Well where the heck do I start this blog? I think it's going to start where Miguel drives me into Chicago after he gets done with practice. I have a whole Miguel Torres blog coming later this week, but for now I'm going to just talk about my UFC weekend adventures... And there were a lot of them!!
So it was a dark and stormy night.. No joke!! Ok, maybe I exaggerate, but only a little! We had left his academy in Hammond, IN and made the 20 minute drive into the city. Miguel had informed me that had there been traffic, the same drive can easily take upwards of 45 minutes to an hour. We were en route to Sushi Samba for the Fight Chix fight preparty.
I had Cole Miller and his buddy Cliff meeting me there and knew that Miss Rara, Jake and Beth would be there already. Right before I got to the restaurant though, I had realized that the pleasant dinner that I was looking forward to among friends, we my own misconception because of the time the flier had said; 9pm. I had assumed that it was a dinner get together! Miguel and I made our way to the crowded upstairs lounge, took one look around and decided that we needed to have dinner downstairs in the restaurant. It was at the downstairs bar that I found Cole and Cliff as well as two of their friends. We had no sooner had the host seat us when I decided this was not where I wanted to have dinner. I couldn't hear what people were saying and had to scream so they could hear me because the band in the restaurant was SO loud. Realizing I was coming off super high maintenance, I was thankful that many of the others were not happy in the current situation and were only happy to oblige my sensible demands.
So we started walking. We were joined by Eric from Ironheart Crown (one of the Chicago Area's oldest fight promotions) as well as his girlfriend, and his friend, Karl. Across the street was Lou Malnates, one of Chicago's best places for deep dish pizza. I could tell from looking through the window that this journey wasn't successful as the venue had closed for the evening. We took a left down Hubbard and walked about five more blocks until we made it to Rockit Ranch. I had eaten there previously and enjoyed it so was pretty stoked in the group's decision.
We were carded at the door, and as the entire group piled in to the bar, I walked to the host stand to get a table for nine. Within moments it was set up and the group was relaxing in Rockit's dark, comfortable atmosphere. We ordered our food and then spent the next couple of ours enjoying small talk amongst ourselves; something we were unable to do in the beautiful but incredibly LOUD Sushi Samba restaurant. Much of the conversation was fight industry based because so many of us there are involved in the industry. My wings and sweet potato fries were a tasty treat; so not on my diet but as you will see throughout the weekend I didn't keep to my diet much at all!
After our meal was done the group separated into two and the one I was with headed back to Sushi Samba to get our vehicles. In the photos, Cole is not throwing gang signs although it may look like he is. Those are actually peaceful animals he is making with his hands. Maybe you can figure out what they are? Once we had the cars, the guys managed to drag me to a stripclub (drag? Not like I was kicking and screaming, but I'm definitely never the one encouraging such a journey.. Or am I?) called VIP's. As we pulled up, I said this looks just like the area Crobar is in. Um, yeah.. Duh, Crobar was next door; Something I didn't notice until after we left the strip club.
Miguel dropped me off at Spybar where I said hello to my friends at the door and then ventured into the depths of one of Chicago's hottest spots. International DJ, Pete Tong was on the decks and was enough of a draw that my chicago DJ friends were out in full force; Bad Boy Bill, Steve Smooth, JJ Flores, Alex Peace, Big Steve, Mixin Marc, and even Scotty Boy from Las Vegas! I took a ton of photos that I didn't put on Combatlifestyle. If you wanna check em out look here:
Kickin' it at Spy Bar Wednesday Night
I didn't shut the place down thank god, but I know I didn't head to sleep until at least 4am. Thank god the place I was staying at was directly around the corner from the club!
Thursday morning, I slept in.. I usually will set an alarm, but somehow I passed out without doing so. I woke to an empty condo fully expecting there to be people there. Oh well, it was 10:30 and I had get ready for the press conference and be at the ESPN Zone at 1pm. I got showered and changed for the cold weather and stepped out into the brisk air at 12:45. I knew it was close enough to walk if I hadn't lagged as long as I did, but within moments I had flagged a cab and it was dropping me off at the venue located about 8 blocks away.
