it before, however I see that Brock Lesnar was on it and as I used to watch him in WWE when I was little I thought I would see what this was about.

I fell in love with it instantly. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is the sport and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a promotion company that holds MMA bouts. The first fight that I watched was between Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta. The build up and Pre fight promo was really interesting, they both had good story lines, Florian was the runner up of the first Ultimate Fighter and Huerta was on a 16 fight win streak and had only lost once in 23 fights at the time. I was hooked instantly.

The Fighters have to learn all different disciplines of Martial Arts in order to become well rounded and a more complete fighter. From grappling  work such as Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling, Judo to Striking such as Boxing, Kickboxing, Muay-Thai etc.

I was only going to watch it because Brock Lesnar was on it, but once I watched some of the action I haven't stopped watching it to this day. I watched Brock Lesnar just demolish Heath Herring. He was a monster. So big and very quick for someone of his size. And in the main event this was the first time I watched Georges St-Pierre (GSP). He put on a masterful performance by dominating number one contender Jon Fitch who was also on a 16 fight win streak. GSP made it look easy.

You could say that the reason I am now a fan of the MMA is because of Brock Lesnar. Yes, he was the reason I kept the channel on, but it was down to the fighters and the skills and heart that they showed that night that captivated me and made me become and instant fan. I am quite sure that I am not the only one who got attracted to the UFC just because Brock Lesnar was involved. He certainly made me aware of the UFC and it was a great move for the UFC to sign such a huge well know Sportsman.

August 9th 2008, my first UFC.

UFC 87

Brad

My First Live UFC

21st February 2009,

This was the date in which I went to my first UFC event. UFC 95 Sanchez vs Stevenson.

Since first watching the sport in August 2008 I had been watching every event that was on tv and keeping up to date with all of the latest mma news.  When I found out that they were coming to London I had to get tickets to experience the event. I purchased myself and my dad tickets at £40 each which I didnt think was too bad.

Dana White the president of the UFC always says that every fan that goes to a live event will have an unbelieveable experience. So I was looking forward to the event very much.

On the card was Diego Sanchez, Joe Stevenson, Damien Maia, Dan Hardy, Nate Marquardt, Josh Koscheck, Junior Dos Santos and a very different Chael Sonnen. So the card did have a lot of good fighters.

Once arriving at the arena I purchased my programme and began walking to my seat. We got there early as wanted to watch all the fights and experience it as best as I could. Once at my seat I could understand what Dana meant. The octagon was all light up in the middle of the arena, screens around the arena showing all the pre fight talk, music playing, the lights. There was a real buzz about the event and I was excited for my first live event.

The fights lived up to my expectations, there was knockouts, submissions and some very good fights. One that sticks in my head is the Junior Dos Santos vs Stefan Struve. I remember the crowd going wild when JDS was throwing powerful bombs at Struve. You could feel the energy from the crowd. I can only imagine how the fighters must feel when the crowd are like that. Then all you see is a 7ft tall Stefan Struve fall to the ground and the referee calling it off. The crowd went nuts.

You could see how well trained and conditioned the athletes must be in order to go the full 15 minutes. Watching the fights gets you so pumped and buzzing. Especially when you see a knockout and the crowd goes wild.

Although we were sat right up in the upper tier, it was an unbelievable expereince and you could see the action good from anywhere. From being at this event it just made me want to go to many more events like it when they travel to England. Now that they have a good television deal with bt sport they should be travelling to the UK more often and hopefully I manage to go to many more events as it is an amazing experience.

21st February 2009, my first live ufc event.

Brad