I don't have any myself. We're talking early/mid 1990s. The fights were not structure tournaments so most we're in house stuff due to the Gracie challenge at the time or matches we'd just arranged on our own. When the UFC started there were some not very well organize type matches that we'd have to drive to the Indian Reservation to compete in where we wouldn't get in trouble with the law. King Of the Cage grew out of that. I do wish I took more pics, especially when I first met Helio Gracie, and video taped events. To this day I still don't own a video camera.
I don't know why. I just never really imagine how big things would get. We were this obscure subculture just doing our thing solely for the love of it. There was no pay offs or hope for a pay off. Even when Jiu-Jitsu tournaments started popping up it was just for a cheap medal, not even a trophy, that nobody, other than yourself, cared about.
In the beginning it was easy. Nobody knew Jiu-Jitsu and practically every fight went by the script. Clinch, go to the ground (you didn't even do a legit take down you just both sort of fell to the ground while clinching), mount, some strikes until opponent turns to his back, then choke. We were supremely confident and never lost because we were doing something that nobody else was doing. By the time you were a one year blue-belt you could pretty much take on anybody. Things changed very fast after the UFC made it's debut. And because we were still doing bare knuckle no holds bar (the only rules being eye gouging, biting or hair pulling, which nobody would do anyway because we still consider it more of a sport than fight for survival on the street; though hitting in the nuts was fair game) things got ugly really quick -- even if you won. I was already in my mid thirties then and was really getting busted up. I don't have that kind of body like a Randy Couture or a Dan Severn has that can really take abuse and keep going. BTW, it should be noted that Severn, even at 52 is still fighting. In fact, since his UFC debut back in the early 1990s he has fought every year several times a year. Most of those years he's fighting every two months. That's one tough dude.