**EDIT** I went ahead and added my videos...see page 12. **EDIT**
My brother and I got into Vegas early Saturday and killed some time driving around and at the Stratosphere, then we checked in (stayed at the Excalibur). The doors at the Thomas and Mack Center weren’t opening til 4:00 but we stopped there around 2:00 just to see what was going on. Hoping that they would already be selling shirts, hats, etc outside, or that by some chance we could get in and check out the setup.
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There wasn’t much going on outside…a concert for kids or something. The main entrance doors were roped off though. Some other event was wrapping up and some people were leaving out some doors off to the side, so we figured we’d give it a shot and go in that way. We get inside and music is blasting from the arena, and we can see lights flashing behind the curtains at the entrances. We go over (expecting to get booted at any second) and peek in. They were practicing Fedor’s intro…the Japanese announcer was really struggling with it! Two women were filling in for Fedor and Coleman…hahaha.
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We walked around the concourse some and checked out all the Pride gear that they were going to be selling, since we were buying stuff for about 6 people. They weren’t setup to take money yet, so we stepped inside the curtain and hung out for a few minutes, just watching while they were continuing the setup by the ring. There were about 20-25 people around the ring (mostly Japanese) and all were wearing credentials around their neck. We decided to push our luck a little more and walk down near the ring. We tried to look like we knew what we were doing and just wanted to see how long until we got kicked out. I started taking pictures and videos. Here are a few pictures…
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Lots of people were looking at us, but nobody said anything. We figured we were pushing it so we went back up to the concourse. We walked around a little more and the next time we pulled the curtains back, Shogun was in the ring warming up! We headed down to the floor as quickly as we could without looking like complete idiots and when we were about 15 rows up, we noticed Fedor walking off! Damn…just missed him. I was able to snap one crappy picture from a distance…
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o...RealDeal-1.jpg
Shogun was still in the ring though…along with Belfort, Lawler, and Nakamura.
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o...RealDeal-1.jpg
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Randleman, Coleman, and Baroni came out once the others cleared out.
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Finally one of the workers told me to stop taking pictures on that last one of Baroni above (Baroni looks pissed, but he wasn't...that's just how the pic came out). Butterbean was the last one we saw come out. Him and Randleman were searching for soft spots in the ring (I think that’s what I heard Butterbean say). All the spots are probably soft for him though! I took some short video clips of the fighters warming up, the files are huge though, and I probably shouldn’t send those out anyway since I wasn’t supposed to be there.
Security was starting to get a little thicker, so we headed up to the concourse again. Programs were on sale so we bought a couple. That was our mistake, as we then stood out as not belonging there. Within seconds a woman asked who we were with…we joked with her for a bit about getting busted and then she escorted us to the front door…but we were fine with that at that point!! :-D
We got in line outside and ended up at the front of one of the security lines. First they said no camcorders…then no digital cameras at all. Not knowing what their search would be like, I took mine to the car. It’s not like I was going to get any good pictures from the upper deck anyway. Lots of people had cameras inside though, so I figure most of the security didn’t know to stop them from coming in, or people just hid them.
The event was awesome. I wasn’t sure what to expect with the big intros in person, but they’re really well done. What could be cooler than Fedor’s intro with the snow falling and him wearing his sambo gi?? (I DIDN'T TAKE THESE 2 PICS)
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http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o...-Coleman-6.jpg
Some of the fights weren’t the greatest match up, but it was still a great card. I was pretty impressed with the crowd. Very little booing at all…the most was for the NSAC officials. Baroni got the most booing of the fighters I think. Fedor and Butterbean seemed to get the loudest applause. Vitor and Shogun were up there too. It was a really diverse crowd and seemed very knowledgeable, except for the one guy near us yelling “knee him in the head!” everything they went to the ground. It took about 4 fights before someone told him they couldn’t I guess, because he finally shut up.
Coleman bringing his 2 daughters into the ring after his fight was a little tense, but kinda cool at the same time… (I DIDN'T TAKE THIS PIC)
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o...-Daughters.jpg
I’m not going to talk about specific results just in case somebody hasn’t seen the fights yet.
