I certainly don't have the drive to participate, not really much of a spectator either, but, write large, boxing game of skill, not simply brute force. Strength and endurance are both critical to success, but being strong and stocky will not alone take you very high in the sport.
I don't care much for modern MMA. I did watch the early UFC bouts, when it was really more just an exposition, not quite an actual sport with rules towards balance.
I remember the first ever UFC bout, when they were trying to find "the best martial art" and they put a Sumo Wrestler against a kick boxer. The wrestler got kicked in the mouth and you could see his tooth fly across the ring. The Sumo wrestler was Taylor Wily, who, later, played Kamekona on Hawaii Five-O.
I will never forget the bout between Dan Severn and Joyce Gracie, in the third event that UFC promoted. Gracie, a jui-jitsu master (and winner of the two previous UFC events), Severn a Greco Roman wrestler. My word, was he big. A monster.
Severn just clobbered the first 2 rounds of the match. They didn't last 30 seconds. Just bonked them and they just dropped. Meanwhile, Gracies two bouts took much longer, and he was clearly winded when he had to face Severn. It seemed that Severn was going to beat Gracie as well, but that's not what happened. Gracie wrapped around him like a python, and after what seemed like 15 minutes, he finally got Severn in a lock that made him tap out. The key point here, though, was that Severn was on his feet, hunched over with Gracie hanging off of him, with his head resting against the fence of the ring. Gracie managed to get an arm. It was a crazy match.
Its also when they changed the rules to not let folks writhe on the ground for 15m. After that, they forced them to separate, and this style favored strikers over grapplers, and Gracie stopped participating.
But it was an interesting to watch evolve in those early days.
