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Just got back from UFC 61
I flew out from philly to vegas to watch the fights this past week. This was my 4th UFC event the others being UFC 50, 55, and 53. I got to chat with a bunch of fighters while they were walking through the mandalay bay. The mandalay bay was sold out and this was by far the most attended UFC event i have been too. Even the weigh ins true a larger crowd than the other events i have attended.
The prelims IMO were way better than the main card. At the weigh ins AA and Tito got the biggest crowd responses while Sylvia and Shamrock were boo'ed. Not to many ppl were cheering for shamrock during the tito fight and after the fight there were huge chants of "bullshit" and "let them fight". Sylvia/AA 3 were also boo'ed because both were afraid of each other's punching power.
After watching Frank Mir fight i realize he has a long way to go before he is even in talks of title contention. I give him credit for gutting out the win but he looked terrible. The crowd was really into the prelims and the Edwards/Stevenson fight. I got to talk to Yves after the fight and the guy was really upset about the loss. I felt bad because Yves is a good guy so I hope the fans dont count him out.
I talked to Phil Baroni and he said that Pride isnt going to let him back into the WW GP but that he has many offers on the line to fight. He mentioned the fights with Frank Shamrock and Robbie Lawler. Brad Imes told me that he just underwent surgery and he expects to be back by October. He said that he might be back in the UFC in the near future as well.
Here is an interesting tidbit for all you conspiracy theorists out there. While I was hanging out at the bar in the Mandalay Bay there was some guy claiming to be a training partner of Kimo. He claimed that a couple weeks before the Sylvia/Arlovski 2 fight AA was caught with steroids. He claimed that Dana White and the UFC were going to strip AA of his title but that AA's management worked out a deal with them that during the AA/Sylvia 2 fight AA wasnt allowed to use submissions on Sylvia. Supposedly, this was the reason he gave as to why AA didnt heel hook or take Sylvia's back after he dropped him to the floor because the agreement was that AA had to ko sylvia by strikes if he wanted the UFC management to keep his whole "steroid scandal" under wraps. He then said that the reason that the UFC booked Sylvia/AA 3 so fast was because of this whole ordeal. After AA losing the last 2 fights it makes you wonder what is next for his career.
Personally, it seems far fetched to me but the guy was pretty adamant about this when he was telling ppl. I would hope it isnt true since AA is one of my favorite fighters but its not the first time a UFC HW champ was caught with roids if true. But its all hearsay at this point considering the guy couldve made this whole shit up but i found it interesting and figured i would let you guys know.
The biggest surprise of the night was Silva/Liddell. Its ashame that most of the fans I talked to had no idea who Silva was. Also, Karo Parisyan told me if he beats Diego in August that he would be next in line for a WW title shot against the winner of Hughes/St. Pierre.
Forgot to add that Spencer Fisher told me that he would be fighting in August and that it would be a big fight. He didnt name any opponents but it seems that ppl are turning down fights with Sherk for the lw title so maybe Fisher stepped up to take it.
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Mayhem Miller:"Oh bro, this song was on the terminator!"
Thiago Alves and Paul Daley are the best strikers in the WW division.
Last edited by IlladelphMMA : 07-10-2006 at 03:24 AM.
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