For all the guys in the know...

[Kenfucius]

I'm asking, but this might be a good topic for other people as well in the same boat as me.

See, I've never really watched much MMA at all, I had three UFC DVDs a long time back (if I recall, they were consecutive shows, and Couture main evented two, the first against Liddell, then against Ortiz on one of the other two I had) that I borrowed from a friend, and I watched those, pretty cool.

Kinda lost track of it all after that, never really thought about it.

Reading some of the topics on this board got me interested again, but being a few years down the line, I'm out of the loop. Obviously, I can tell just from reading the stuff on here who's hot and who's not, but at the same time, I don't have access to live events being aired on TV or any such thing.

So, what I'm asking, for the new fan who might not know exactly what to look for, what do the guys who know what they're talking about recommend as a good starting point? Shows you can pick up on DVD, fights of note that'll appear on them, that type of thing.

Any suggestions?

[JohnS.]

Blockbuster has all kinda of UFC PPVs for rent. You can find fights on the internet. And MMA forums are also a good way to get in tune with what is going on.

[TaNK]

I would get

The Smashing Machine (Story of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr) - Not a fight card, but an excellent movie and documentary. A movie about Kerr's person self destruction, It talks about the negatives and the inside world of the sport. It a definite must buy or rent. One of my favorite movies.

PRIDE Final Conflict 2005 - It has what might have been the most hyped and anticipated Heavyweight fight in the sprt thus far. Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, and the finals of the Middleweight Grand Prix were very stellar with Shogun being a force.

UFC's 1 thru 5 - Mainly because of Royce Gracies domination and influence on the sport of MMA in general.

UFC The Ultimate Fighter Season 1 - It was a generally great season but mainly I am picking this because of the Griffin vs. Bonnart and it brought MMA into the mainstream.

The Early PRIDE volumes - It has a bunch of greats that people should know about like Kazushi Sakuraba, The Gracie Family, Mark Kerr, Wanderlei Silva etc.. etc.. Several great fights overall.

I hope people post more for you.

[Cory]

Ill second Pride Final Conflict 2005. My favourite event of all time.

Check out too:

UFC 79 "Silva v/s Liddell"

Any of the ultimate fighters. They're always entertaining, and give you some background on a good handfull of UFC fighters now. (early seasons)

[AudiblyOffensive]

Also pick up UFC's Best of 2007. It's got a dozen great fights, including:

GSP/Serra
Liddell/Jackson
Liddell/Silva
Edgar/Tyson Griffin
Shogun/Forrest Griffin

[Duckman]

Do you guys know if Pride is available anywhere on Region 2 DVD?  I've been on Amazon.co.uk and can only find Region 1 DVDs for the Pride events.

Peace

Duckman

[Big Gay Honker]

Just go to MMALINKER.COM you assholes

[Khristian Call]

It depends what you want to follow.  If just UFC, obviously the first few where Gracie fought to get a feel but they start getting crap after I think the 5th one so you might get bored if you watch too many of those.  UFC 12 is good to catch a first glimpse of the then Phenom, Vitor Belfort beating the crap out of bigger guys, UFC 19 is a good card, and UFC 25 Ultimate Japan 3 I liked, mainly because you can see Tito Ortiz running like a girl away from Wanderlei Silva.  Ultimate Fighter Season 1 Finale for the Griffin/Bonnar fight and pretty much anything after that.

If you want to start getting into MMA as a whole, I would say try and find some IVC fights for sheer brutality, Shooto for awesome technical fights, PRIDE, especially the two middleweight Grand Prix's, PRIDE Shockwave 05 was a great card which pretty much displays all types of fights so there's something for everyone.  Pancrase, especially Bas Rutten fights, and from a talent stand point, the first few Pancrase cards are better than the UFC cards as most of those fighters seem to know what they're doing.  Abu Dhabi Combat Club events if you want to see some straight grappling, some K-1 if you want to see kickboxing, also K-1 MMA events the past few years have been pretty decent, especially lightweights with JZ Calvancanti, Uno making a comeback, Shaolin Ribeiro, Dida Amade, etc.  They have their freak show matches (Johnnie Morton fighting...) but their serious matches are pretty good.  Cage Rage has some good fights, a lot of tough guys in that promotion.  WEC also has had some very good fights, as has the DREAM lightweight tourney.

Some great fights to find from the past few years:

UFC:
-Bonnar/Griffin 1
-Scott Smith/Pete Sell
-Chuck Liddell/Wanderlei Silva
-Diego Sanchez/Karo Parisyan
-BJ Penn/Georges St. Pierre
-Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira/Tim Sylvia
-Tyson Griffin/Clay Guida
-Roger Huerta/Clay Guida
-Matt Hughes/Frank Trigg (their second fight)
-Chris Lytle/Robbie Lawler

REST OF MMA World:

-Cyborg Santos/Melvin Manhoef
-Eddie Alvarez/Joachim Hansen
-Eddie Alvarez/Tatsuya Kawajiri
-Miguel Torres/Yoshiro Maeda
-Carlos Condit/Hiromitsu Miura
-Takanori Gomi/Tatsuya Kawajiri
-Wanderlei Silva/Hidehiko Yoshida
-Quinton Jackson/Ricardo Arona
-Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira/Josh Barnett
-Luiz Azeredo/Takanori Gomi (first fight)
-Hiroyuki Takaya/Antonio Carvalho

And last but certainly not least, Caol Uno vs. Rumina Sato

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP44mg1YW0E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XSZ1uGchvg&feature=related

In my opinion, the best MMA match ever.

[MitchMMA]

I'd quote all of the above for truthness, they all gave awesome answers before I could give an answer lol.

Definintely check out any of the Ultimate Fighter seasons on DVD. By watching those you will become more familiar with some of the top guys in the UFC today like Forrest Griffin, Michael Bisping, Josh Koscheck, Matt Serra, Diego Sanchez, Kenny Florian, etc.

MMA is such an amazing sport and there are so many options for the new fan, soooo many awesome fights from the past for you to check out. Awesome MMA fights happen all the time so once you become more familiar with it and start watching it on a regular basis, you will become hooked on it like the rest of us lol.

[Cory]

Also, check out Fedor Emelianenko v/s Tim Sylvia, to see what all the hype is about in half a minute.

[Khristian Call]

And after that, watch Fedor vs Kevin Randleman to understand just why Fedor is indeed a cyborg from the future that cannot be harmed.

[TaNK]

Agreed. I think I put that in one of my gifs in the mma fun thread.