WHEN/HOW DID YOU START WATCHING MMA?

I got into MMA in a very weird way, I was a HUGE pro wrestling fan and I'd listen to a combat sports radio show. The problem was that they'd talk 1h 40 min of MMA and then end the show with 20 minutes of wrestling talk. I was so into wrestling that'd I'd wait through the MMA talk to listen to the MMA talk and I did that for at least 2 years. When someone brought up UFC and GSP (he's huge here), I'd be talking about guys like Gegard Mousasi and Rousimar Palhares (they were the coolest names so they were the easiest to remember) and they'd assume I was a huge MMA fan. But then I'd tell them I've never watched an MMA fight before and they'd be like what the hell.

Eventually I watched some fights but I really started getting into it in the summer of 2010. What really launched me from fan to super fan was the GSP-Kos Ultimate Fighter season.

First MMA fight watched: GSP vs Matt Hughes I
First PPV fight watched (illegally): Shane Carwin vs Brock Lesnar
First full PPV watched: UFC 124
First epic shock: Watching Brock Lesnar look like a ***** against Cain Velasquez
First Live event: hasn't happened :/

I used to go over to my friends house and he would be watching it all the time. I didn't really like it at first but it kind of grew on me after seeing it every time I was there. Then one day I was there and a TUF 9 marathon came on and it ended with season 9 finale, I thought the Sanchez vs Guida fight was amazing. In my opinion it really showed everything MMA was all about.

I didn't really watch much MMA after that but I kept up with it, seeing who won and spent my time learning more about the fighters rather than watching. Then my friends dad took us out to the bar one night for dinner and it was UFC night and the event was UFC 117.
 
I never really liked Anderson at this point (Leites vs Anderson was the first fight I had watched online, and I was confused at what was happening as I didn't understand MMA much at this point, but it was a boring fight nonetheless.) and I thought this Chael Sonnen character looked like he was about ready to hurt this guy, and he did for 4 and a half rounds... Needless to say I went home that night a bitter man, with a new outlook on MMA and have not missed an event since (with the exception of Kampmann vs Sanchez).

Delicious copypasta from the last thread

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.

I was a big fan Van Damme movies like Lionheart and Bloodsport, so when I heard about UFC 1 I was all about it. Me and my buddy convinced his mom to let us order it and at the time it was the greatest thing I had ever seen.  I was into wrestling back then too so me and a lot of my buddies started a UFC/WWF club at our highschool and we would hang out and watch old UFC and MMA fights

I'm confussed about k1 shield's story. You are bitter? Is that because you still don't know about jiu-jitsu?

UFC 61- Ortiz vs Shamrock II- Went to a friends house and they had it on.  I have been watching it pretty consistently now for the past 7 years :)

mike tyson went to Jail and i needed someone to fill that void as all other boxers sucked at the time. my brother taped the first UFC and let me watch it when my mom wasn't home as i was to young (or so she thought) ken shamrock entered the otcogon in 1993 which filled that void good enough to get me hook me into watching every single ufc from the first one to the present.