I have never even seen a full fight. I've always been interested but never pursued it but I am now. I guess my question is what should I do to start following it?
Hmm do you have any buddies that already watch MMA or want to get into it also? if you do, this saturday night, round them up and order UFC 121. Brock Lesnar vs Cain should be a good match and the card is pretty good overall. Another good way to get into MMA is through "the ultimate fighter" reality show on Spike. You get to know some of the fighters so it gives you some people to cheer for and makes the matches more interesting in that way. You could probably torrent the earlier seasons or jump into the current season.
Look online for some fights... Forrest Griffin/Stephan Bonnar I, Liddell/Couture I, II, III, Liddell/Silva, Henderson/Bisping, Rampage/Liddell. Google top 50 UFC fights. Mmajunkie.com, MMAmania.org, some other websites. Come drop by here. speeds is like an MMA guru.
If you go to theultimatefighter.com you can watch every episode of that series from the start. Season one is as good an introduction as you could get to MMA as millions of current UFC fans got their start there rather than back in the mid-90s when the PPVs began. Also most classic non-UFC fights are available on YouTube. Many of them are from Japan but the commentary isn't so important anyway. I'll post some to get you started.
Here are a few classic fights to get you started: Royce Gracie vs. Kazushi Sakuraba (legendary grappler vs. legendary grappler, one of the most important fights in MMA history) [video=youtube;uzhtFm6InFY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzhtFm6InFY[/video][video=youtube;nQ89E6z5Mlg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ89E6z5Mlg&feature=related[/video]
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mirko Cro Cop (best fighter of all time vs. one of the top heavyweights in his prime) [video=youtube;LlgWiHKxOlM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlgWiHKxOlM[/video] [video=youtube;bxNJI4Qd8uc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxNJI4Qd8uc[/video] [video=youtube;-d2vonZft98]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d2vonZft98[/video]
Thank you very much, I'll watch those tonight. Also, I'm kind of confused about what the leagues are. Not everything is UFC right? Is UFC considered the "best" or something? Sorry if these are stupid questions, I'm completely new to the sport.
The UFC is the big boys of the sport. The WEC is amazing, as well. They are also owned by Zuffa (they own UFC). Strikeforce, DREAM, Bellator, are some other organizations, as well. B rate.
Alright, thanks. What are the weight classes? EDIT: I looked up what they are. But I'm still wondering if there are like the top weight classes that are the most popular?
Heavyweight-206-265 Light heavyweight-186-205 Middleweight-171-185 Welterweight-156-170 Lightweight-146-155 Those are the main weight classes for the UFC, The other main weight classes which are contested outside of the UFC would be Featherweight, with a 145lb limit and bantamweight which has a limit of 135lbs. you would find these classes mainly in the WEC and these lower weight limits usually have the more fast paced, exciting fights. For really exciting featherweight (145) fight try to track down Chan Sung Jung aka the korean zombie vs Leonard Garcia.
Evangalista Cyborg Santos vs. Melvin Manhoef (one of the biggest brawls in MMA history) [video=youtube;Om3sZo9KIxI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om3sZo9KIxI[/video]
I liked MMA the first time I saw it. It requires tremendous conditioning to do what they do just for 3 three minute rounds! UFC title fights are longer than that! These fighters are truly talented!
