First-Person: What It's like to Watch a UFC Event Live

As a mixed martial arts journalist, I have had the pleasure of watching several UFC events live.

I grew up like most people a fan of team sports, but watching MMA events live, especially the UFC, is up there with the best events I've ever been to for sure as I've become a bigger and bigger fan of MMA, which is now among my favorite sports.

I have seen the following MMA and UFC events live: UFC 87 in Minneapolis, UFC 90 in Chicago (suburbs of Chicago that is), UFC 96 in Columbus, Ohio, WEC 47 in Columbus, and UFC 116 in Las Vegas.

Of these events, which were all amazing, UFC 116 was the best. The hype surrounding the Shane Carwin vs. Brock Lesnar title fight was amazing, and the epic Chris Leben vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama fight leading up to it made it even more incredible in terms of the build-up and buzz.

The opening to each UFC main card portion and the beginning of the pay-per-view is the best part whenever you watch a UFC event live, no matter where it happens to be held.

The song "Baby O'Riley" aka "Teenage Wasteland" by The Who serves as the backdrop for an amazing highlight video that gets the fans pumped just before cameras scour the crowd, which usually is pretty feisty by that point in time and eager to show off their drunken shadow-boxing to the cameras.

Knockouts are like goals in hockey or touchdowns in football only even more exciting and buzz-worthy, and the final round of a tense fight usually is a goosebump-worthy situation as well.

The tension when two fighters capable of scoring a quick knockout or submission tangle up is something that must be experienced to believe as well.

WEC 47 was perhaps my second-favorite event as it featured everything from a high-kick KO on the undercard to a title fight upset.

That brings me to my next point about watching a UFC or MMA event live: every fight is a big one when you're watching in person whether it's a meaningless matchup or a title fight. It's how the fight goes that determines the buzz created and whether or not a fan gets their money's worth.

Keep that in mind the next time you see a fight card filled with names that aren't necessarily of the household variety: styles make fights anf these UFC and WEC matchmakers know how to put the right two guys together on fight night.

There are many other aspects of watching a fight live that fans who've seen them are impressed by, but these just a few of the things that have stood out to me in my time as an observer.

Check back more for additional impressions of what it's like to watch a UFC event live.