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Thanks For All The Memories, UFC

UFC 48 - My brother and I arrived early to watch them set up. The place was empty, something you dont see these days and probably never will again. It's interesting to see how the addition of TUF has changed the landscape.

As we approach UFC 100, it makes me think of all the events I’ve personally seen.  How many is that exactly?  Every damn one of them, even during the dark years of McCain.  Only then we (my brother and I) had to go over to our friend Scott’s house because he had satellite and could still purchase them.  That’s when I was also introduced to Pride because he could get those on satellite too.  So I guess I should thank Senator McCain for introducing me to Pride.  But this is about the UFC and why I owe them some thanks.  This thanks isn’t really for all they’ve done for the sport, as that is a vast and incredible list.  This is a thanks for all the personal moments that were made possible because of the UFC.  The memorable times I continue to have with my friends to this day.

I was a young boxing fan in the 80’s, growing up loving the Sunday afternoon Kung-Fu flicks, WWF wrestling, and going to Tuesday night karate classes.  You can already see how the UFC would later fit into my life perfectly.  In the early to mid 90’s, we had Tyson parties.  Each time Mike Tyson would fight, we would watch it with all our friends.  Our house was known for it in circles all over the hood.  Then, my little brother one day told me about an advertisement he saw during a wrestling show and it was about a “no holds barred” event coming up.  It was the first UFC.  He couldn’t wait to see this thing and it sounded awesome to me.  And when it finally aired, we were hooked.  After that, we eagerly waited for each and every event (which were far and few between for many years).  The fight crowds at our house would grow with each event.  And now everyone comes to our house for events.  We are known as the place to watch UFC amongst friends, and friends of friends.  Really, the place to watch fight sports in general, since I get just about every event from boxing to K-1 to MMA.  But the UFC nights are the biggest and most fun by far.

Together with my family and friends, we’ve yelled and screamed in joy and sadness.  We’ve shared our favorite fighters wins and loses.  We’ve had heated arguments and even more memorable laughs.  It’s been incredible fun.  The beer, the food, the friends, the memories.  The nights where the room was divided by the main event and we dueled with drunken witty comments all evening leading up the the fight, to the other nights where we were all united, eagerly waiting to see Big Tim get badly beat down.  I really love our fight nights here at the house.  Thanks UFC.  I’m looking forward to the next 100 shows.