I walked upstairs to check in and I was handed a media packet and a Playboy with Miss Rachelle Leah on the cover. How cool is the UFC?? lol! I grabbed a plate of pasta and vegetables from the buffett that was set out for us media folk. Within minutes the press conference got under way and I was surprised as Anderson Silva stepped to the podium and attempted to speak to the media in English. I haven't had any time to catch any part of The Ultimate Fighter this season where apparently he speaks in English quite often. His faceoff with Patrick Cote was nose to nose, almost as if it was planned. But how the French and the Brazilian fighters pulled that off was beyond was beyond me.
I had spotted Matt Lindland at the pressser and as it adjourned I looked to find him to say hello, but I guess no sooner had Dana ended it, he had slipped out the back door like a shadow in the night. Except it was bright daylight outside, lol. So I made my rounds around the room that at ESPN zone had recliners along the entire front of it for the guys that came there to watch football games (or any sports for that matter). I waited patiently for Rachel and Diann to finish up working so we could partake in a Chicago tradition together.
Gino's East was located a few blocks away from the ESPN Zone and was our destination after the conference. Everytime I go to Chicago I HAVE to have a Chicago style Pizza; it's really the only time I ever eat it (thank god!). We were seated, and put in our order as fast as we could because the piping hot pie took 45 minutes to cook. It was well worth the wait when they served the small slice of heaven to us less than an hour later. With our tummies full, the girls went shopping and I went back to my friend's condo to get some work done.
Fast forward a few hours and I had talked to Miguel Torres. He was making the journey from the fighter hotel that was located about 20 minutes away at O'Hare airport. He had a full carload that included Cole Miller, Arianny Celeste, Leslie, and Eric. Their desination was the Chicago Chop House. We all had plans to meet up later that evening, so I made some adjustments and was ready early. I grabbed a cab over to the restaurant to hang out as I had eaten a chicken sandwich from Portillo's just moments before.
There were extra seats at the table; I inquired as to who else was joining us and was told, Clay Guida. Appetizers started arriving to the table as did the bottles of wine. Cole seemed to be on a wine kick the entire trip; he doesn't have any fights scheduled as of yet, so he has the luxury. Miguel and I both stuck to water. Clay showed up sometime right before the food arrived and everyone enjoyed their meals with the light hearted banter that went back and forth across the table.
Clay and Cole jumped into Clay's new Ford Flex to give Arianny, Leslie, and Eric a ride back to the hotel. Miguel and I were afraid that we wouldn't see them the rest of the night, but Clay assured me that they were coming to join us out partying. So we made our way over to Club 720 where a number of UGer's (www.mixedmartialarts.com for those of you who don't know!) were meeting up to salsa. Shonie Carter was on the front steps of the club to greet us before we went inside.
The place wasn't packed, but in our group there was at least 20 people there headed up by Miss Rara, Jake and Beth from FightChix Clothing. There was a combination of Salsa music mixed with current Hip Hop music and I watched as Miguel and Rara began to cut a rug. I took photos (as I am sometimes known to do) and was stopped by a pack of french canadians to take their picture; friends of Cote's that had made the journey from Toronto.
We spent about an hour at the venue before being escorted by the owner of the club over to Enclave a little over a block away. We cut through a dark alley to get there but this was a fun adventure and was in no way menacing given the company we were keeping. The owner walked us into the club and then took off back to his own venue.
I had frequented Enclave a numbed of times in the past so I was surprised to see that over 50% of the club was shut off. I think it was after 1 at this time and we hung out for maybe 15 minutes before the club started to close. This was about this time that Cole and Clay were getting back so we met them in the parking lot to keep them from spending the standard 12 bucks to valet park. I jumped in the back of the car, Miguel went to get his car, and we all met over at Level Nighclub on Rush St.
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For as long as I can remember, Level has been a Thursday night late night spot. When we arrived the place was just starting to get busy. We had beaten everyone in our group there due to Clay Guida's Grand Theft AUto style of driving. I said hello to a couple of the managers that I hadn't seen in quite some time, and then was herded into a back VIP area complete with comp bottles that Fight Chix had set up. It was getting close to 3am by this point and I had to make an appearance at Spybar. Miguel was over it too so he dropped me off on his way home.
