MMARanks

What a wild ride. I happened to see UFC 3 live in 1994 and was hooked from the very first match, (Hackney/Yarborough).

Took to the internet, (which didn't even have pictures at that point), and found a chat group to talk shop with some early pioneers including Joe Silva who would go on to be the UFC matchmaker for a number of years.

Being the numbers geek that I am, started to form, then later publish rankings. At the start, it was collecting fight results from Blackbelt Magazine and ADCC News. Then struggling through the dark years, scouring the world for VHS tapes of UFC, Rings, Pancrase, Shooto, IVC, Extreme Fighting, SuperBrawl, and King of the Cage. LOL.

Was lucky enough to be in conversations with influential people and help propel the careers of many lesser-known fighters who would go on to do pretty well for themselves including Jonathan Goulet, Tomasz Drwal, Denis Kang, Tim Hague, and an unknown who would become UFC HW Champion, Tim Sylvia.

I even got to spend my 2nd honeymoon in Vegas, attending Tim Hague's UFC debut that I had a little to do with. :)

My interest started to fade when things got a little too "WWE" during the Brock Lesnar phase, but I am back with a vengeance and am loving how the UFC has stayed away from being political and focussed on being a little more sporting... at least trying to loosely adhere to a ranking system. haha