I’d like to introduce myself with a bit of the history of my love for MMA and combat sports. I was born into a family of sports fanatics with boxing and football topping the list. Back in the 1990s boxing was still the king of combat sports with names like “Iron” Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Oscar De La Hoya, Buster Douglas, the list goes on and on and on with huge names in the sport. While my folks generally ordered the pay-per-view of any major boxing match, which back then involved going to the cable office to rent a special PPV cable box for the event, it was a bootleg VHS in 1993 that really changed my life forever.
For the young folks reading a VHS is what we used to watch videos on before DVDs, Blu-rays, and widespread use of the Internet. So, one day in December of 1993 a relative brought over his bootleg tape of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC 1). UFC 1 was billed as no holds barred, and no rules, which turned out to only be mostly true. The fights ended by finish only, brutal. The inaugural event was a 16-man tournament with no weight classes and matchups were set with drastically contrasting styles, this was to showcase what combat style was the best. All of this may be old news to you, but at the time it was about the craziest thing we’d ever seen in combat sports in America.
Above is a photo of one of the most impactful fights of my life. Teila Tuli, the Hawaiian Sumo wrestler faced off with Dutch savant master Gerard Gordeau. In today’s MMA, this style of matchup would never be sanctioned, but back in the early 90s, it was the Wild West. This anything, but traditional match of Sumo versus Savate fight was quite the spectacle and it drew me in as a lifelong fan.
Teila Tuli would go on to get a few teeth kicked right out of his face in a satisfyingly barbaric finish. Don’t worry, though, he’s had a relatively successful acting career and has the remainder of his teeth left.
As for Gordeau, he would go on to lose in the final of that UFC 1 event to a legend of the sport Royce Gracie. So, you might say that without Gordeau and his remarkable first fight with Tuli, we potentially wouldn’t have modern-day BJJ heavy MMA.
Calf Kick Sports 