UFC: 20th Anniversary | What are your favourite memories?

[Cory]

So UFC turned 20 this month, I was looking at seeing what your guys top memories from over those twenty years were? A few of mine:

- Attending UFC 113 and not only getting to see Kimbo Slice fight, but that piece of shit Machida get KTFO by Shogun.

- The debuts of Cro Cop, Nick Diaz (2nd one), Kimbo Slice, Brock Lesnar, Alistar Overeem and Wanderlei Silva.

- TJ Grant knocking out Grey Maynard, Rashad KO over Chuck Liddell, Hendersons KO over Bisping, Gonzagas head-kick murder of Cro Cop to name a few.

- Amazing rivalries, Liddell/Couture, Liddell/Ortiz to an extent, and of course Sonnen/Anderson.

- AMAZING fights, Griffin/Bonnar, Henderson/Shogun, and Randy Couture beating Sylvia for the belt to name a few.

[Marq]

- The rise of the first mainstream crop of UFC fighters: Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva, Randy Couture, GSP, Rampage, etc.

- Dan Henderson completely obliterating Michael Bisping off the face of the planet.

- Women's MMA finally in the spotlight.

- Not just UFC fans, but MMA fans should understand just how amazing the Bonnar/Griffin TUF1 fight actually was, and what it meant for the whole sport.

And of course, this:

Tom Lawlor: Shock It To Me

[Cory]

^^

Haha, met Lawlor at 113 at a Oakley store, super funny dude, has the best weign-ins, heres the one from when I was there.

Tom Lawlor - Weigh in - UFC 113

[Flins.]

TUF 1 in general was pretty much what brought me into the sport, so that is definitely a real favourite memory for me. Can't watch the Griffin/Bonnar fight now, strange how appealing the slugfest was to me as uneducated MMA fan to what I prefer seeing in fights now.

Interesting to see both of you choose the knockout out of Bisping as one of your favourite moments. I'm hugely biased, but I've hated Henderson every since for the ridiculous follow up punch. Jeremy Stephens just had one recently, and honestly, lose all respect for fighters that do that shit. Bollocks to the heat of the moment, plenty of fighters out there that can control themselves.

But generally, I am just privileged to have seen guys rise up and dominate, like Anderson Silvas' title reign, Jon Jones, Cain Velasquez & JDS.

[Black Death]

mine are in the early days... the rise of Royce Gracie ... Ken Shamrock and Tank Abbot , Dan Severn , Pat Miltech  Frank Shamrock and Don Frye


Those one show Tournaments... Gracie submitting Severn  from his back. 

[J-Reb]

The match that hooked me was Oleg Taktarov vs. Dan Severn at Ultimate Ultimate 95.

Just brilliant all around.  Some of those early cards/tournaments are unbelievable to go back and watch.

[Leon Corbin]

I've played the games more than I've actually watched UFC, so I can't contribute too much, but will be using the things posted in this thread to expand my historical knowledge. Definitely hope to become a regular watcher as they head towards the next milestone, as UFC is one of those things that I keep meaning to get into, but always seem to miss when it's on.

[Jon]

I'll try and slim it down to 5 of my favorite memories in the UFC...

1. First season of the Ultimate Fighter as a whole. You had the Dana White "Do you wanna be a fucking fighter?" speech, you had Leben vs. Southworth/Koscheck, and of course the greatest fight of all time (IMO) and the so called fight that saved the UFC... Forrest Griffin vs. Stephen Bonner.

2. Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg II... "THE SLAM!". I remember watching that fight and I was such a big Matt Hughes fan and when I saw Trigg took advantage of a knee to the groin that Yamasaki didn't see, I thought Hughes was done for, especially when Trigg locked in the RNC. Then Hughes slipped out of it, picked Trigg up and ran across to the other side of the octagon and slammed him before ground and piunding him, leading to sinking in his RNC and making Trigg tap.

3. Henderson vs. Shogun at UFC 139. This match was a fricking war. It looked like either guys was going to win this match in a few different spots during the match, but they were bloodied up as the bell rang in the 5th and announced Henderson as the winner and rightfully so. If you have never seen a UFC fight before, I implore you to make this your first.

4. UFC 22: Frank Shamrock vs Tito Ortiz. It was for the then called Middleweight Championship, but it's no refereed to as the Light-Heavyweight Championship. It was the first under-200 lb belt. Frank was in his prime and Tito was a rising star in the business. Tito was pummeling Frank for 3 rounds as it looked like he was cruising to a upset victory... but Frank, who has world class cardio, tired Tito out. And in the 4th round won the fight via stoppage. It's really the fight that is remembered most in the early days of the UFC.

