I'm glad I grew up in the age of Karate Kid movies, when having a black belt was enough to scare kids from beating me up in school. I remember how the first UFCs utterly demolished the movie-mythos of Kung fu/karate, as Royce Gracie and other grapplers made strikers look rather impotent. I kind of missed the early days of UFC, when things were much more no-holds-barred. There weren't rounds or time limits or weight classes (for the most part), which meant that Royce had to beat an opponent 80 pounds heavier for the championship (Dan Severin, but I swear I thought Gracie had to beat even heavier opponents [0]). The flip side was that watching 20 minutes of one guy sitting atop another was not very compelling, and probably unfeasible as pay per view TV.

[0] http://www.gracieacademy.com/news/gracie-breakdown-royce-gra...