Nostalgia thread/Remember when?

[Lord Garth]

Remember when TapOut, Affliction and Extreme Couture didn't exist and you didn't have all these goons in TapOut shirts who never trained a day in their life walking around?

I also remember when nobody had ever heard of MMA so i knew I could easily take anyone around with supreme ease because I had trained wrestling and JJ in the late 1990s

[Scorcho]

I also remember when nobody had ever heard of MMA so i knew I could easily take anyone around with supreme ease because I had trained wrestling and JJ in the late 1990s

The dudes in the bath houses were caught totally off guard.

[mattydeathmetal]

lets take a time machine back 15 years.

now think of the day when events would be "watered down", too mainstream and happening far too often for me to get interested.

as in the present.

fuk all of you.

i'll watch every mixed martial arts fight and love it until my dying breathe.

[Verbal Kint]

lets take a time machine back 15 years.

now think of the day when events would be "watered down", too mainstream and happening far too often for me to get interested.

as in the present.

fuk all of you.

i'll watch every mixed martial arts fight and love it until my dying breathe.

i admire your love for mma.

however, paying customers reserve the right to expect the best product possible.

[mattydeathmetal]

the thought of paying customers makes me chuckle.

[Toehold]

lets take a time machine back 15 years.

now think of the day when events would be "watered down", too mainstream and happening far too often for me to get interested.

as in the present.

fuk all of you.

i'll watch every mixed martial arts fight and love it until my dying breathe.

I didn't personally interpret this thread as bashing MMA in it's current state, especially since I'm going to guess that XXXValeTudo is still a pretty big fan from his threads/posts.

I am in agreement that MMA is overall the best it has ever been, but as a growing sport it has different problems, just like it had different problems in 2002 from those it had in 1995, the problems it has are just different, but overall, with every passing year MMA has overall progressed FOR THE MOST PART (I still want to see up kicks brought back for example).

I just saw this as a nostalgia thread for complaining about certain things we jaded early MMA fans enjoyed that have perhaps changed for the worse (more annoying fans comes with more fans...but is worth the trade off, people didn't claim to know what they were talking about when MMA came up all the time...but the trade off is that they know what it is now, etc)....

I'll always love MMA...but that doesn't mean there is not room for constructive criticism and the sport does need to be kept in check in certain ways (I am not saying WE can do it) because there are ways it could "progress" in a direction that is not altogether great.

There are certain things that can be learned from both failures and successes of the past.

It's got more growing to do, and there's nothing wrong with reminiscing about the old days, because in a way, things were more "pure", despite being an overall far worse product overall, IMO of course.

[BJPENNSTATE]

Favorite moments in mma:

Watching Royce submit steroid fukers left and right in the first UFC tourneys.

Rampage KO'ing chuck part 2 and the white fans boo'ing him.

BJ penn rnc Hughes and becoming the 2 belt champ.

Fedor on his crazy winning streak, choking out Timmy in a minute.

Cain KOing Brock and ending his hype machine.

Those were the days....mma these days have made me lack interest in it...maybe because it's too commercial and over saturated with pure athletes and less passion and warrior spirit from the fighters and more game planning and point fighting.

[xxxVALETUDOxxx]

^^Love those moments, a few of them, I was there live for.

BJ didn't get his 2nd belt until he beat Joe Daddy though. Beating Hughes was when he stepped up out of nowhere and won. Same night Mir cracked Timmays arm if I'm not mistaken. I don't think there was even a LW belt at the time though, Yves was the "peoples champ"

[Hunter]

How could I forget Shockwave?

[Lord Garth]

MMA is overall the best it has ever been

In terms of the average skillset I agree completely. As far as providing entertainment? I don't know. For me PRIDE era was the best. UFC PPV on a saturday night and PRIDE on Sunday for the cherry on top once every couple months was for me an entertainment highlight and a social event. UFC fights at my house were like Super bowl parties with everyone over having a great time, then the next night PRIDE would only draw 6 or 7 of us hardcores. PRIDE tournaments, can feedings, stomps, roids, protected champs, freakshow fights, all added to the whole thing.
PRIDE era ....sigh