Teila Tuli, 49. who now plays Taylor Wily on CBS’ Hawaii Five-0, played multiple central roles in the formation of the sport. Firstly, he was one of just eight men in the original draw to determine The Ultimate Fighter.

Prior to UFC 1, the martial arts world was dubious about the UFC. Few believed it was really real. And the concept had been tried many times. Count Dante promoted the Taunton Death Matches which were more like Taunton a bloody nose matches. Frederick Hamilton held his Battle of the Zodiac in Jamaica, NY. Tommy Lee held the World Series of Martial Arts in Honolulu, Hawai’i. Aaron Banks Oriental World of Self-Defense had Boxing with boxing rules vs. kickboxing with kickboxing rules, wrestling with wrestling rules vs. Judo with Judo rules, and Banks had a name for the new martial art that drew the best from different arts – Ketsugo. None of them caught on.

But 26 seconds into the first televised fight, Gerard Gordeau kicked Teila Tuli’s tooth into the crowd. Holy F@$%ing $#!@ this was real, as real as it gets.

And there was a lesser known incident shortly before UFC 1, when a group contract negotiation was getting out of hand and threatened the event itself. Tuli signed the contract, and left the room, but before he did so, he spoke a few words that left the other fighters clapping, and eventually signing their own contracts.

My brother, he looked at me and said, ‘What do you want to do?’ recalled Tuli to Sean Keeler for the Denver Post. I said, ‘I’d like to fight.’ He said, ‘Sign the paper and let’s get out of here.’ Because the energy in there — it was the energy of a riot.

So Tuli got up and started to leave, whereupon UFC co-founder Rorion Gracie asked, “Where are you going?”

I came here for a party, said Tuli to the assembled. So if you’re here to party, I’ll see you in the arena tomorrow.

And then they all clapped.

I sensed the danger of it all not happening, said Tuli. It was like, you want to go the big dance and the cops are going to shut it down and you never get to dance. I just wanted this to happen. We dreamed about this. It’s just, sometime, everybody needs a little bit of a push.”

There was a different feeling when you walked through that octagon. I was scared. I ain’t lying, I was scared. Now when I look back on it, now that I’m more mature, I’m just grateful to God to just have the opportunity to risk it. Because how many times are you going to have the opportunity to risk something that nobody else did before?

Getting the tooth soccer kicked into the crowed left Tuli with blurred vision in one eye for half a decade. The personal hurt lasted longer.

UFC fans are the freaking most loyal fans you can ever find, said Tuli. I mean, every airport I went after that, since the first, somebody walked up to me and said, ‘Excuse me, did you fight in the UFC? Are you a UFC fighter?’ For like five to 10 years I lied to them. I said, ‘That’s not me.’ Because who wants to talk about the time you got your ass kicked?

But I’m very grateful for it now … because it was so special. UFC 1 was the opportunity of a lifetime. How many people get that opportunity? I’m just happy that it happened, and I stepped up to it.