5. Bones vs Gustafsson at UFC 165. Are you kidding me with this fight? Being Swedish, I am a massive Gustafsson fan, but even I didn't think he had a shot in hell against Bones. This match was so brutal, that after the fight announced as Jones being the winner, the two were immediately taken to the hospital for evaluation. I cannot wait for this rematch.

HM: Sonnen and Spider. Even though the first four rounds were boring, it was exciting in the fact that Sonnen was dominating the P4P #1 fighter in the world at that time. Some would say he was embarrassing him. Then when it looked like Sonnen was going to piuck up the easy decision victory and become new Middleweight Champ, Silva caught him in a triangle choke for the win. One of the best finishes in any fight... ever.

[Ty]

Let's see

UFC 40 - It was the first event that I saw live. My friend's dad had a bunch of the old VHS of the early UFCs so I knew what it was about. I'd been boxing about a year at that point and was absolutely stoked to see Robbie Lawler (who was being hyped for his rock hands) compete. I still don't know how we saw it because it wasn't on PPV here but he had a way and we watched it. It was my mom's 40th birthday too. Lawler ko'd his opponent (who I know recognize as Tiki) and Liddell head kicked Babulu but the big thing that stood out was the undercard fight that was either shown or had highlights shown. There was this crazy guy with fangs and a beard and just this aura about him. I became a huge fan of Arlovski at that point.

UFC 47 - My friend's dad got this one too and I just remember Cabbage eating so many punches from Arlovski and still standing. Then of course Chuck knocking out Tito

UFC 49 - For my 15th birthday, I was able to watch this one. The Frank Mir/ Tim Syvia arm break was amazing. I knew I had to learn submissions at that point and learned that arm-bar from one of my wrestling coaches a few weeks later. Learned the kimura and gogoplata soon after and have been hooked on juijitsu since. I remember them super hyping Kimo and him being a big disappointment


UFC 51 - Arlovski heel hooked Sylvia. Coincidentally, a week later I learned my first leg submission from my grappling coach. Wait, that's not coincidental. When I started competitive jitz, I was known (by my teammates) for my leg contra

TUF Finale - People all seem to remember the brawl as the big moment but what forever made be into a UFC diehard was Diego's control and his nightmare aura and seeing a plain looking Rich Franklin who the announcers didn't give much hype knock of Shamrock. I was able to watch TUF from the first episode (i watched a lot of Spike and a lot of TV in general back then) and yeah, it was awesome.

David Loiseau's elbows against Tanner on one of the first fight nights. I thought he was going to be what Anderson Silva became so this was huge. To later train with and be invited to join camp of him when I was 19 was something that meant so much to me.

Evan Tanner's death. Yeah, that had a huge impact on me.

Sean Sherk at UFC 56 I think. Watching him fight GSP made me into a huge Sherk fan.

UFC Canada vs the USA - Big night for me as a fan bc Loiseau lost (boo) but GSP, coming off a big win over my new second favourite fighter at the time (Sherk) beat Penn decisively to give Canada a new mma hero.

TUF 4, the comeback season. I remember it being awesome because you knew each person on the show had a lot of talent. Great season but what happened afterwards shocked me. Not only did Serra knock out GSP, Lutter won the first round against Silva before gassing and getting ko'd (or choked out) in the second.

Oh, on that note. From season 2, when Rashad beat the giant Imes in the final for the heavyweight TUF contract. That was awesome.

Brock Lesnars debut and then his submission loss to Mir

UFC 100 as a whole and the H bomb to Bisbing

Chael Sonnen's domination of Silva

Weidman ko-ing Silva

The rise of Jon Jones and near fall at the hands of Gus

Those are just the ones off the top of my head

[Madman Szalinski]

Royce winning UFC 1.

Harold Howard's flip kick from UFC 3.

Keith Hackney beating Joe Son via punch to the nuts in UFC 4 (it was legal back then!)

Bas Rutten's UFC debut.

The Tito/Shamrock series.

Matt Hughes defeating Royce Gracie.

The TUF 1 Finale.

Kimbo vs. Shawn Alexander.

BROCK FUCKING LESNAR.

[Cory]

Kimbo vs. Shawn Alexander.

AWESOME.