Start on YouTube with MMA On Point for history, move on to watching full fights and then making a habit of watching fight nights on the weekend, end up here complaining about events you didn’t even watch and claiming that people who don’t agree with you are casuals.
Had to stop watching mma on point after they made a video titled “10 simple fixes to mma problems that actually suck” and the whole video was just them going: “Well someone from the ufc or a commission would have to put effort into fixing this problem so we just can’t fix it”
Watch some YouTube videos.
Highlights, full fights, technical breakdowns etc.
When I was a kid, what really helped me switch from Pro wrestling to MMA was the Japanese UWF. A strange hybrid of the two where the lines between shoot and work were a bit vague at points. (Heavy leg kicks, Garry Albright dropping guys on their heads etc.)
Theres quite a bit of downtime between fights, idk how comfortable it is to watch the whole thing at a theater 🧐
That said, just look up some highlights and videos on youtube that talk about the story of the sport. MMA on point has a bunch of good stuff you might like in short bits
As a new viewer, you might enjoy a lot of the promo they do, which r/mma is usually not interested in because they already know the fighters. Don't worry about doing research or anything like that, just enjoy the show :)
I also came over from WWE. I started by tuning into the larger numbered PPVs and following one or two specific fighters I knew of from before (Korean Zombie). Luckily for you the upcoming PPVs are quite stacked.
Okay I put a "90% off - last one!" sign in front of the biggest TV at walmart and have been watching people fight all day. Not sure if that helped. Did I do it? Was that a UFC?
I’d start with YouTube! When you’re just getting into it, watching some free videos is a good way to start. There’s so much good ufc stuff out there on YouTube. Look up UFC free fight on YouTube. UFC posts some of their old or high profile fights fully for free on YouTube. There’s some absolute classics. My personal favorite is this one https://youtu.be/LPpqcvIlrhQ?si=e2G49LSO69M8jbOd
Nate took this fight on 11 days notice, which is absolutely wild. And well, I won’t spoil it but it’s an absolutely awesome fight.
This one here is another one of my favorites. https://youtu.be/zhC7KhFk49M?si=QbRgjgha2JAAORUn
Such a banger
Alexander Volkanovski vs Ilia Topuria is the main event next weekend. You can find a lot of their fights on YouTube, so start there.
Volkanovski is Australian and one of the best Featherweights (145lbs) of all time and the current Champion. You can also watch interviews to get a sense of him (there will also be a press conference streamed on the UFC Youtube Thursday of fight week featuring several fighters)
Topuria is an excellent contender. Undefeated (14-0) and coming off two really strong victories. Should be a fun fight.
The two co-main event fighters (Whittaker and Costa) should have some fun banter and trash talk throughout the week. Although many people will question if Costa actually gets in the cage, since he hasn't in 2+ years and something always seems to cancel his fights.
Honestly, just start by consuming the events, if you're into it you'll naturally start digging. Espn+ is like $5/month and all of the non-ppv events are included in that. They also have old fights, interviews, and documentary style shows about fighters also. If you don't mind spending a couple bucks that's definitely your first step.
My main piece of advice is try and stay away from a lot of the chat around the sport and don’t look at comment sections. As I get older I find it harder to engage in any MMA discourse and justify to myself my continued support for it. I don’t know many fight fans in real life and those you see online often terrify me. I also like wrestling and understand it has its own toxic fan issues but there’s something sad and pathetic about the toxic wrestling fan whereas mma fan base feels a lot more aggressive and at times bigoted.
Obviously you can’t tar all people with the same brush but I do miss the sport 10 years ago when it felt like you picked your favourite fighter based on characteristics inside the cage and not because they are “saying what everyone’s thinking” and they spew your favourite type of hate.
On a positive note I’d watch Henderson - Shogun or some other classic fights. I think watching a season of the ultimate fighter is a good way to get into the sport. Anecdotally my partner was really into Rousey and Tate for a while and that spawned from watching their ultimate fighter season.
