Enlightenment Thread: What inspired you to begin mixed martial arts?

[KillahMurillah]

The topic is simple. I am just curious to know what type of situations or experiences you went through to begin mixed martial arts. I thought it would be an enlightening, entertaining post.

For me, it's a pretty funny story. It was my junior year of high school (Last year actually, I'm a senior). And some of my friends had just watched Fight Club with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. And I guess they were infatuated with the idea of kicking various people's tails in a closed environment. So they called up around 6 or 7 of out friends and we headed over to the local walking park.

We got together around a random light post in the park around 11 at night. And they just randomly picked pairs to go and beat the crap out of each other. I got paired up with a 190 lb, 6 foot guy who had no experience in any combat sport whatsoever.

Little did he know, I had 2 years of boxing and wrestled in my school all of my high school career. Needless to say, he got knocked out (barefist fight) but we kissed and made up afterwards. Figuratively.

But here's the big thing. There was a person I got paired up against who just watched the UFC most likely, and I was whooping on him, and then he did this crazy somersault and caught me in the face and landed in perfect armbar position and did it, I had to tap, haha. From then on, I realized how much mixed martial arts could do for me since I already had a background in combat sports. As that little fight club went on, I gradually learned bits and pieces of jiu jitsu, and dominated in that fight club thing, haha.

Eventually, I grew out of that phase, and began training legitimately at an academy in my city, and improved more and more and more. And got where I am now! It's a life-changing thing, mixed martial arts.

Your turn.

[Padilla]

Watching PRIDE reruns on Fox Sports Network. Cro Cop vs Silva II made me a fan and eventually a competitor.

[kyokushinjitsu]

I guess I'm old.

2 main reasons I got into martial arts : Enter the Dragon/The Karate Kid lol of course all that was followed by, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude van Damme films etc..Then UFC

[Varth]

I started Judo at school when I was 5. Everybody was doing it so I wanted to do it too. Went until I was 14-15 I think and had my purple belt then I quit. I liked grappling but took a kind of year off for other stuff. Was already interested in MMA for a long time and started watching it at Fedor vs. Nog I so I was already inclined to do some BJJ or MT.

Started Muay thai and BJJ at 16 each twice a week in a Ryan Gracie academy close to my house(even though I had a short fling at Alliance and Godoi). Still am 16 and am turning 17 in December.

It's nothing too interesting but I guess we can't all have crazy stories right?

[BufferByArmbar]

I got into it in my junior year of high school as well

I had a good friend that I'd known since freshman year. He told me that he was learning BJJ from a family friend. At the time I had no idea what JJ was. I thought it was gonna be some Wushu or Tai Chi shit, so I just shrugged it off

At the time my friends and I kept ourselves in shape. We went around looking for a gym to get a good workout in, and as we were walking out of EP fitness I noticed a sign that said "Jiu Jitsu." I told the friends I was with that "that's what Thomas practices" and we went to go check it out

Lo and behold, the instructor at that particular school was the EXACT same guy who had been training my friend Thomas for years, and invited us to come. We showed up the next day, got our asses handed to us and got thoroughly exhausted. After that we were hooked. We signed new contracts, invested in some new gis, and started training like madmen. It even got to a point where we'd train 6 days out of the week. Man, it was beautiful...

We got more and more comfortable with the grappling aspect of the game, and the gym began evolving into more of an MMA gym than strictly BJJ. I started training my stand up game about a year in.

Unfortunately the instructor who persuaded us to begin training in the first place died from unexpected causes about 2 years into my training. (James Butler, RIP) Another instructor left to start his own gym, and from that point on the gym hasn't been the same.

I was still enrolled with that particular gym (El Paso Jiu Jitsu) when I decided to cut the umbilical cord and move up to Albuquerque. Been at Jackson's gym since January of 08

Man... that really stirred up some good memories

[KillahMurillah]

Haha, I'm sure we'll all look back on our early MMA days and reminisce about how many times we got our ass handed to us...and how much ass we kicked later on.

[BufferByArmbar]

I remember my first day of class well

I had just put on my fresh gi and it felt like it was made out of cardboard. Extremely stiff and scratchy.

We went through stretches, tumbling drills, and then they taught us a forearm choke. That's it. Just a forearm choke. Afterwards we had to roll with blue belts. It wasn't pretty

Every muscle in my body was exhausted from trying to muscle out of everything

[KillahMurillah]

You had to roll with blue belts the first day of training? That's hardcore, haha.
I don't really remember my first day of training.

I've had many a first day of training. For boxing, for wrestling, for judo, jiu jitsu, muay thai, etc.

I do remember muay thai's first training day though.
I think my shins were shattered.

[dr.feelgood]

Backyard "UFCing" started me off too unfortunately lol. Joined an MMA class, barely lasted through the warm up and got armbarred in 30 seconds sparring. Been training as much as possible for over a year now.

[KillahMurillah]

Haha, backyard UFC-ing. Sounds goofy.
Fight Clubbing. That's more like it.