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ESPN’s 30 for 30 premieres Free Podcast Episode ‘No Rules: The Birth of UFC’

ESPN’s 30 for 30 premieres Free Podcast Episode ‘No Rules: The Birth of UFC’

 

 

One of the best documentary series out there for lovers of sports in general is ESPN’s 30 for 30. However fans of grappling were long under-served when it comes to 30 for 30. One notable exception to this is the episode dedicated to John du Pont’s patronage of wrestling and ultimate downfall that resulted in death of Dave Schultz.

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However the podcast version has just released an episode dedicated to the inception of the UFC.

A Tuesday release of ESPN’s 30-for-30 podcast series tells the story of UFC 1 unlike it’s ever been told before. The episode features first-hand accounts of a last-minute rules meeting that nearly derailed the entire event, a staff member struggling to cope with the violence of the early bouts, and even a near-death experience.

ESPN spoke to producer Chris Berube, of Pineapple Street Media, about his experience working on the 30-for-30 project:

You managed to track down a lot of the people involved with UFC 1, including the fighters. How challenging was that?

Some guys were really easy. Some were really hard. I think some of them want to remind people of their place in the history of the UFC. For others, it’s painful they’re not involved anymore. Some of them have simply done a lot of different things over the last 25 years and they don’t really want to talk about something so far in their past.

One thing I found interesting is that, for the fighters, it’s still very present. Ken Shamrock can talk about this like it happened yesterday. He still vividly remembers the emotions of going through the first surprising loss of his career, to Royce Gracie.

 Did you get a sense if the fighters, besides Royce Gracie, ever wonder what would have happened if they’d won?

For sure. One question that kept coming up was what the UFC would have been like if Royce had lost. It’s impossible to answer that obviously, but I think most agree that Royce winning and setting up a rivalry with Ken Shamrock really helped the UFC.

For the UFC to set up an iconic rivalry right away, with two physically different guys with different attitudes — you know, a lot of people told me they thought the boxer was going to win. The biggest, hardest-hitting guy, that just sounded logical. And if that had happened, I don’t know what would have happened to the UFC. I don’t know what would have happened if a savate fighter from Holland had won. I don’t know what would have happened if the Gracie family hadn’t been able to prove the point they were trying to, about a smaller fighter beating a bigger fighter.

You can listen to the entire podcast here.

 

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