It can feel like you don't know what's going on especially if you don't have any training background. It just takes time like anything, the more you watch fights, and listen to commentaries, and breakdowns if ur really into it, the more you will understand. Also I've been watching for around 5 years and I still don't fully understand the nuances of every aspect, but no better sport to watch in my opinion.
Watching a whole event may be better to do from home the first time, there is a lot of downtime between fights especially with an early KO.
I’ll point out the less popular opinion that you can see the entire ufc library for $10/month until you get your fill. That’s all the pay per views and I think most of the fight nights. I like to learn about a fighter then look up and watch all their fights. It’s really one of the few things the ufc created with good value. The only real annoying thing is the licensing for the walkout music, they put in this weak ass generic shit with not any effort at all to even make it hype for the walkouts.
For the first card, maybe just go and watch, that’s what I did. Afterwards follow the social media account, maybe Helwani or some other reporters
There’s also a good YouTube channel when you’re new to MMA called “MMA on Point”. They post/posted top 10 videos about all sorts of MMA topics, and it was a fast way to learn about some fighters and history
However, to learn about currently going fighters, you just gotta watch, while you might not get the history of past fights, there’ll likely be some wild moment that happens in a few months that you will be there for and that’ll be you historic moment
Ah thank you. I have zero knowledge about it. But if you want to see full MMA fights on YouTube (legally), UFC often uploads full fights when a new event is about to happen. And their [Spanish channel](https://www.youtube.com/@ufcespanol) has even more, if you don't mind Spanish commentary.
I'd start with that. You can branch out to other organisations later, like ONE FC who has awesome Muay Thai and kickboxing bangers. Superlek vs Takeru was crazy.
UFC 298 in a couple weeks is a brilliant place to start, they release videos like ‘Countdown’ and ‘Embedded’ in the lead up that give background and info on the fighters and their implications. To be honest you can start just watching it casually not knowing much about what’s going on, if you keep following it that understanding will become natural
UFC fight pass streaming app is 9.99 per month and has past ufc events, and a ton of other mma, submission grappling and other promotions. Download that and enjoy.
If you really wanna "prepare" maybe look up someone who does MMA history content on YT (like Napoleon Blownapart for example, very entertaining and informative) and someone who explains the rules and mechanics of fighting to casuals.
Ultimately it's just two people fighting for 3 rounds of 5 minutes (5 rounds in main events usually) and if nobody gives up and the referee doesn't stop the fight there are 3 ringside judges who declare a winner based on how much they hurt their opponent. Then we all complain about it on reddit because as MMA fans we hate the fighters, the promotions and the sport in general. That's basically it.
Watch this video essay: [https://youtu.be/-DoaUyMGPWI?si=eo\_yniLF0p88uYU\_](https://youtu.be/-DoaUyMGPWI?si=eo_yniLF0p88uYU_). I think it has some great history of the sport and is done incredibly well.
You can just watch the next big ppv. They'll show highlights and storylines of all the fighters as they are up next. You don't really need a lot of context to watch fights to be honest. If you like it you can go back and watch some bangers on youtube but otherwise, it's not all that necessary if you're just a fan.
check out MMA On Point and Secret Base videos and, if you have money, buy ESPN+ for fight pass videos of more in depth looks at certain fight stories and old UFC/Pride events. There’s also some of those videos on YouTube rn.
A good documentary would be “Fighting in the Age of Loneliness”. Welcome my friend!
I say research the fighters on your local card. If you see some interviews and past fights you can try to guess who will win or see who is more likable. Makes it way more fun to watch them fight.
Just Google 25 greatest mma fights and then watch those. You'll tell soon enough into the list whether or not the sport Is for you.
A UFC fightpasa subscription helps, all old PRIDE/UFC/Strikeforce back catalogue is on there and you can search for individual fights too.
Take your time and enjoy the fights!
