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The Good Old Days

3K views 31 replies 24 participants last post by  tomjones 
#1 ·
ive been doing something that I recommend for yall, go back and watch some badass Randy, Chuck, Matt Hughes fights. To me, the golden age of MMA (so far) has been UFC 40-80. With Tito, Chuck, Randy, and the gang on top. And I've been asking myself "why was this era so special?" and I think Ive came to a tiny conclusion. The guys that were on top in those days, they weren't the greatest athletes. UFC didn't have Bud Light, they had Mickey's Fine Malt Liquor. The crowd was rowdy, but only half as rowdy as the fighters. Guys were on top that were born to fight. They wouldn't have been pros in any other sport, but they brought it in the cage. Im not saying guys don't do that now, but then was really spectacular. So if you're tired of talking Anderson Silva and don't have anything else to do today, go back and rewatch some magic. All the Chuck vs Randy vs Tito saga was amazing. Hughes vs Newton 1, Trigg 1 and 2 were great. And I cant remember what PPV it was, but when Randy came back and beat Tim Sylvia, wow I just rewatched that fight and it was amazing. From the very first punch, until the bell, exciting all over again.

So do yourselves a favor, whether you're a new fan or have been watching since Royce was choking fools out. Go back and watch the magic in those fights. If you don't know where to start, I suggest watching any of Chuck's title fights. Then the nostalgia will kick in and guide you the rest of the way. If you find any gems, please mention or link them here so we can all enjoy!
 
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#17 ·
They were part of the era, fighting in the same time period, but yes PRIDE was the ultimate.

Athletes will always get better with time (JJ/Weidman/E Silva/Rory, etc)... but that epic feeling you got watching PRIDE was undeniable!

Sellout crowds at the saitama super arena, open weight GPs, entrances that were a spectacle, not to mention the ring announcer :thumb01:

Events were spread out, you coordinated with good buddies over pizza/beer and bit your nails when Silva/Rampage, Fedor/Nog wars took place.

Damn, to reminisce is nice. Glad I still have the DVDs :thumbsup:
 
#5 ·
let me just clarify by "golden age" I didn't mean the best physical athletes, as currently we probably have the best athletes MMA has ever seen. but by golden age I was referring to the feeling you got when watching MMA. maybe it was because there were less events, but I love those old fights and how exciting they were.
 
#6 ·
yeah, I kinda have to agree with that.


Which is also why I loved Pride, I just loooove how over the top and epic the shows felt.
 
#7 ·
Yeah I miss some things about the good old days too but there are others I enjoy about the modern era as well. I do like how the arts have evolved a bit more, the action does look a whole lot more precise and deadly than some of the haymaker fests that used to be the rule back in the day.

I think if we just had another major org pop up in Japan like Pride, it'd all be fine again ... most of the things that piss me off about modern MMA tend to stem from the UFCs de-facto monopoly over it.

If the two orgs had cross promotional fights as well like the whole Chuck entering Pride GP thing, it'd be gold.
 
#9 ·
Speaking of awesome organisations that don't exist anymore... ****in' WEC! man, I used to love their shows. Possibly even more than the UFC shows at the time.
 
#11 ·
The "golden age of MMA" for most people will be whatever was going on the first 1-2 years they got into the sport.




Even though I've been into it for some time now, the dos Santos/Velasquez series will be the golden age for me. Whether it ends at trilogy or goes for 8 fights, I'll always remember it as being my favorite time for the sport.
 
#13 ·
The timing of this thread is good. Lost a HD not long ago and have been in a process of restocking the library. Just finally finished bt the Fedor 2000-2007 pack. Went for Babalu and Arona vs Fedor fight last night and got in about the first half of Pride Total Elimination 2005 from the PFC collection.

Kinda hard to define the Golden age though for me. Some ABC news 20/20 story in he early 90's about pit fighting(UFC) is what got my attention and led Me to blockbuster video to watch all the VHS tapes they had, good stuff, but the tapes stopped and access was hard in the mid to late 90's. Things really picked up around 99 and 2000 though. MMA was at it's best I though the first half of the 00's so I guess that might be my golden age.
 
#15 ·
The golden age was amazing especially the early part. I started following UFC properly after UFC 52. It was great thinking to yourself after an event if these guys could beat boxers and K1 fighters. It really made me open my eyes to grappling and realising how dominant the ground skills can be.

I think the golden age was amazing because we didnt fully look at a fighters skills but there fighting background. I remember TUF fighters coming in with kickboxing and Kyokushin black belts and thinking they were amazing for the UFC calibre. Even solely putting Parisyan as the next young prospect over GSP because of his national Judo championships.
 
#16 ·
Wow, this thread makes me feel old. But yeah I guess I would count Pride vs. UFC the golden age of MMA. Pride was on top and the UFC was trying to compete. Not to say the UFC sucked back then. Pride might have been the best but the UFC always did something interesting. Add TUF (which was watchable back then) into the mix you could see how extremely easy it was to get into MMA back then. After 6 years I guess that enthusiasm slowed down a bit.
 
#23 ·
I have to agree with the OP. Although I'd stretch the golden era from 2004-2009. Needs to involve Brock Lesnar. MMA really hit a peak, in the US at least, when Lesnar was on top.

I can see Khovs point too. The first 2 years of somebody watching the sport would probably be regarded as the golden years. Its very subjective.

I began watching UFC in the mid nineties, although I didn't start watching MMA properly until around 04. Chuck, Wandy, Cro Cop, Fedor, Rampage, Shogun, The Gracies, The Shamrocks, Sakuraba, Mark Hunt, BJ Penn. Man, those memories will last forever.
 
#24 ·
The "golden age" is always gonna be a subjective thing. But I think that time when you go from having a curiosity for the sport to becoming addicted is going to be your golden age.

I had the old school UFC video game on playstation with schemy schilt and dan severn. And I saw the vids on the internet of the big fat guy fighting the little skinny guy. And Mark Coleman getting ko'd with a kick to the face. But I never really cared that much since I was young.

A while back a co-worker who was a hardcore fan let me borrow some ufc dvds. I saw fighters like Cabbage and Tank Abbott. I was mesmerized by Nick Diaz knocking out Robbie Lawler. This is when I got addicted. I downloaded every UFC I hadn't seen and watched all of them lol. It was like a crash course on UFC history all in one weekend.

Then once TUF got started I was a fan for life. The rest is history. And even though I got there late that has to be my golden age for mma.
 
#25 ·
Tito, Chuck, Vitor, V. Silva, Hughes were big characters and also had big comericial appeal. Machida was billed as a big character aswell and so were other big names at the start of the new ufc era. But the ufc now is kind of flat now interms of having big name characters with comericial appeal, St Pierre has no Mohawk, Jon Jones has no bleach blonde hair and Anderson Silva doesn't have an axe.
 
#27 ·
If you ever read Ken Shamrocks lions den book, you'll believe the greatest era was all about Kens titanic battles, like laying ontop of Royce Gracie for half an hour doing nothing but holding and the great dance which helped shape an era in his second fight with Severn.
 
#28 ·
I personally think the change in MMA over the last few years has less to do with the fighters and more to do with the production. I believe we are given too much anymore. The "era" that the OP is referring to was special because at that time we were only getting a pay per view about once every 5 to 6 weeks. Hell, I remember then if there was only a four week gap we felt spoiled. At that point in time, everyone I knew, knew when every event was and at least who was headlining it if not the majority of the main card. These days however there is just so much coverage that the majoirty of "casual fans" don't even know who half the champions are or when the next event is. It used to be easy to get people out for a UFC party, people seem to care a lot less now.
 
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