My UFC 100 Experience: A Fan's View

Me with rising UFC star Jon Jones

So I just got in from Vegas and what a weekend it was. This was my third live UFC event and I have to say it was by far the best. I have heard several people here say the event was kind of a letdown and it wasn't that exciting, I have to completely disagree. Maybe it was the fact that I was there and got to experience the amazing atmosphere, maybe it's because I got to see the entire undercard (which was outstanding) and most people didn't, maybe I'm just biased, but I thought it more than lived up to the hype. From exciting submissions by Jon Jones and Tom Lawlor (who also had a great entrance) to impressive decisions by Jim Miller and Mark Coleman the six undercard fights got the Mandalay Bay Events Center worked into a frenzy waiting for all the great action that was yet to come.

But let me start from the beginning. I got to Mandalay Bay around noon on Friday to find a line already forming for the weigh-ins. Since fan club members get in first for a Q&A session with a fighter I had an outstanding seat. The speaker for this day was UFC #1 lightweight contender Kenny 'KenFlo' Florian. Honestly this wasn't much of a highlight for me as Florian didn't really give us too much insight or new information that we didn't already know. Maybe it's because of his work on 'MMA Live' that he's used to spitting out canned answers but the only part of this that was very entertaining to me was Mike Goldberg. I know, I know, but the guy is actually pretty funny and has a great personality and he was bringing it with the one-liners the whole time.

After Kenny's hour or so was up there was a brief intermission to let the general public in before the weigh-ins started. The place filled up pretty quickly. This was the first time I had been to a weigh-in and I have to say the atmosphere was electric. From Joe Rogan busting out his first 'Sexyama' to the drama of whether or not Thiago Alves would actually hit 170.0 there was excitement in the air the whole time. When Mir came out I found it kind of odd that he was wearing a pair of long tights under his shorts. In hindsight I believe it was to hide his heavily taped knee which is apparently still not 100% but in his defense he never used it as an excuse so I applaud him for that. Another thing I found odd about Mir is how relaxed he was the entire time. In stark contrast to the always intense Brock Lesnar, Mir appeared to not have a worry in the world. I realize that is just his personality but I would think coming up on the biggest fight of your career you would put your game face on a day or two ahead of time. But even when walking to the octagon the next day he still had that same disinterested look on his face. I wonder if that ended up costing him in the end. Anyways, when he took his shirt off at the weigh-ins I was stunned- the guy was f#*&ing ripped. This wasn't the same pudgy Frank Mir that we were used to seeing, he was obviously in the best shape of his life. He also had a huge new backpiece that I'm sure a lot of you noticed during the fight. Maybe he felt to compete with a guy as heavily inked up as Lesnar he too needed some work done. You could definitely feel the tension when these two faced off and the stage was set for war the following night.

After the weigh-ins I headed over to the fan expo. Since this was the first time they have ever done this I wasn't sure what to expect but it was quite a sight. There was everything an MMA fan could want- beautiful girls, tons of training equipment and dietary supplements, the requisite skull shirts, and tons of other MMA-related merchandise. There were UFC and WEC stars everywhere, I was only there a couple of hours Friday and the list of people I saw there includes Randy Couture, Forrest Griffin, Mauricio Rua, Miguel Torres, Rashad Evans, Josh Koscheck, Junie Browning, and Kimbo Slice among others. By the way, I talked to Junie and if anyone is interested he told me his next fight will be "in a few months". He's not sure who or where yet but it will definitely be with the UFC. Day two was no less star-studded with guys like Wanderlei Silva, Urijah Faber, Gabriel Gonzaga, and Jose Canseco. The fan expo was quite an experience and I would definitely recommend it the next time they have one.

The day of the event you could feel the excitement everywhere. Wherever I went with my GSP shirt on people would ask if I was going to the fight. When the answer came yes they would look at me like I was the coolest guy in town. This is not to brag, it's just to show that even to the most casual of UFC fans this was an event like none other. Everyone in Vegas seemed to know that history was going down that night. I spent a couple hours at the fan expo then headed over to the Events Center. I had never been here before but had heard that since it was fairly small (only holds about 11,000) that there really wasn't a bad seat in the place and I would have to agree. My seats weren't great but I could see all the action perfectly well, definitely better than the view I had from a similar section at the MGM Grand for UFC 94 in January. The action was great from the start with Shannon Gugerty and and Tom Lawlor starting off the night with guillotine chokes in the first round. Kim vs. Grant was really the only bout on the undercard that wasn't exciting with Kim taking the decision conclusively. Jon Jones vs. Jake O'Brien was up next and I was very excited for this fight since Jones is one of my (and seemingly everyone else's) favorite young fighters. He definitely did not disappoint finishing with a sub halfway through round 2. This gave me a good start to my 5 man parlay of Jones, Fitch, Hendo, GSP, and Brock. In hindsight I wish I'd put down $100 on it instead of only $25 but I can't complain too much since it made me $85. Following the Jones fight was a 3 round slugfest between Jim Miller and Mac Danzig which was one of the bloodier fights I can remember. Miller definitely earned the decision but the always tough Danzig did not disappoint and made a good showing as well. IMO these 2 were robbed of FOTN honors. Following the Miller win was a contest between 2 fan favorites, the UFC hall of famer Mark Coleman and TUF 1 runner-up Stephan Bonnar. The crowd was definitely into this one and aside from a bit of lay-n-pray from Coleman they did not disappoint. Not sure where Bonnar goes from here, I know he's a big guy but if he could somehow make the cut to 185 he should definitely consider it. Coleman had a good gameplan and executed it well but I still don't think he has what it takes to challenge any of the top 10 in his stacked division. I guess they'll just keep putting him in there until he decides he doesn't want to do it anymore.

