My UFC 70 Experience (With Pics)

[Warheart]

Firstly this is long, secondly if you have nothing nice to say then please leave now. I'm just trying to interact with my fellow fans.

Time to tell you guys about probably the greatest weekend of my life. Before I get into the story a little background info. I have been a huge fan since about UFC 19. When the UFC came to London a few years ago, I had a vacation booked to Spain. I seriously considered cancelling the trip so that I could go to the UFC. Ever since then I have been praying the UFC would return here. So as soon as tickets were released I bought them on pre-sale (as a fightclub member). Since I live in Wales, it was going to be a very expensive trip - going to another country and everything. So I decided that I was going to treat myself and bought the most expensive tickets available. To hell with finances, this was my time to live the dream.

Fight club members had a special q&a session with Dana White on the Friday at 10:30am. I certainly didn't want to miss this, but Manchester is a 6 hour drive from where I live. Which meant a very early leaving time. Luckily a friend phoned me on the Wednesday to see if I was going to the UFC (he doesn't like it, but knows I am a huge fan) I told him I was and about the predicament I was in. My friend lives only 30 mins from Manchester City Centre and he told me that I could go up on Thursday and stay at his house!

I left on Thursday at about 5pm. I was almost 2 hours into my trip and had just entered England when my friend who was attending with me asked 'You did bring the tickets didn't you?'

SON OF A BITCH!!!!!

I had to turn around and go home to get the tickets. Which meant that It was about 9:45pm, I was still at home, and had 4 hours driving under my belt. Not only that but now I wasn't going to arrive until the early hours of the morning. Talk about a nightmare.

When I arrived at my friends house it was about 2pm and I was done. I was so exhausted. What a gruelling journey. To make matters worse my friend woke me up at 07:10am to ask me if I wanted fucking breakfast! This trip was not turning out as I had planned. LOL.

I left my car at my friends house for the weekend and took the train into Manchester. He was nice enough to join us on the train so that he could show us the stop and then take us to the 'Bridgewater Hall' for the Q&A. I had forgotten my coat, which meant I was stood in Manchester for 50mins at 10am in a freaking t-shirt. I was freezing.

When we entered the Hall there was a stall selling merchandise and also several posters advertising the event. We were given pink bracelets to prove that we were in the FightClub. A lovely colour to have to wear around Manchester - a notoriously rough city. Especially when you don't have a coat and have no way to hide the thing.

Here are some pictures of the marketing pieces they had in the foyer.





We get into the arena where the Q&A is held (it was held before the weigh-ins in the same building). Dana comes out and the crowd goes crazy. There were some really good questions asked, as well as some really funny ones. Also many different nationalities asked questions, which was very cool. Also great was that when you asked a question Dana would shake his hand.

My favourite two questions asked were

"Hey, i'm asking this for my friend who is sat over there (points at friend). He has a gigantic man-crush on Shogun. No seriously he does! Look at him everybody, he's sweating just hearing his name! Anyway, will we ever see Rua in the UFC?"

- Dana said that nothing is impossible, but he is trying hard to keep the UFC and Pride rosters seperate. At least until the MMA superbowl happens.

My favourite comment though, was when this guy told Dana that he hoped that Koscheck didn't get a title shot until he was at least 40. The room burst into laughter, applause and a very audible agreement. lol.

Here's a photo of Dana from the Q&A.



I assume you guys saw the weigh-ins so I won't go into much detail, Bisping came out and played to the fans before the weigh-ins and it felt like the roof was going to come off the building. Some guy shouted out an insult at Elvis and Rogan owned him. For those who didn't hear what he said it had something to do with Elvis having stupid hair and needing hair-plugs.

Some pics I took from the weigh-in.

[Warheart]

After the weigh-ins Rogan and Arlovski came into the crowd to meet the fans but they were quickly ushered backstage by UFC reps. I didn't get to meet them. However I did get to meet Jason Mcdonald, who was there to corner Victor Valimaki. (Valimaki was destroyed by Sakara, dropped twice and totally outclassed. It was amazing to see the speed difference between a boxer and an MMA fighter)

Not too many people recognised Jason, but I had a few words with him and he was a really friendly guy. He was more than happy to give me a photo. I know how you guys feel the need to criticise your fellow users looks, so I have removed myself from all the photos.



After the weigh-ins we hung around the arena because i'd heard stories from US fans who had met fighters in that situation. Sure enough Bruce Buffer came into the lobby and I was quick to get a snap with him. He was swamped though, so I didn't really talk to him.



We waited a while longer until this guy who worked there came and announced that the fighters had left already. We were outside looking for a cab and we ended up behind the building in the loading area, where all the fighters were getting into mini-busses (Something I found strange was that the ringcard girls got into these really posh cars with tinted windows, and the fighter were herded into vans like sheep) lol.

