Well, some of my friends are guys I used to train with before I made the permanent switch to boxing. So obviously they like it. Amongst my other friends from high school and college, a decent amount of them like it, but in general they only know UFC (and to a lesser extent, WEC) which I suppose you can't blame them for. My best friend likes to watch it but doesn't really know that many fighters or the techniques.
A lot of the guys I train with (in boxing) are anti-MMA.
Most of them don't, not that they hate it, simply as they haven't been exposed to it enough and taken the time to learn the styles and rule set.
I've got one friend is a hardcore as well, though on the lower level he doesn't remember much about PRIDE at all.
That being said his family is awesome. Him, his parents and two brothers all take turns rotating who buys each UFC and they all have 60" HD TVs and I get invited for free, so I only need one friend who likes MMA hahaha.
I have two friends which are hard core MMA fans and 4 or 5 that are the casual MMA fan...or UFC fans.
a couple of years ago, me and my Dad were watching these PPV by our selves. now, there is a good group of us who get together for MMA PPV parties. it's great.
I started following MMA again at about the time of the Hughes/Newton double-KO I think, when I really got back into it. I had watched UFC events previously as a kid, from the first one up until the horrible Dan Severn/Ken Shamrock "superfight" (that was anything but a super fight).
I was brought back into the fold by 2 good buddies, that are both the hardest of hardcore fans. The sophisticated type, that really appreciate good jiu-jitsu groundgame. And they both trained when they were kids. Not the guys with sleeveless shirts and tribal tattoos that love seeing Brett Rogers knock people out. I assume you'll understand what I mean... seems like there's 2 distinct camps of fans. Anyway, since these guys got me watching again, I've had more than a few friends starting to get interested in it, some of them girls (and it seems like it's not just because of the little shorts either, haha). It seems to really have a broad appeal (literally? Pun not intended).
A group of my closest friends from the university days have always been morally opposed to the sport, and kind of horrified by the spectactle of it. I'm really bringing them around though it seems, explaining the level of respect among athletes, the amazing technical abilities, etc. It's tough though, for them to see through the marketing. With the heavy metal music and an offensive and crass Dana White sailing the ship, it's tough for people in the mainstream to really recognize it as an athletic competition.
My wife actually got me into it when we first got together - we're both hardcore fans, she is even on SherDog more often than I am. Everytime there is a UFC Card, or when there was a good Affliction Card, we have a party that includes me, my wife, my sister in law, her boyfriend (another hardcore MMA fan), and sometimes my brother in law and his fiancee. We get a bunch of beers, start doing some shots, criticize the fights (he trained in Ninjitsu for years, and I train in BJJ), and have a great ol' time.
My boss is also really into MMA (she happens to be a good friend as well), and a few other friends at work are into it as well.
My 5 favourite fighters :
1) GSP
2) Andrei Arlovski
3) Forrest Griffin
4) Clay Guida
5) Krzysztof Soszynski
Honorable Mentions :
- Dustin Hazelett
- Mark Bocek
- Roger Huerta
- Shinya Aoki
- Melvin Manhoef
- Cheick Kongo
Last edited by TribalPhoenix: 08-12-2009 at 09:47 PM.
A few of my friends are what got me into it. I never really followed in combat type sports until I started watching UFC, now I like all types of martial arts and even boxing. Not all my friends like it, but even most of them will casually watch when there's a major PPV event.
Everyones friends like MMA. It's the latest trend. Everyone wears affliction/tapout/what have you, everyone gets together for UFC night, etc. The only people who probably don't like it would be females(some, not all), and the elderly(again, some, not all).
It's pretty big with guys in the military. Hell, I even know several guys out on this coast who compete a little. I'm a relatively casual fan, compared to a good deal of my friends. And I feel like I follow the sport pretty well.
All of my friends are about 2 years older than me, and married. So with this said, they look at MMA like "grow up". I look at them and tell them to grow a pair.
I'd have to say I'm the only one who's really into it, and actually goes to the fights, so no, my friends don't like it. Casual, yes. They all know Liddell, Silva, Rua, Faber, Brown, Lesnar, & Mir, but when you start talking about Aldo, Melendez, Buchholz etc, they just say "I don't watch it all that much".
As a matter of fact I tried to get some people together to go to Youngstown, OH for WEC 43, and they were like "it's too expensive". Tickets go down to a minimum of $25, lol.
Everyone is new to MMA at one time, but c'mon.
