As Real As It Gets

It's been documented time and time again here on Pete Chat. I am a big fan of MMA and specifically UFC. As I was driving home from the wedding Jordan called to tell me that he had tickets to UFC 108 in Las Vegas and that I should drive up to watch it. Oh, the tickets were courtesy of UFC President Dana White.

Jordan can be nervous so he texted me three times to confirm that I was coming. With great anticipation, I jumped in the Silver Bullet and headed for Las Vegas. Although it's not a pretty drive it's not a bad drive. About four hours. Jordan gave me the address to his in laws place where we would be staying. In a move eerily similar to what happened when trying to get to Nikki's parent place, when I arrived at the Langford's I thought to myself, this could not be where Marlo grew up. It was a run down neighborhood that looked like it was full of meth addicts. I called Jordan and discovered that I was on North Torrey Pines and I needed to be on South Torrey Pines. With that quick correction, I made it to the Langford's and was given a wonderful welcome. Although Jordan and Marlo have been married for five years I had never met her parents. That is because I always make bad decisions and miss the seminal moments in Jordan's life. I once went to Norway instead of going to his wedding. Bad decision.

Tammy and Lon took us all out to lunch for Cafe Rio. It was delicious, but not surprisingly I spent the whole time jabbering away and noticed that everyone was done and I had barely touched my food.  What can I say...I talk a lot.

Once we were done with lunch the men headed toward the event which was at the MGM Garden arena. I wore my Tap Out Shirt and unlike the time I wore it to Diana's party I was not ridiculed for it. I had never been inside MGM before and it sort of reminded me of a fancy mall. As we waited to meet up with Jordan's friend Kyle, we saw a few fighters including Keith Jardine. We saw Sam Stout walking in, Jordan wished him good luck. He was fighting that night.

We walked in and found our seats which were pretty great. About twenty rows back from the Octagon. As were walking down to our seats Kenny Florian was walking up to the ESPN MMA Live set. Kenny is one of my favorite fighters. I said hi and asked for a picture.

He was totally obliging. I wished him the best and had a feeling this was going to be a really good night. (In an aside is Fergie good looking? I have no idea.)

Now those of you who know Jordan, know that he is never satisfied with his ticketed seats. We moved to another section right behind the place where the fighters who aren't on the card sit. In fact one of the people that was sitting in front of us was looked a lot like Dustin Hazlett, one of the fighters on the card. It turned out to be his brother.

We sit for a minute and see some of the biggest stars in UFC. I was shocked how accesible they were. We saw Forrest Griffin and got his attention. We motioned to take a picture and he came over.

Despite the angle of this photo (we were up on another level) Forrest is actually my height but about seventy pounds of muscle heavier. It only got more awesome. Randy Couture was sitting ringside. Let me tell you how famous Randy Couture is in MMA. If I had to compare him to an NBA Superstar it would probably be someone like Shaq. Maybe not as great as he once was but still one of the best known. Randy could not have been more cordial. He came over, took pictures and was just cool.

We ended up meeting Rich Franklin, and Urijah Faber as well. Both of them were really nice. Jordan was wearing a Urijah Faber T-Shirt and Urijah tweeted about it. Needless to say it was awesome.

The card itself had changed greatly over the last few weeks because fighters kept getting hurt and pulling out so we low expectations for the actual event. We were blown away, virtually every fight was competitive or at least action packed. We had a great view of the Octagon, and as I glanced at the guy's ticket that was sitting next to me I saw we were sitting in $600 seats.

During a break in the action we saw UFC President Dana White. I am a huge Dana White fan and wanted to thank him for the tickets. We went up to him and and not surprisingly he was totally awesome, asked us if we were having a good time, and thanked us for coming.

By the time the main event came around we moved towards our original seats. Jordan being Jordan pulled a pretty amazing move. He told me "Peter, go left." The poor overmatched usher never saw us as we got on the floor. We stood right by the entrance when Rashad Evans walked towards the Octagon. He was pretty intense walking in.

The main event really took off in the third round , and turned into a slug fest. The crowd was going crazy as Silva, slugged Rashad  but he couldn't finish the fight. I along with Roger Clemens and MC Hammer cheered the decision.

Just an awesome evening. Jordan, Lon, and I ended up at the Orleans for some late night Chinese food. It was a great way to end the evening.

The Langfords were wonderful, and Tammy even cooked me breakfast. I got on the road by about 8:00 AM and might it home in time for church.

It was awesome and much of the thanks goes to this gentleman, who despite warnings from the UFC head of security doesn't let something as trivial as assigned seating stop him.