There were probably about 10 other people there and there were guards stopping us from getting into the actual lot. The fighters all left, and finally from the arena came Dana White. He told the guards to leave us all into the lot! We all came through and spoke with him and had photos, autographs etc. Even though there were only about a dozen fans he stayed and talked with us for about 15-20 minutes! I have to say that Dana is one of the coolest people I have ever met, he is really down to earth and truly cares about the fans. Could you guys imagine Bob Arum or Vince Mcmahon doing something like that?

I asked Dana 'I hear you're looking for new Pride commentators? How about re-uniting Bas and Quadros?' Dana smiled and said 'hmm, Quadros? You like Quadros do you". It was the way he said it though, with a smirk. Personally I read into it that he had either signed Quadros or that he was top of his wishlist. It seemed like the answer you'd give a kid when he asked you for something you know you'd already got him for Christmas.

Honestly though, one of the nicest guys I have ever met. I have never heard a fan say a bad word about him, and I seriously think that these horror stories we hear about him are pure BS. Finally he left in a BMW!



After this we went to KFC, checked into the hotel and went to sleep!

Woke up in the evening, we were going to see Joe Rogan in a comedy club called 'Charlies'. We asked about 5 cab drivers and nobody had heard of the place. Finally I showed the post code (zip code) to a cab driver and he put it in to his Sat Nav, and drove us to an abandoned warehouse!

We went back to the hotel with our tails between our legs, having been unable to find the club.

We got to the arena on fight night and went straight to our seats. To my delight we were in the fifth row, and were next to the aisle where the fighters would enter. Truly perfect seats. Here was our view.

[Warheart]

There is no point in me discussing the fights because you all know what happened, so i'll just share some of my pictures.

Kongo leaving after his victory.



I was just about to get a photo with Machida when Heath came up behind him to congratulate him, got a great shot of it.



In the break before the Arlovksi-Werdum fight, Matt Serra was walking down the isle. I quickly grabbed him and asked for a photo. I am a huge Matt Serra fan, and have been for about 6 years. In fact if you check my posts you'll find some of me in the TUF forum complaining that Serra has to be 'taught' by St Pierre, and that Matt should be teaching Georges. lol.

So needless to say this was a huge honour for me, meeting one of my heroes. Especially when he's at a professional high. I congratulated him on his win, and told him i'd been a fan of his for years and he thanked me for the support (even though he was probably thinking 'great anothet TUF fan bullshitting me' lol)



Here is Mirko coming to the ring, I had to stand on my chair to get a good pic!



I am sorry to say that I have no good photos of the Cro Cop fight because I was in a state of disbelief. I have been to many MMA and Boxing events, and I have never seen a reaction like this in my life. Nobody cheered or anything. Everybody stood up in unision and just stared open mouthed. Getting a photo was the last thing on my mind! All the fans were just staring at each other and this Croatian guy behind me said in a very strong accent "I was not fucking expecting that!" Which may have been the understatement of the decade. FInally when Buffer started to announce the winner the crowd seemed to come to their senses and cheered.

[Warheart]

Following the fight the arena cleared but we stayed around hoping to meet some more famous faces. The ringcard girls were being mobbed in the aisle near us and a very famous person managed to sneak out undetected, well almost undetected. I recognised him, kinda. I honestly wasn't sure it was him because he was shorter than I imagined and I couldn't understand why nobody was saying anything. He was walking out with mark Ratner and had just passed me when I decided to call his name. 'LORENZO!!!!' Fertita turned around, walked over to me and said 'yes'. Honestly I didn't expect him to hear me, and certainly not approach me. I had no idea what to say and just held out my hand for a handshake. He gave it a firm shake, and looked in my eyes. I then realised what I need to say. 'Thank you for all this'. He gave me a hug and said 'man, you have no idea how much that means to me'.

I know it sounds really gay and stuff, but it was a truly great moment, really genuine and heartfelt. Probably the moment i'll most remember.

Then another guy tried to get through undetected, but I wasn't going to let that happen!

Jason Lambert was walking past me and I grabbed his shoulder and said 'Jason, I'm a huge Babalu fan. What the fuck are you trying to do to me!!'

He burst out laughing and said 'I'm sorry about that man. He's a great guy. It's just the way the game works'

I laughed and told him it was ok, asked for a pic. He was a really cool dude, I then told him that i'd been waiting for him in the big show for years, as I had many of his fights from Gladiator Challenge and King of the Cage on dvd. I said I was glad that he'd made it and wished him the best of luck in the future. He thanked me and said that it truly meant a lot to him.



Then this steward made us leave

This weeked was amazing, if you have never been to a UFC then you have to go. It isn't BS, they truly care about the fans. Any comments are appreciated.

[Hamm]

Awesome great pics man

[BadRadio]

Hey thanks for posting those. Nice to see everything from a fan perspective.

[JIU-BOX-FU]

awesomeness bro, props on Lambert, McDonald, Machida, and KFC!!! sucks that all the fighters left right after the fights, at 65 i met alot of fighters after the fights, im hoping to have one of these when UFC comes back to Sacto

[Shoey]

Cool as hell, nice work man! good picture!

[Tekuela]

Very Cool man, u r luck

[CheCroCopElias]

nice men, are you lucky man