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After Diego Sanchez defeated Luigi Fioravanti at the TUF finale Saturday
night, his father turned and gave his mother a hug. What did he do next?
Gave ME a hi-five and fist bump!
Originally I planned on attending the finale on a press pass for the
local newspaper to cover Jesse Taylor. After the airing of the final
episode of the show on Wednesday, my plans changed.  On Thursday morning,
I was told that my services for the paper were not necessary. My dad
had already booked a hotel room and we were going to have a weekend
in Vegas. I was so bummed
Later in the day,
my dad called and told me to go ahead and order tickets. Fortunately,
I found 2 tickets on Ticketmaster. I quickly ordered them
and had them sent to will call. Things were looking up again.
We left early Friday morning. Vegas is about a 5 hour drive from San
Diego. I wanted to make sure we were there early for weigh-ins.
We got to the weigh-ins
about and hour and a half before the doors opened. There was no line
forming yet, so we just wondered around. We ended
up walking down a long hall of offices. At the end we found the warm-up
rooms for the fighters! Even thought the sign on the door said “no
visitors,” I walked in to ask for a picture. Spencer Fisher was
lying on the floor, covered in towels, cutting weight. I laid next
to him for a picture. Pretty awesome.
After hanging around this area for a while and meeting Kendall Grove,
Drew McFedries, and Marvin Eastman, we went and got in a short line
that had started for the weigh-ins.
Soon all the fighters
came out near the line and Matthew Riddle ran over to a family right
in front of us and gave all of them hugs. It was
his mom, dad, aunt, and uncle! After the fighters went into the room
to be weighed in, I got a chance to chat with Matt’s uncle. He
said that he didn’t watch the sport before Matt got into it,
but loves it now. He also said that Matthew’s parents didn’t
watch the show! How could they have not watched the show?!?
Now, onto the actual event.
We got to our seats
about an hour before the fights started. They appeared to be okay seats
with a decent view. We didn’t realize how cool
they were though.
About 30 minutes
before the fights started, I saw Riddle’s family
sit in the row behind us. I thought, “This will be cool. To see
a mother’s reaction to her son fighting.” Then I saw a guy
sit right behind them that looked like Tim Credeur. I thought “Isn’t
he fighting? Couldn’t be him.”
The undercard fights
were AWESOME. If you haven’t seen Matt Brown
vs. Matt Arroyo, go find it.
During the Hazelett
vs. Burkman fight, a guy 2 rows behind us was yelling for Dustin. I
looked up at him and it HAD to be Dustin’s father.
At this point I started thinking, “We are in the family section.”
Turns out that was
the truth. In the row behind me along with Riddle’s
family were Spencer Fisher’s family, and Diego Sanchez’s
family.
After Diego’s
fight I got the fist bump from his father and they left. Then Cale
Yarborough came and sat there. I asked him what the deal
was with his fight. He told me about Tim and the Adderall. I then asked
if he was going to be on the Atlanta card since he is from Georgia. He
said he has been asking for that. I then realized that it WAS Tim Credeur
sitting up there. I went and chatted with him. Great guy. Just as the
show portrayed.
Anyway, I won $34
on a $20 bet on Kendall Grove. I think Tanner needs to retire. He came
into the fight like he didn’t care. When Tanner
walked into the Octagon, Kendall Grove was there already. Still, Evan
looked confused as to where he was supposed to go. Just sad.
Good night of fights.
Awesome win for Amir and, yes, CB Dolloway did tap out. I am still
undecided about how I feel about Jesse Taylor being
back in the UFC. Maybe I will write about that next… |
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