I am just over two weeks out from flying to St. Louis for the Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery card and thought I would talk a little about the live mixed martial arts experience. Over the next two weeks leading up to my trip to St. Louis I will be talking about my live experiences and then going to hopefully blog throughout my time in St. Louis to bring the live experience to you as I experience it.
I have been an mixed martial arts fan since the mid 1990's and that first trip to the video store that saw me rent the UFC's as they come out before finally convincing mom and dad that I had to order the PPV's or my life simply would not continue. Through college there were several events I was tempted to attend, but the situation never really lined up to make it work. By 2008 I was on my feet financially after graduating school in 2006 and it was only a matter of time before I saw the UFC live. I was going to Las Vegas for a bachelor party the weekend of UFC 84, and naturally I could not miss that opportunity.
I bought tickets for the BJ Penn headlined events and planned to take in as much of the UFC experience while also hanging out with my buddies who were not really into mixed martial arts. I was able to do two days in studio with Goze and Alton, who were sitting in for George Garcia and Frank Trigg on TAGG Radio. The two days were nothing short of a blast hanging out with those guys and getting to be on the radio show. I was amazed on Thursday night at MGM Grand that guys like Carlos Newton and Ricco Rodriguez were just walking around. These were some of the guys I grew up watching, just milling around the casino like anyone else.
Everything around the event was awesome, but the event itself was beyond anything I could imagine. Seeing guys like Wanderlei Silva, BJ Penn, and Lyoto Machida live was amazing. The whole atmosphere was unlike almost anything I had ever seen at a sporting event. Afterwards I hung around outside as guys like Big Nog, Evan Tanner, Joe Lauzon, and others hung around outside and took pictures with the fans. It was truly a unique experience I will never forget. I told myself though that I would not come to another event till that was the sole reason of my trip. That would happen again in Las Vegas for UFC 100, but that’s another story for another time.
I didn’t really get to meet a ton of fighters outside of Evan Tanner and a couple others because of being there with guys that were not mixed martial arts fans, but as soon as I left that event I knew that I had to find a way to another event as soon as possible. I think that’s the common thing you will find with anyone who has the UFC Las Vegas experience. It almost puts you on a high that takes a couple days to come down from. My next exposure to the UFC in person would be in Atlanta at UFC 88, and this is when I realized that not all UFC events are created equal.
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