When does the fight start?

It drives me crazy when people ask me ” When does the fight start? ” referring to the main event. This has been engrained in us for years because Boxing has put together super hyped match ups and filled the under card with what the public perceived to be meaningless and boring fights. A lot of times they were right, these weren’t fights the public wanted to see. There wasn’t top 10 ranked fighters sometimes on the main event, let alone the under card. Boxing got away with this for a while because they were the only game in town.

November 12Th 1993 was the beginning of a new era in combat sports. UFC 1 rolled into Denver Colorado and nobody knew what to expect. It was far more bloody than anything televised before and I was hooked. Many people saw it as another version of the tough man competition, but I didn’t. This was fighters representing different disciplines from around the world fighting against each other!

In the early days there was no gloves, no time limit, no weight classes and many thought no rules, although that wasn’t true. There was 3 rules: No biting, No Eye Gouging, No fish hooking. Hitting an opponent below the waist was perfectly acceptable as seen in UFC 4, Keith Hackney vs Joe Son. Kicking a downed opponent was legal as seen in UFC 1 Gerard Gordeau vs Teila Tuli.

As much as I love the early UFC days, todays fighter is a highly trained athlete. They are often dedicated full time professional fighters. The early days saw fighters train in one fighting style so it became known as Mixed Martial Arts. Fighters now train under many disciplines and are called Mixed Martial Artists.

MMA has grown so much since the early days adding more rules, gloves, rounds and weight classes. I think the most important thing that the UFC has done over the years however is given us exciting and relevant under cards. On every UFC card you can see top 10 fighters fighting against each other. Champions will never get a “Tomato Can” opponent to pad their record or get a break.

When you watch the UFC an under card fight can often win “Fight of the night” honors. Don’t ever ignore these fights! Over the next several months I will be covering the under cards and letting you know what fights to watch and why. I will do my best to introduce you to some of the fighters you may not know.

I’ve loved MMA since before it was called MMA. I’ve loved the UFC since day one. I’m proud of how far the UFC has come and how far MMA has grown around the world. The next 10 years I think it will grow to rival the major sports in the United States and in the world.

Stay tuned for more MMA articles.