Ive spent the last couple of days trying to catch up with the latest news in MMA. I just realized that I never had the chance to tell you all why I love it so much.
This is where it all began
My obsession starts at about 12 years old. It was nearing my fathers birthday, I didnt know him much (still dont, but thats a different story). I only knew that he liked kung fu movies, boxing, seeing people get knocked out and collecting what seemed like every VHS tape there ever was. While my siblings and I searched the movie store in a local mall for something he didnt already own we came across a tape of UFC 1. Not knowing exactly what it was, we picked it up and turned it around to read what it was about. My brothers jaw dropped, we both knew he had to have it. It had everything we thought he’d love. Which at that time was blood and watching people get knocked out. Smiling, we snatched it up and ran up to the counter with the money our mother had given us for his gift. When we got home we both fought the desire to open it up and watch it ourselves, we stared at it and speculated about what was on it all night. We even tried to figure out how we could open it up, watch it and remelt the plastic shrink wrap around it so no one would know we watched. Eventually we gave up and went to sleep. The next day was Saturday, and it was our fathers weekend to pick us up. When he pulled up to our driveway we darted out to his car yelling “dad look what we got you!”, he opened it up, looked at us, smiled and said “cool”. When we got in the car he asked us if we had ever seen it, we both said “no, do you know what ultimate fighting is?”, he looked at us in the rear view mirror and said “never heard of it, but we’ll get some food and watch it together”. When we got to his house, he told us we had to wait until the food was done to put the movie in. Never had ground beef taken so long to brown. After about an hour the food was finally done and the pop had been adequately chilled, it was time to put the movie in. Our father turned to us and said “put the movie in”, we laughed and informed him that we already put it in and paused it the minute we walked in the house.
Halfway through the video all the women had cleared the room, opting to watch music videos in the back. What was left was something I had always wanted; My father and I. We sat and watched the whole thing in one sitting, even rewinding parts and laughing together (One glove, Art? Really?!). After it was over, my father went to go do something else, but my brother and I decided to watch it again. This time I got to pay more attention to the actual fights instead of the coolness of the moment. I was amazed that a shrimpy brazilian could overtake these behemoths using something called “Brazilian Jiu Jitsu”. The camera work wasnt as good as it is today, I couldnt even tell what Royce was doing to them. In my eyes, it was magic. I must have watched that VHS tape 5 times that weekend. It was one of the best times of my life, I spent YEARS trying to recapture how happy I was that day. Though my father and I have failed and I’ve since given up on our relationship, I can look back on that weekend and imagine what things could be like if we kept trying.
On Tuesday we’ll pick up about 12 years later.
nothingelsemmatters 
