IT'S often said that you live and learn, and FT was served a salutary dose of that particular poison earlier this week.

     

Don't most people lie about their birthday on Facebook? Apparently not.


Granted, there's nothing wrong with it - these days people probably get more salutations on their big day, thanks to the digital empowerment of laziness - but I felt the ire of a few people genuinely calling me out as a massive heel because they'd written on my "wall".
Heartfelt thanks for the fuss, but buy me a pint sometime instead. Please. Beer is the perfect gift for any occasion, big or small, to my mind.
Onwards and skywards, then, to an organisation who are celebrating a real birthday, a real gold-plated, sure as mustard anniversary for the ages - Ultimate Fighting Championship which will creep past the age of 20 next week. That "cage-fighting" or mixed martial arts has exploded onto the global consciousness to the extent we now behold today is a true wonder. Many congratulations indeed, and many happy returns.
Key man Dana White has worked like someone is holding a gun to his head to make a success of his vision since 2002.
From the chaotic early incarnation of the sport, devoid of the myriad rules and regulations we see today, mixed martial arts has captivated as a spectacle from day one.
It has evolved into something palatable to the mainstream audience, and happily exposes ignorance on a daily basis as we tramp on towards 2014.
With all the dirty delinquent appeal of the early events came the realisation that the sport had true potential to make a fat pile of cash.
Not only that most human of ambitions, but also that these men, and latterly women, could be viewed by the average Joe Soap as elite athletes competing in one of the most demanding environments humanity could conceive, not mere animals.
The acceptance that these combatants, doing battle in a cage, were exhibiting a mass of different skills and disciplines was still years away when UFC put on its first show in Denver in 1993.

     

Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, Tito Ortiz, Dan "The Beast" Severn, Tank Abbott are household names these days, thanks to the excellence of the UFC archive.
Other figures have emerged at pivotal points for the organisation - the 2005 debut of reality series The Ultimate Fighter, and the war between Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin in the finale which White credits with saving his organisation.
Then there are men like abrasive welterweight Matt Hughes, the prodigal Hawaiian BJ Penn, the iconic Chuck Liddell and simply unique Randy Couture, who became the first genuine household names and broke all PPV records for the company - over a million for the first time at UFC 66.
The acquisition of WEC in 2006 and PRIDE in 2007 introduced fighters known to the MMA hardcore to a mainstream audience: Carlos Condit, Urijah Faber, Benson Henderson, the fearsome Nogueira brothers, "The Axe Murderer" Wanderlei Silva, "Shogun" Rua, Dan Henderson and FT favourite Mirko Cro Cop.
Today, UFC has global icons to stand alongside any other sport. Brazilian genius Anderson "The Spider" Silva, the immovable Georges "Rush" St. Pierre, even converted pro-wrestler Brock Lesnar got in on the act. The best in the world fight for UFC. There is no debate.
Despite its undoubted success, some say the UFC is spread too thin. In capitalising on the upwards curve, they now have so many obligations all over the world that even the famed and prodigious work rate of its president may not be enough to sustain the incredible rate of expansion and success.
One thing is for sure: the organisation that many people have delighted in deriding, about whom they have roared ill-informed objections to the rafters, for two