Not football related, but who cares? There's only 3 people on the board. I was a huge UFC fan during the early years. As a matter of fact, Dothan played a part in getting it off the ground. The UFC had scheduled their first big, televised event in New York City. Apparently, some activists, politicians, or whoever, thought the sport was too brutal, and legislation was quickly enacted to ban it from the State. This was literally some last minute stuff, and somehow, somebody here had connections with UFC management, and they agreed to move the event to the Dothan Civic Center.
It was crazy night, but more on that story later.
Anyway, I followed the sport very closely, and there was one fight in particular that was instrumental in putting UFC on the map. They started a show called The Ultimate Fighter. Kind a reality show, but about as real a reality show as a reality show can get. Really. They would put a bunch of up and coming fighters in a house, divide them into teams, have a famous coach for each team, and then have the two teams fight it out until there was one left from each team. Then, they would have those two fight on one of the real UFC cards, with the winner getting a contract.
The very first one pitted Stephan Bonnar against Forrest Griffin. If you have any interest in the fight game, pull that fight up and watch it. It was F'n brutal, with both guys beating the hell out of each other. Griffin was declared the winner, but you could have flipped a coin.
I say all that to say, I just saw where Stephan Bonnar died a few months ago. It came up because apparently, they just found out the cause was the good ole fentanyl overdose. 45 years old. Why on earth anybody messes with that stuff is beyond me. But, the UFC really lost a legend in Bonnar.