Happy Birthday, ManMMA!

The Origin Story (or most of it...?)

The roots of ManMMA probably technically began when I was in about Grade 8 or 9. I was really into wrestling, and had old school Jakks Pacific WWF figures I would play with (yes I played with toys LONG after I should have "outgrown" them, bite me). But it was very elaborate, as had a ring, I built a custom arena out of thick cardboard, complete with announce table, camera station, etc. But the main thing I loved about this set up was I would also do match-making, and make these awesome storylines and dream matches with the WWF figures I had. Like this fantasy alternate-reality. (i.e. in this fantasy reality, my Owen Hart figure was one of my main heels, and was actually a long-reigning champion in my organization, and this was like, 1999, before he died in real life).

Anyways, I absolutely loved the match-making component, but obviously grew bored of playing with toys as high school progressed, then fell out of love with WWF.

Fast forward to sim sites.

I was absolutely loving the NHL Sim sites I was in. The ones we ran gave me an outlet for certain facets of my creativity that I had no other outlet for (Photoshop banners, signatures, etc). I had as much fun building and designing sites as I did actually participating in them.

Not long after that, my daughter was born. After several months, my partner was going crazy doing stay-at-home-with-baby things, and I had always had interest in trying stay-at-home-dad stuff with my kid. (Concurrently to that, the place I was working did some massive cutbacks and I got laid off, so the timing was acceptable to make the swap). What I did not plan for was how excruciatingly boring staying at home was with a 1 year old. So basically while doing things with her, or letting her do her own things or whatever, I started getting back into some old school UFC, starting a the beginning. At the same time, I started chatting with an old elementary school friend (Camp Cannon), who said he watches UFC and orders the PPVs monthly, and said I should go watch at his place each month. So I started doing that. That's when I became completely captivated with the idea of "old school legends I was watching at home vs. the new guys I was watching monthly".

I desperately wanted to mix sim sites and MMA fantasy fights together, but the only platform I had for simming was UFC Undisputed 2009. And it was grossly insufficient. After talking to Mike, he said he could play/watch some fights on CPU vs. CPU mode or something like that, and we sort of tried to make it happen, but there were WAY too many limitations to make it work. Not enough legends, too few fighters, no interest, etc. Called it a failure, stuck a pin in the idea, moved on with life.

A couple years later, I had moved, and again needed something to occupy my brain, as I was starting to have 11-12 hour days with my 3 year old. I desperately scoured the internet again looking for some sim program alternative, but this time I discovered UMS. (angelic music plays).

It took a lot of tinkering and playing around with to customize it as needed, it would definitely work.

I think when we started, we collected names from hockey sites of people who might be interested, did a draft, and just...went to it. No upgrades, no women, just basic 2012 stuff. Quickly the idea was stale, and upgrades, women, points, and all the other chaos was designed on the fly. Some worked, a lot needed MAJOR fine-tuning.

But in the end, over many many years, we have got to a place where many facets of this site are quite clean. We have our own problems, but I would say nothing compared to 11 years ago.

That's so cool, I remember first meeting Justin and Mike playing Star Wars Battlefront on PS4. We were matched up in the same match, and Justin took notice of my insane skill, and invited me to the voice chat in game. I had literally just got online at my dad's house, and was like who tf are these people? I joined, they were weird, but funny and interesting. They always started really thought provoking conversations that I wasn't used to being a 15 year old in high-school. (I lied to them and told them I was 16 cuz that's what 15 year olds do!) So I kept playing with them, cuz they were fun.

Months later, Justin saw me playing a UFC game, invited me to the site, and I fell in love with it and it became one of my major hobbies all throughout high-school and it still is. Not as big as it used to be, but I still love it.

I have a couple great memories from Era 1, but I'll just drop three of my favorites.

I remember wanting to have a champion for so long, and it took many irl months and in Site seasons for me to win one. Ironically I was also really badly wanting to win a GP. Well one year I was finally closing in on my GP goals, and I end up winning two belts at the same time at Zenith, Cain Velasquez and Conor McGregor ManMMA 360, and because of that I crippled my GP team and got destroyed lmao, and both guys lost the belts pretty quick I think too.

My second favorite memory was drafting Cody Garbrandt and turning him into an absolute monster. (He was no Spider tho, unfortunately.)

Third favorite memory is kind of an Easter Egg: "but God is a boy's name."

I remember when everybody made fun of Lauren Murphy when I first joined way back when and then I made her into a beast and she won and held titles

Mostly remember the tie me I got burned on trades. Lol J/K.

I'll think of something to share.

I remember that one time I won the gp.... oh wait... nevermind... I remember that time when we changed from Manama 1.0 to Manama 2.0... good times.

Indirectly I guess you’re right lol