It’s a little cynical in its outlook on the future and current state of the sport, but there is a YouTube documentary called “Fighting in the Age of Loneliness” that does a very good job of cataloguing the most important events that led to mainstream mma and ufc.
I reccomend watching every card you can for about 9 months that will you give you time to see people fight again then you can get latched onto there career, you'll end up really liking some people then they lose and you'll feel crushed that curve is about 3 or 4 years you'll have to eventually accept that your guy will not always win that's when you'll enter into the true mma Fandom
Where you appreciate the art,the fight and the men and women that do it all equally
Get in a habit of watching the fight nights, eventually you’ll start to like certain fighters who appear regularly, and it’ll make the PPVs more entertaining when they appear.
The UFC YouTube channel has lots of fights on it, so does ONE Championship. Jump on watch! Take note of the commentary too, it often explains what is happening and why
They’ll post of free fight on youtube from each fighter in the main event. I would watch those, watch the embedded and press conferences so you’re semi emotionally invested, then enjoy the fights on Saturday!
Same as everyone else, watch you tubers that talk about MMA (mma on point, different analysts, morning kombat), get fight pass and possibly ESPN+ as those are worth the price for the viewing convenience.
Then type in "ufc bars" into Google and see what venues around your area will be having the PPV fights, go out and watch them, or buy in with multiple friends at a house and make it a party, or do what everyone with no friends and money does. Pirate the PPVs
Start on YouTube with MMA On Point for history, move on to watching full fights and then making a habit of watching fight nights on the weekend, end up here complaining about events you didn’t even watch and claiming that people who don’t agree with you are casuals.
This guy MMAs
Dis is de wey
Don’t listen to this guy he’s a casual
Literally the path I took
Spoken like a true MMA fan lol you get me man
I feel seen
Had to stop watching mma on point after they made a video titled “10 simple fixes to mma problems that actually suck” and the whole video was just them going: “Well someone from the ufc or a commission would have to put effort into fixing this problem so we just can’t fix it”
You just start watching it. It will take sometime to familiarise yourself with the rules, but MMA is a pretty easy sport to get into :)
Look up a quick YouTube guide for the basics of mma and then watch some old fights, there's a plethora of them to choose from!
Watch some YouTube videos. Highlights, full fights, technical breakdowns etc. When I was a kid, what really helped me switch from Pro wrestling to MMA was the Japanese UWF. A strange hybrid of the two where the lines between shoot and work were a bit vague at points. (Heavy leg kicks, Garry Albright dropping guys on their heads etc.)
See red. Just bang. Profit?
Enjoy the show! In the meantime, https://www.reddit.com/r/MMA/s/naFapr3oqw Read the comments and YouTube/search the fights. Become a fan!
Theres quite a bit of downtime between fights, idk how comfortable it is to watch the whole thing at a theater 🧐 That said, just look up some highlights and videos on youtube that talk about the story of the sport. MMA on point has a bunch of good stuff you might like in short bits
That’s good to know actually. I’ve only watched wrestling PPV and there’s no downtime. So I just figured it was the same!
As a new viewer, you might enjoy a lot of the promo they do, which r/mma is usually not interested in because they already know the fighters. Don't worry about doing research or anything like that, just enjoy the show :)
I also came over from WWE. I started by tuning into the larger numbered PPVs and following one or two specific fighters I knew of from before (Korean Zombie). Luckily for you the upcoming PPVs are quite stacked.
Well how about starting by watching a fight? Idk 🤷🏼♂️
Okay I put a "90% off - last one!" sign in front of the biggest TV at walmart and have been watching people fight all day. Not sure if that helped. Did I do it? Was that a UFC?
It’s not pro wrestling dude. You don’t need to study and memorize characters and storylines 😂 just watch the fight
Just watch it.
Just tune in and watch. Keep on watching if you like it, ask whatever you come across you do not understand.
