USA Today's Brief History of MMA

by Chris Nelson on May 29, 2008 11:26 AM EDT

Leading national McPaper USA Today has published a surprisingly thorough "MMA timeline" on their website. (Or at least as thorough as one could expect from USA Today.) Obvious inclusions such as John McCain's "human cockfighting" comment and the debut of The Ultimate Fighter aside, the uncredited piece managed to throw in a couple trivial gems worthy of a head scratch:

May 8, 1997: Fighter Tank Abbott, announcer Bruce Buffer and referee Big John McCarthy appear on Friends, with Abbott pounding would-be fighter Pete (Jon Favreau), then the boyfriend of Monica (Courteney Cox).

March 18, 2008: Black Entertainment Television debuts Iron Ring, a series featuring hip-hop stars and boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. as "team owners."

Someone please get that Friends clip on YouTube.

[Note by brentbrookhouse, 05/29/08 11:29 AM EDT ]

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.

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Apologies for editing your post my man. But thought I’d throw in the youtube clip for ya.

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

"The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls and looking like hard work." -- Thomas Edison

by Brent Brookhouse on May 29, 2008 11:31 AM EDT reply actions

No worries Brent, thanks for the link! I’ll file this under “careful what you wish for.”

by Chris Nelson on May 29, 2008 12:05 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah...

you should thank me. I had purged it from my mind until I had to go out and find it.

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

"The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls and looking like hard work." -- Thomas Edison

by Brent Brookhouse on May 29, 2008 12:09 PM EDT up reply actions

I’m surprised they didn’t include the older brother from Napoleon Dynamite saying he was training to be a cage fighter.

by Fujin on May 29, 2008 12:03 PM EDT reply actions

read an interview with Buffer before and he credited that show to getting him the announcer job.

http://www.mmastation.com

by mmastation on May 29, 2008 12:14 PM EDT reply actions

Thats not what I read. I read they were going to give the job to Michael Buffer (both brothers are huge MMA fans) but obligations with boxing led him to recommend Bruce instead.

by zeroword on May 29, 2008 10:52 PM EDT up reply actions