Joe Rogan describes the iconic fight watched by 8 million people that “SAVED” Mixed Martial Arts
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Rogan talks about TUF 1 Finale
Joe Rogan was right cageside when Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin delivered a fight that boosted the UFC straight out of its dark ages. Years later, Joe reminisces about the importance of that fight to the UFC and MMA as a whole.
Both Forrest and Stephan were fighters in the inaugural season of TUF. The show was among the many desperate attempts the UFC made in it’s early days to help jump the sport from irrelevance to being must-see TV.
Up till the fateful fight between Bonnar and Griffin, the event was seemingly over in a blink with 5 first-round finishes in the prelims alone. Even the main card at the second bracket of TUF Finalists, Deigo Sanchez and Kenny Florian ended their hunt for supremacy in an instant when Sanchez too gained a first-round finish.
Joe Rogan claims 8 Million people watched TUF 1 Finale
It was here that Bonnar and Griffin were expected to put on a show for the fans though many just considered them to be fillers on the way to the main event between Ken Shamrock and Rich Franklin. However, the two would go out there on a mission and on their own help bump the UFC out of near bankruptcy.
As the fight began the two engaged in back and forth action with none showing signs of quitting. Lazer focused on earning that seven figure contract, both men threw and walked through the best they had to offer.
Rogan would later describe the atmosphere the fight was building up saying, “People were calling up their friends and were dude you gotta watch this, there’s this crazy fight going on, these two White guys are beating the fuck out of each other.”
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Rogan would claim that an estimate states that the fight was watched by around 8 million people in real time. “It was unfathomable, that was the birth of modern MMA, that was the fight that put it on the map, ” said Rogan about the importance of that bout.
In fact, season two of the show was greenlit by spike, infamously in the parking lot right after the fight. It would have been a tough act to follow for any and Rich Franklin’s first-round KO of Shamrock was nowhere close to stealing the shine from Bonnar and Griffin that night
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Jerin Mathew
(713 Articles Published)