I am not going to tell you all that I was a huge fan of the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) from day one. My monthly fight fix back in November 1993 came in the way of watching Boxing, I lived in Sheffield, a city steeped in Boxing tradition, it was hard to go a couple of days without bumping into Johnny Nelson or Prince Naseem Hamed. I knew, loved and understood boxing.
The problem I could see with Boxing is it all becoming diluted, not to mention confessing as to who was the world champion, each organization claimed that there title was the one that stood above all others.
I was a big follower of Tommy Morrison (Pictured on the left) who at that time held the WBO belt, then there was Lennox Lewis, Riddick ‘Big Daddy’ Bowe & Evander ‘The Real Deal’ Holyfield, who all held the WBC, IBF, WBA belts respectively, and the pressure was on for one of them or someone to become the undisputed world heavyweight champion (Of course none of the four organization really wanted that for fear of losing control)
I remember someone saying that there was this no rules martial arts contest happening in America, but I kind of looked upon it as another form of fake T.V. Entertainment Wresting, the event came and went without anyone I know watching it, about ten days later it popped up in conversation at the gym and was treated with the yeah, yeah, yeah whatever comment.
So how long did it take me to catch on?
I think I finally chucked the towel in on Boxing after the world heavyweight unification fight between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield was declared a draw.
Hey I was there in Madison square garden, I went all the way the New York to see the fight, the next morning at breakfast I got talking to a couple of other fight fans, they asked me what I thought of last night and although there guys were true American through & through they also thought Lewis was the winner, after that the conversation moved on to a subject called UFC, or to be more precise UFC 19 that these guys had attended the weekend before.
My UFC education was about to start right here over pancakes a coffee.
Let’s fast forward things a little bit here, we brits may be a bit slow to catch on sometimes, but I was delighted to see the two guys from the UK (Ross Pearson & James Wilks) win the two divisions of the Team UK Vs Team USA in the Ultimate Fighter Finale yesterday.Next up is history is in the making at UFC 100 on July 11th; it is and has been sold out from the moment it was announced.
DONT MISS IT LIVE ON SHOWSPORTS 4
Georges St. Pierre vs Thiago Alves
Brock Lesnar vs Frank Mir
Micheal Bisping vs Dan Henderson
Dong Hyun Kim vs T.J Grant
Jon Fitch vs Paulo Thiago
Mac Danzig vs Jim Miller
Yoshiro Akiyama vs Alan Belcher
CB Dollaway vs Tom Lawler
Jon Jones vs Jake O’Brien
Danillo Villefort vs. Jesse Lennox
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs Alan Belcher
Mark Coleman vs Stephan Bonnar
Matt Grice vs Shannon Gugerty
MORE INFORMATION AT http://100.ufc.com/