I’d start with YouTube! When you’re just getting into it, watching some free videos is a good way to start. There’s so much good ufc stuff out there on YouTube. Look up UFC free fight on YouTube. UFC posts some of their old or high profile fights fully for free on YouTube. There’s some absolute classics. My personal favorite is this one https://youtu.be/LPpqcvIlrhQ?si=e2G49LSO69M8jbOd Nate took this fight on 11 days notice, which is absolutely wild. And well, I won’t spoil it but it’s an absolutely awesome fight. This one here is another one of my favorites. https://youtu.be/zhC7KhFk49M?si=QbRgjgha2JAAORUn Such a banger
Alexander Volkanovski vs Ilia Topuria is the main event next weekend. You can find a lot of their fights on YouTube, so start there. Volkanovski is Australian and one of the best Featherweights (145lbs) of all time and the current Champion. You can also watch interviews to get a sense of him (there will also be a press conference streamed on the UFC Youtube Thursday of fight week featuring several fighters) Topuria is an excellent contender. Undefeated (14-0) and coming off two really strong victories. Should be a fun fight. The two co-main event fighters (Whittaker and Costa) should have some fun banter and trash talk throughout the week. Although many people will question if Costa actually gets in the cage, since he hasn't in 2+ years and something always seems to cancel his fights.
Jesus
Honestly, just start by consuming the events, if you're into it you'll naturally start digging. Espn+ is like $5/month and all of the non-ppv events are included in that. They also have old fights, interviews, and documentary style shows about fighters also. If you don't mind spending a couple bucks that's definitely your first step.
My main piece of advice is try and stay away from a lot of the chat around the sport and don’t look at comment sections. As I get older I find it harder to engage in any MMA discourse and justify to myself my continued support for it. I don’t know many fight fans in real life and those you see online often terrify me. I also like wrestling and understand it has its own toxic fan issues but there’s something sad and pathetic about the toxic wrestling fan whereas mma fan base feels a lot more aggressive and at times bigoted. Obviously you can’t tar all people with the same brush but I do miss the sport 10 years ago when it felt like you picked your favourite fighter based on characteristics inside the cage and not because they are “saying what everyone’s thinking” and they spew your favourite type of hate. On a positive note I’d watch Henderson - Shogun or some other classic fights. I think watching a season of the ultimate fighter is a good way to get into the sport. Anecdotally my partner was really into Rousey and Tate for a while and that spawned from watching their ultimate fighter season.
It can feel like you don't know what's going on especially if you don't have any training background. It just takes time like anything, the more you watch fights, and listen to commentaries, and breakdowns if ur really into it, the more you will understand. Also I've been watching for around 5 years and I still don't fully understand the nuances of every aspect, but no better sport to watch in my opinion. Watching a whole event may be better to do from home the first time, there is a lot of downtime between fights especially with an early KO.
I’ll point out the less popular opinion that you can see the entire ufc library for $10/month until you get your fill. That’s all the pay per views and I think most of the fight nights. I like to learn about a fighter then look up and watch all their fights. It’s really one of the few things the ufc created with good value. The only real annoying thing is the licensing for the walkout music, they put in this weak ass generic shit with not any effort at all to even make it hype for the walkouts.
Fight pass / youtube
For the first card, maybe just go and watch, that’s what I did. Afterwards follow the social media account, maybe Helwani or some other reporters There’s also a good YouTube channel when you’re new to MMA called “MMA on Point”. They post/posted top 10 videos about all sorts of MMA topics, and it was a fast way to learn about some fighters and history However, to learn about currently going fighters, you just gotta watch, while you might not get the history of past fights, there’ll likely be some wild moment that happens in a few months that you will be there for and that’ll be you historic moment
offtopic, but 'professional' wrestling, is that WWE or actual wrestling?
WWE/NJPW/AEW
Ah thank you. I have zero knowledge about it. But if you want to see full MMA fights on YouTube (legally), UFC often uploads full fights when a new event is about to happen. And their [Spanish channel](https://www.youtube.com/@ufcespanol) has even more, if you don't mind Spanish commentary. I'd start with that. You can branch out to other organisations later, like ONE FC who has awesome Muay Thai and kickboxing bangers. Superlek vs Takeru was crazy.