James Zabiela is one of my favorite electronic DJs from London and it just happened that he was playing Thursday night at Spybar. I went over to say hello to him, as well as the friends I knew would be there to see him, but I didn't stay long because Clay was coming to give me a ride out to the hotel where I was staying the rest of the week. As I waited for him out front, I watched as some of the staff ended up in a fight with a guy who was causing trouble out front. The fight went to the ground and I watched as one of the guys who trains with Arlovski's jujitsu coach attempted to put the guy in an arm bar. That was new for a street fight, and made me chuckle but the fight was quickly over and the cops were called. The guys causing trouble had already taken off by then.
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By the time Clay pulled up looking for me, I was sitting in the back of the cop car, conversing with the cops. Thats one thing about Chicago's finest. They're WAY nice and laid back and I know, I know, I'm a girl of course they're going to be nice but I've even had them drive me and friends home instead of taking taxi's before. I waved goodbye, and jumped into Clay's truck.. Off to O'hare!!
Again I slept in! I called Clay to find out what time we were meeting his mom for lunch. If you guys don't know about Mrs Guida, she's the female voice you can hear in the background on TV during his fights, Lol.. She is such an awesome lady that I have had the pleasure of knowing for the past year. I had texted Clay early in the week about wanting to see her, but she had taken initiative to email me to plan going to lunch on Friday. I met Clay at his room where I was startled by what looked like fight manager, Dean Albrecht when I walked in. Turns out he had a cardboard stand up of the dude from the Sopranos. We left to pick up Mrs Guida and her friend (and ran into Randy and Kim on the way to the car) and went in search of a restaurant nearby as our time was short to make it to weigh ins all the way downtown.
We ate at a place called the Holy Cow. I took a photo of it's namesake on the way in. The front bar area of the location had a HUGE group of canadians from Toronto sitting there. How did I know they were Canadian? #1, they were drinking and singing at the top of their lungs as canadians are often known to do, and #2 they had Chuck Liddell Toronto Seminar shirts on from the previous weekend. I noticed one of them checking out Clay when we had been seated but we ordered and ate most of the meal before the entire group turned silent and I looked up to see ALL of them staring at Clay. Not sure what set them in motion but all of a sudden they were next to him to take photos as he held out his burger for the picture. The guys were so awesome, they even paid for our entire meal (eat your heart out, Huntington Punk)!
We dropped Debbie (Clay's Mom) and her friend off and ran by the hotel to grab my backpack. It was after 3 and we had to go all the way to the Chicago Theatre located downtown on State St. As long as there was no traffic, we would make it no problem. No sooner did we get on the freeway were we in bumper to bumper traffic. Remember what I said about Clay's GTA style of driving? Well he put it into high gear, hit alternate route on his navigation and was weaving in and out to make it there in time. He dropped me off in plenty of time; It was 3:50 when I picked up my credentials at the front of the gorgeous and amazingly beautiful location.
I made my way inside to one of the very few seats left in the press section. I said hello to all my "brothers" I have become family with through all my travels with the UFC. The weigh ins started and were over very quickly, save Josh Burkman who came in at 173. I feel like the person working the scale did it wrong because of how long each weigh in took him, and the fact that after a few minutes, Burkman reweighed well under.
I jumped over the partition and Sean Shelby helped me climb on the stage. Add a 35lb backpack to my weight and my close to 190lbs almost pulled him off the stage! I ran around inviting everyone to the Combatlifestyle.com One Year Anniversary party that I was throwing that night at Spybar from 12am to 4 am. I hoped that everyone would show!
I ran outside as a small marching band strutted loudly past the front of the Chicago Theatre and down into the subway. I love the weird oddities of being in a major city such as Chicago; Chicago is just cleaner than most and the people are friendlier as it is located in the midwest. Clay pulled up across the street and we headed back out to O'hare to the hotel. The traffic going back on Friday afternoon was amazingly slim especially compared to what we had experienced earlier. He drove and I organized my photos to try and get them online as fast as I could.
Once at the hotel, I ran into Duke Roufus and Pat Berry as I was heading upstairs. They were there with some guys for the TUF tryouts on Monday. In my room, I finished uploading the photos from the weigh ins. A lot of the fighters had gone to dinner in downtown as well as many of my friends. Normally I would have gone with some of them but I had places to go, people to see.
To be continued...
Check out the site tomorrow for UFC 90 Weekend, Part 2!
