10 Crazy Facts About UFC 1

7. The Truly Abysmal Commentary

Not every UFC commentary team has been loved by every fight fan, yet it’s pretty unanimous that absolutely everybody who’s ever watched UFC 1 was left in cringed pain at the sounds of the UFC 1 commentary team.

On the call for that first UFC event were karate legend Bill Wallace, 5-time World Kickboxing Champion Kathy Long, and NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown.

To be fair, on paper you’d think this could work quite well. Wallace is there to anchor the show with his expertise, Long is there to chime in with her own insight, and Brown is the guy serving almost as a colour commentator to lighten the mood and come at MMA with fresh eyes.

The problem is, all three were goddam awful as they stumbled through dialogue, constantly sounded confused, and generally had little idea of who the fighters were and what they brought to the table. None of the trio were great – or anywhere even close to ‘okay’ – but Bill Wallace took things to a whole other level of horrendous as he was clearly way out of his comfort zone.

In the trio's defence, the UFC was completely new and just trying to find its feet. But still, it’s hard to revisit UFC 1 and not wince at what you hear.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.