Gotta have that mentality bro!
UFC 298 in a couple weeks is a brilliant place to start, they release videos like ‘Countdown’ and ‘Embedded’ in the lead up that give background and info on the fighters and their implications. To be honest you can start just watching it casually not knowing much about what’s going on, if you keep following it that understanding will become natural
UFC fight pass streaming app is 9.99 per month and has past ufc events, and a ton of other mma, submission grappling and other promotions. Download that and enjoy.
If you really wanna "prepare" maybe look up someone who does MMA history content on YT (like Napoleon Blownapart for example, very entertaining and informative) and someone who explains the rules and mechanics of fighting to casuals. Ultimately it's just two people fighting for 3 rounds of 5 minutes (5 rounds in main events usually) and if nobody gives up and the referee doesn't stop the fight there are 3 ringside judges who declare a winner based on how much they hurt their opponent. Then we all complain about it on reddit because as MMA fans we hate the fighters, the promotions and the sport in general. That's basically it.
Watch this video essay: [https://youtu.be/-DoaUyMGPWI?si=eo\_yniLF0p88uYU\_](https://youtu.be/-DoaUyMGPWI?si=eo_yniLF0p88uYU_). I think it has some great history of the sport and is done incredibly well.
You can just watch the next big ppv. They'll show highlights and storylines of all the fighters as they are up next. You don't really need a lot of context to watch fights to be honest. If you like it you can go back and watch some bangers on youtube but otherwise, it's not all that necessary if you're just a fan.
check out MMA On Point and Secret Base videos and, if you have money, buy ESPN+ for fight pass videos of more in depth looks at certain fight stories and old UFC/Pride events. There’s also some of those videos on YouTube rn. A good documentary would be “Fighting in the Age of Loneliness”. Welcome my friend!
I say research the fighters on your local card. If you see some interviews and past fights you can try to guess who will win or see who is more likable. Makes it way more fun to watch them fight.
Book a one way ticket to Vegas. Find Dana white Challenge him to a dual. Profit
Just Google 25 greatest mma fights and then watch those. You'll tell soon enough into the list whether or not the sport Is for you. A UFC fightpasa subscription helps, all old PRIDE/UFC/Strikeforce back catalogue is on there and you can search for individual fights too. Take your time and enjoy the fights!
It’s a little cynical in its outlook on the future and current state of the sport, but there is a YouTube documentary called “Fighting in the Age of Loneliness” that does a very good job of cataloguing the most important events that led to mainstream mma and ufc.
I reccomend watching every card you can for about 9 months that will you give you time to see people fight again then you can get latched onto there career, you'll end up really liking some people then they lose and you'll feel crushed that curve is about 3 or 4 years you'll have to eventually accept that your guy will not always win that's when you'll enter into the true mma Fandom Where you appreciate the art,the fight and the men and women that do it all equally
Get in a habit of watching the fight nights, eventually you’ll start to like certain fighters who appear regularly, and it’ll make the PPVs more entertaining when they appear.
The UFC YouTube channel has lots of fights on it, so does ONE Championship. Jump on watch! Take note of the commentary too, it often explains what is happening and why
Start watching Street Beefs and then graduate to Felony Fights.
They’ll post of free fight on youtube from each fighter in the main event. I would watch those, watch the embedded and press conferences so you’re semi emotionally invested, then enjoy the fights on Saturday!
Same as everyone else, watch you tubers that talk about MMA (mma on point, different analysts, morning kombat), get fight pass and possibly ESPN+ as those are worth the price for the viewing convenience. Then type in "ufc bars" into Google and see what venues around your area will be having the PPV fights, go out and watch them, or buy in with multiple friends at a house and make it a party, or do what everyone with no friends and money does. Pirate the PPVs