With the sporting world at a standstill, resources like UFC Fight Pass are proving essential for MMA fans looking to get their fix during the coronavirus lockdown.
The UFC’s streaming platform’s colossal archive offers a huge range of events to sit back and enjoy. Love the old-school PRIDE shows? They’ve got those. Hankering for the days of the WEC? They’ve got the full archive. And, of course, there’s the entire UFC event archive.
It means you can build a watchlist packed with some of the best MMA you could ever wish to see, and more than enough to last you through the entire coronavirus lockdown.
But if you’re going to dive in, why not dive in with some of the most significant events in UFC history, with maybe a couple of hidden gems thrown in for good measure? Here’s a watchlist to get you started.
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1. UFC 1
You can’t really start a journey like this anywhere other than at the very beginning.
Put simply, the event is iconic. The school sports hall-like surrounds of the McNichols Sports Arena, Bill “Superfoot” Wallace calling the event the “Ultimate Fighting Challenge,” Teila Tuli’s flying tooth and Art Jimmerson’s one boxing glove will all live long in the memory.
But, of course, UFC 1 was all about one man and one discipline, as a scrawny young sibling of the famed Gracie family stepped into the octagon, beat three men in one night and opened the world’s eyes to the wizardry of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Sure, it was crude – the rules were virtually non-existent back then – but it was the start of what the UFC has grown into today. Such has been the evolution of the sport since then, watching the fuzzy UFC 1 footage now is the MMA equivalent of viewing cave drawings of how man first started using tools. But, crucially, it was both eye-catching and entertaining, and it serves as a handy reminder of just how far the sport has evolved since that day.
If you watch UFC 1, you’ll probably want to watch UFC 2, then 3. But we’ll leave that to your own UFC Fight Pass rabbit hole. Instead, we’re jumping forward.
Next up: The first BIG rivalry in UFC history.