Hi! I've had a general interest in martial arts since I was a teen, mainly sparked by my friends at the time and a series of fairly terrible and unintentionally hilarious martial arts movies (Jalil Merhi, Billy Blanks, Van Damme, Segal, Chuck Norris, Don Wilson, etc.) I'm also a pretty big Bruce Lee fan and have read The Tao of Jeet Kune Do many times.
My first experience with MMA was UFC 1. My friends and I went in on the PPV, taped it and watched it several times. We went on to watch UFC 2 and 3, but due to various circumstances stopped following it shortly thereafter (keep in mind, this was when the Internet was brand new, and I couldn't afford a pc back then anyway). My interest in martial arts eventually led me to take some classes in Wing Chun and, later, some Jeet Kune Do, Muay Thai and Kali, but various circumstances never really let me pursue it nearly as much as I wanted to.
Fast forward to about 2006 when I ran across a highlight video of the one and only Fedor Emilianenko. (Remember when this site used to host links to fight videos?

). I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'd seen MMA, but this was something else completely. I was totally blown away. Solely because of that, I started paying attention to MMA again, mainly PRIDE, but PRIDE wasn't very much longer for this world so I branched out to Strikeforce, Affliction, WEC, UFC, etc. and ended up visiting here regularly starting in about 2008. I lurked for a year or so before I finally decided to make an account and post something.
I think I am unusual in that I am a fan of the sport of MMA, but a bigger fan of individual athletes, also in that I have a strong tendency to ignore bouts between unranked fighters. Watching two random fighters doesn't do anything for me at all, really, since I have no personal stake in the outcome. My attitude is basically that I want to watch the best, especially the best of the best (which is another terrible martial arts movie series starring Eric Roberts!), so let me know when you get to the top and I'll start paying attention. I don't waste my time with anything but the big leagues, which these days is basically the UFC. I'm not really happy about that, but that's another topic.
Like hawdrigoh, I remember the rankings here, too, and that they sparked some very lively discussions. Hopefully they will again. I am truly honored to be a part of that now and would never have guessed that I would be chosen to have anything to do with it.
Fist bump, fellow linkers!