The undercard finished exactly 6 minutes before the PPV started so it's a good thing they moved the start time up from 5 PM to 4:30. I expected the next fight to be Jon Fitch vs. Paulo Thiago but to my surprise out came Alan Belcher and Yoshihiro Akiyama. I'm assuming they decided to move the Fitch fight to the end in case the other 4 fights all went the distance because they didn't want to run out of time on the PPV. Obviously that didn't happen but it was probably a smart move. There was a bit of controversy surrounding the Belcher/Sexyama fight. Watching it live it seemed pretty obvious to me that Akiyama won that fight 29-28 but I guess others saw it differently. In any case I don't see how you can say Belcher was robbed.

Up next was a clash between the two coaches from the most recent season of TUF, Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson. There was a lot of smack talked pre-fight and the Bisping hatred was thick this night as The Count walked to the octagon through a thick chorus of boos. As soon as Dan Henderson appeared the chants of 'U-S-A, U-S-A' started and it was clear that this was a home crowd for the american. To say the place erupted when Dan landed the right-heard-'round-the-world would be an understatement. If The Beatles had walked in holding hands with Elvis I don't think there would have been a louder ovation.

Now it was time for the match I was most eagerly anticipating, Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves. I was confident that GSP would beat the heavy-handed brazilian but I also knew that one punch could put Rush out at any time. Much to my surprise Georges not only controlled the ground game but also the standup. Most of the 25 minutes was spent giving Alves the Jon Fitch treatment, landing jabs almost at will, taking him down whenever he wanted, and pretty much just dominating the entire match. I was amazed at how well Georges controlled the fight when standing, not taking much damage while bloodying Thiago's face into a pulp. It's unfortunate that Georges injured his groin during the fight but the guy deserves a break. Over the last year and a half he has faced the best that the sport has to offer and if he needs to take some time off to heal and enjoy himself a little I think he has earned it.

On to the main event. I'm not sure I can add a whole lot as this thing has already been dissected a hundred different ways and beaten to death over the last couple days. Obviously the place was buzzing when these two guys came out. The entrance music was louder than any rock concert I have ever been too and I'm not exaggerating. Bruce Buffer lost himself in the moment busting out the first and probably last 360 of his career. The fight itself couldn't possibly have lived up to the considerable hype but I found it quite entertaining with Mir landing a couple good shots before Lesnar started pouring it on. The guy looks to be unstoppable, I'm not sure anyone can deal with his combination of size and athleticism at this point. The way Lesnar penned Mir up against the cage and just held him there while he pounded away on his face, Mir seemingly helpless, was truly impressive. I gave Mir more of a chance than most people did coming into the fight but he just had no answer for Lesnar's massive strength advantage. Lesnar is just a step above right now.

After the main event a lot of people left even though the Fitch/Thiago fight was still left. It wasn't the most exciting fight but I was glad Fitch got the win, I needed it for my bet. He says he's a much different fighter than when he fought GSP just under a year ago but I don't see it. He's a very good fighter and definitely in the top 3 or 4 in his division but he's going to have to show something more if he wants to earn another shot at the title, right now he just doesn't have what it takes to really challenge GSP.

After the fights were over I hung around a little to let the crowd clear out and take a few pictures. When I finally got out of the arena I was hanging around inside Mandalay Bay and I heard a crowd of people walking away from the arena. I looked up and I see Jon Jones with a couple of his friends and people asking for autographs and taking pictures with him. I made the mistake of not bringing a sharpie and some generic UFC gear to have signed just in case something like this occurred but I did get my picture taken with him which you see above. I was pretty excited since, as I said earlier, Jones is one of my favorite fighters. Getting my picture taken with Jones and meeting Shane Carwin (also one of my faves) at the fan expo were probably the two highlights of my weekend other than the fight itself.

Well that about does it, sorry if I got a bit long-winded but I wanted to share my entire experience with you guys to give you an idea of what it was actually like to be there and soak in all the sights and sounds from this historic event. If you have never been to a UFC event you definitely need to go at least once, if you think you get hyped for a fight hanging out with your friends at a bar or in your living room multiply that times ten and that will give you an idea of what it is like to be there in person. There really is nothing like it and I can't wait for my next one.