On the way out we saw James Thompson in the concourse…he looks bigger on TV, but he’s still pretty large!
Sunday we left the hotel around 10:30 and started walking towards Caesar’s Palace to see if by some odd chance we could get lucky again and run into some of the fighters.
We walked thru the lobby, then out by the pool…nothing going on.
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Then we saw a Pride sign…
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But figured it was just an old sign from the day before. We followed it and ended up at the back of Caesar’s Palace near a security gate that was open. We looked to the left and saw another of the same sign. What the heck…we went a little further and came to some stairs leading up to a warehouse looking building. The back door was propped open. I stuck my head in and there was a press conference going on. Josh Barnett was talking! Ty stuck his head in and he says “Fedor’s in there man!” We spent about 5 min’s deciding what to do…checked out the rest of the doors and there wasn’t a main entrance. We just wanted to get some pictures with the fighters. Two more people had followed the signs too and they were also trying to figure out what to do, but they didn’t want to go in. We decided to go for it and just walk in like we knew what we were doing. The press conference was all the way across the warehouse…it seemed like a mile and felt like all the fighters were staring at us (they were facing the door we came in). We stopped at the back where a few people were standing and just watched for a couple minutes. It was mostly Japanese media with a few others, including Josh Gross…and a few members of some of the teams…maybe 35 people total. After blending in the back for a few minutes we decided to sit down on the back row. Barnett, Yoshida, Fedor, Shogun, and Wand Silva were at the podium, along with Jerry Millen and Nobuyuki Sakakibara. Fedor was talking at this point…then the Chute Boxe guys spoke. They opened the floor for questions after that. When they were done Millen asked them to come down to the front for photos. I got one crappy one from the back…
I took some short video clips while they were talking too, but I don’t think I should send those out since I wasn’t supposed to be there. The fighters spread out after the photo op. First we intercepted Silva and got pics with him since he was the closest. He was really nice…shook our hands and was happy to get his picture taken. (the bathroom arrows above his head makes me giggle!)
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Then we headed over to Fedor to make sure we got pics with him before we got booted out. He was as I expected him to be…very humble, and seemed happy to shake our hands and take pictures.
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He’s definitely NOT 6 feet tall. I’m 5-11 ¾ and was wearing Nike Shox. He was wearing regular running shoes. I figure he’s 5-11” at best? I was really surprised by that. Regardless, he’s still the man.
Then Shogun and Barnett…who were also very nice.
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o...TyShogun-1.jpg
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Barnett wasn’t as big as I expected. He just looked like your avg dude walking down the street. He was very cool though…
And then we were booted for not being media, but we were fine with that at that point! Hahaha We went outside and a few others had gathered. We hung around while the fighters left. Jerry Millen was one of the first people that we saw (we missed the Chute Boxe guys). I asked him where Dana was and he laughed and said he was scared.
Fedor was still inside doing an interview with Josh Gross, but he finally came out after 10-15 minutes or so.
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Fedor’s interpreter was really nice. She said that Fedor had a great time in the US. I asked where I could get the shirt that he was wearing and she said it was on a French website? (need to figure out where). Here’s the back of it…
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o...RealDeal-2.jpg
My brother asked her if Fedor would put him in a choke, so she asked him. He laughed and nodded his head…hahaha…
What a humble dude. Here’s a guy that is the best in the world in his sport (and maybe ever) yet he took the time to talk to what few fans were around there when the fighters probably weren't expecting any fans at all at the time. He could’ve high-sided us so easily…they all could’ve…
Then Frank Trigg walked up from the other direction. He talked to Fedor as he was leaving…
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Then took pics with us and a few other fans that were gathered around there. We told him good luck with Mayhem in Dec and he thanked us.
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Sakakibara was the last one out. He was very polite…he took a picture with a fan and then thanked everybody for being there…
The trip was worth every penny and then some. If you missed this one, definitely plan on making it to the Feb 24th show back at the Thomas and Mack Center. I can’t recommend it enough…
My Crazy "Real Deal" Experience... *long*
