HOW did you get into watching MMA?

explain how you got into watching MMA,i got into watching MMA by watching a fedor fight i forgot which one it was,i was so impressed by fedor.How did you get into watching MMA?

* Edited at 11.24.2011, 4:02 AM ET *

When I was like 7-10 my Dad and step-mom would rent the old UFC's with Royce, Tank, Gerdeau, etc and Don Frye was my dad's favorite so I always loved him too. So I watched them when I was a young kid, my 1 VIVID memory was when Tuia or whatever got his tooth kicked out by Gerdeau...******* tremendous.

Then I really got back into it around the first TUF and started watching religiously pretty much since Chuck/Rampage in UFC.

Rented the first UFC from a corner store when I was a kid sometime in the mid 90s, couldn't get enough. A couple years later found out my uncle had a bunch of pancrase tapes. I grew up with a family of boxing fans though so, I always liked to watch fights and it was cool to discover other types of fighting.

MOAR!

I started watching at UFC 1. I was 14 years old at the time, then I got my friends to order UFC 2 and the Pat Smith vs Scott Morris got him hooked, then we pretty much watched everything after that. We even watched a couple early Pancrase events. Pancrase wasn't as appealing with the padded boots and not being allowed to hit with a closed fist and the rope escape rule. 

although i had seen a lot of tuf 1 and was fascinated, i didn't have any cable at the time. The first event i saw from top to bottom was the one that diego and joe daddy headlined. I was visiting my friend in Boston, and he knew more about it than me at the time because he had cable. I remember i predicted dan hardy would win, and I was so excited when he did. I developed a huge hetero crush on Diego that night. I bought tuf one on dvd and have seen just about every ufc event since, one way or another. I have also bought a lot of ufc dvds in that time also.

Oh and you want to know the really cool thing about that trip to Boston? I hooked up with his little sister while i was there. She was legal. (is that tmi?)

* Edited at 11.24.2011, 2:38 PM ET *

I had a buddy who was much more into it than I was. I never really watched any of it, but I was always interested in combat sports. One day he told me to watch some PRIDE events he had on tape, and I did, and I loved it. First one I saw might have been PRIDE 10, but I don't remember. That event was so sick, I wouldn't be surprised if that was it. So I got more and more into it, and always mooched off him to watch the PRIDE events and UFC events. And now I'm a huge fan and I buy just about every card. 

I'm probably one of the newer MMA fans here.  But I started watching MMA last year when I heard that a local guy from Fresno, Josh Koscheck ;) , was going to be fighting for the title.  So I started watching TUF 12 and ended up ordering UFC 124 on PPV to watch him fight.  Even though he lost he's still my favorite fighter to this day and opened up AKA Fresno, which I now train at.  So if it weren't for Kos I probably still wouldn't even know what MMA is :P
So for all you people who will see me arguing passionately in support of Koscheck, just know that he is my hero!!!
Oh and ever since UFC 124 I havn't missed a single UFC event.

i thought kos was from buffalo

He's from Pensylvania but he's lived in Fresno for a while now.

i guess he just went to college at UB? <<<<look i did, just for you

I also just realized that what i said about my friend's sister sounds really bad. There's more to it, but no one said anything anyways so whatever

* Edited at 11.24.2011, 3:10 PM ET *

I was probably one of a million that started watching after watching the first season of TUF.  I was only a casual fan until my home NHL team started to suck.  After watching UFC 102 I was hooked and have only missed one live UFC event since.  Was stuck camping and was offering people in the trailer park $60 to order UFC 118 on their satellite, was a no go.

My first exposure to MMA was with my dad renting old school UFC videos from Blockbuster when I was a kid; I always liked Tank Abbott.  From then on I was vaguely aware of UFC/MMA (TUF ads during WWE RAW, Pride on FSN, UFC Unleashed) but was never really a fan until I had moved out with some friends in early 2009.  With no internet where I was living, I watched a lot of TV and would catch WEC Wrekcage damn near every afternoon - the WEC really made me a fan!  I liked Brian Stann, Urijah Faber, Jose Aldo, Rob McCullough, Jamie Varner, and Donald Cerrone a lot.  This was around the time of UFC 98 because I remember seeing Evans vs Machida ads every day.  Since then I've watched all the numbered UFC + Pride events and can't get enough MMA.

Id just randomly hear about UFC and Pride and K-1 but assumed it was all the same ****. One of my friends is a very casual fan and id hear him mention Couture. He aslos told me about liddell getting KOed by "a not so great fighter" (who turned out to be Rampage). Also knew the name tito ortiz. Also saw forrest griffin on a sports talk show host. I also watched the Tapout series and WEC WrekCage(which is basically like UFC Unleashed. When i was in basic training, we watched UFC 47(liddell vs ortiz 1). When I came home, I would watch clips of TUF 10. WHAT REALLY GOT ME INTO MMA was watching the countdown for UFC 108. It got me HOOKED.

TUF 3 is the first time I ever saw MMA.

i bel;ieve the first fight i saw had tank abott in it. he was just pounding the zhit out of someone in a cage and i thought this looks to be great entertainment. i still remember the original owner.

GSP was on a French-Canadian talk show. Everybody was blasting MMA, saying he was crazy to do that, it's too dangerous...

It was the first time I heard about the sport. After the interview I went on youtube and watched some of his fights. I discovered the UFC when GSP fought against Serra in Montréal.

* Edited at 11.25.2011, 3:42 PM ET *

I can't believe how new a lot of the fans are. I think almost everyone around here has at least known about mma since like 99/2000ish. 

Anothe thing that got me hooked was watching UFC 100 greatest fights. I got to learn about Rashad Evans, Rampage, Forrest. etc. also, my high scxhool track coach trained Frank Mir and I knew Mir as the dude that subbed Lesnar..,

I bet no one else watched mma from this promotion. The first mma I really watched was IFL. Since I watched IFL, I knew Rothwell, Palaszewski and Big Country as well as Horodecki.

i got into it like alot of fans...tuf 1...i cant lie though, i thought this was a cheap knockoff of the boxing show the contender and didnt watch the whole season..but i came back for the finale and fell in love with the sport!

@kallous ifl was ok...i remember watching it often, and thinking the team format was a mistake BUT made it interesting at the same time.