{"id":34427,"date":"2016-02-20T12:40:16","date_gmt":"2016-02-20T17:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/from-pittsburgh-roots-mma-ufc-have-grown-to-staggering-heights\/"},"modified":"2016-02-20T12:40:16","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T17:40:16","slug":"from-pittsburgh-roots-mma-ufc-have-grown-to-staggering-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/from-pittsburgh-roots-mma-ufc-have-grown-to-staggering-heights\/","title":{"rendered":"From Pittsburgh roots, MMA, UFC have grown to staggering heights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>From Pittsburgh roots, MMA, UFC have grown to staggering heights<\/b><br \/>\n(Video by Michael Henninger, 2\/19\/16) But until recently, MMA existed on the fringe, developing passionate fans who passed around VHS tapes of fights and discussed the sport over online <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=grq0&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">chat<\/a> rooms, while the UFC battled to remain legal in the face of gover &#8230;<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&#038;aid=&#038;tid=A19B93D846804AFABA00C906CC838897&#038;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.post-gazette.com%2Fsports%2Fother-sports%2F2016%2F02%2F19%2FFrom-Pittsburgh-roots-Ultimate-Fighting-Championship-mixed-martial-arts-have-grown%2Fstories%2F201602190223&#038;c=8OgkXMrn-1jrbQ_co_z3k4Ff6XzebYxk_GfW6fXClT8&#038;mkt=en-us\" class=\"autohyperlink\">www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&#038;aid=&#038;tid=A19B93D846804AFABA00C906CC838897&#038;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.post-gazette.com%2Fsports%2Fother-sports%2F2016%2F02%2F19%2FFrom-Pittsburgh-roots-Ultimate-Fighting-Championship-mixed-martial-arts-have-grown%2Fstories%2F201602190223&#038;c=8OgkXMrn-1jrbQ_co_z3k4Ff6XzebYxk_GfW6fXClT8&#038;mkt=en-us<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Pittsburgh roots, MMA, UFC have grown to staggering heights (Video by Michael Henninger, 2\/19\/16) But until recently, MMA existed on the fringe, developing passionate fans who passed around VHS tapes of fights and discussed the sport over online <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=grq0&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">chat<\/a> rooms, while the UFC battled to remain legal in the face of gover &#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&#038;aid=&#038;tid=A19B93D846804AFABA00C906CC838897&#038;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.post-gazette.com%2Fsports%2Fother-sports%2F2016%2F02%2F19%2FFrom-Pittsburgh-roots-Ultimate-Fighting-Championship-mixed-martial-arts-have-grown%2Fstories%2F201602190223&#038;c=8OgkXMrn-1jrbQ_co_z3k4Ff6XzebYxk_GfW6fXClT8&#038;mkt=en-us\" class=\"autohyperlink\">www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&#038;aid=&#038;tid=A19B93D846804AFABA00C906CC838897&#038;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.post-gazette.com%2Fsports%2Fother-sports%2F2016%2F02%2F19%2FFrom-Pittsburgh-roots-Ultimate-Fighting-Championship-mixed-martial-arts-have-grown%2Fstories%2F201602190223&#038;c=8OgkXMrn-1jrbQ_co_z3k4Ff6XzebYxk_GfW6fXClT8&#038;mkt=en-us<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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