Author: Jake Martin

Take it from a lifelong sports fan: MMA is the easiest sport to get obsessed about.

I love football, baseball and basketball as much as the next guy, but my love for those sports grew from a lifetime of watching them on television. My love for MMA grew above and beyond those sports—with the exception of football—in less than a decade.

The sport’s easier to understand because everyone gets fighting. Its electrifying knockouts and smooth submissions on the ground draw the fans in, and then they start to appreciate everything that sets up those knockouts and submissions. At least that’s what happened in my case.

And once you’re hooked, there’s no turning back. It’s almost a lifestyle change, and you find yourself doing things you thought you’d never do.

Such things can be seen in this slideshow, as these are 25 ways you know you’re obsessed with the sport.

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The UFC has created one memory after another for MMA fans over the years, and a lot of credit is due to UFC matchmaker Joe Silva.

Silva is simply brilliant. Scouting the world for talent, he always seems to make the right fights at the right times. Styles make fights, and Silva always seems to match-up two compelling styles to give fans a show they won’t soon forget.

Whether it’s matching-up two elite strikers, two legends, two ground specialists or just an all around compelling fight, Silva has delivered time and time again.

This is his best handy work over the years.

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Greatness is defined by championships and gold in every sport, but rather than being remembered for belts, UFC champions will be remembered for their wars.

Every champion in the UFC has had their fair share of exciting bouts, and it’s in those bouts they created their legacy.

Even fighters as great as Anderson Silva and Jon Jones have been tested by dangerous contenders, and they’ve been in dog fights.

From spectacular performances to the gritty battles that test a fighter’s skill and will, these are every current UFC champion’s greatest fights.

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The word potential is defined as having or showing the capacity to develop into something in the future.

This definition describes numerous fighters in MMA. Both young and old, several fighters have shown glimpses of greatness, but they have yet to full reach the pinnacle of their athleticism and skill set.

These are the top fighters in MMA who we have yet to seen the best of.

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The UFC saved their major blockbusters for the summer.

With the biggest rematch in UFC history taking place on quite possibly the most stacked card in the history of the company on July 7, the fans are in for quite a spectacle.

UFC 148 is headlined by the rematch of Chael Sonnen and Anderson Silva, followed by rubber matches between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber and Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz.

Though the summer doesn’t officially begin until June 20, the summer action begins on May 26 for this article’s purposes. What better way to kick off the summer other than the heavyweight championship?

With that in mind, these are the fights that fans will be drooling over this summer.

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