Monday, December 8th, 2008..
Red eye. It was the only way I would make it to Fayetteville, North Carolina in time for the weigh ins on Tuesday afternoon. The event was the UFC Fight Night for the troops and was being held just off the base in Ft Bragg. It was the second of four shows that Zuffa was throwing in the month of December. I was on the plane headed across the country by 11:00pm. I have to make a complaint, though. When I got to the airport to check in, Delta informed me that I would have to pay $15 for my bag. It was a policy that they had started just 3 days prior. I think Southwest is now the only airline that you don't have to pay for luggage.
I had a layover in Atlanta where I transferred from the huge 767 (you know two seats, 3 seats, two seats?) to a puddle jumper. That was one of the most uncomfortable hours of my life! The plane was almost empty and somehow I had ended up with a seat mate. He was a nice soldier named Jeff headed back to base from visiting family in Phoenix. He was so nice he even offered me a ride from the airport to my hotel on base 30+ minutes away. He was reading the Robb Report; for those who don't know what that is it's the magazine that costs $65 for a yearly subscription and showcases the ultimate in excess for the country's upper echelon. You know, the one's that the 45% tax bracket affects but they don't even notice it?? He shared one of the magazines with me and I flipped through it a minute before I handed it back and dozed off.
It seemed that I barely blinked my eyes and we were touching down. I looked out the window and noticed pine trees and forests in the surrounding areas; it reminded me more like mountainous areas in Cali near where I grew up, rather than 243ft above sea level (yes I was interested enough to look this statistic up..) I groggily followed my new friend Jeff to the baggage claim where I ran into Rhett who works for the UFC. He was picking up Chari to take her to the base so I jumped in with them; stopping to thank Jeff for his offer of a ride. We made a drive thru stop at Mickey D's for my first meal of MANY bad ones on that trip.
Now prior to arriving, I thought that the hotel I was staying in was located off base. Somehow the information I got was incorrect and I was actually on base, just not anywhere near where all the fighters were staying. They were put up in barracks (Hardy Hall and Moon Hall) and I was on the other side of the 19 sqaure mile base at the Landmark Inn. There were a couple fast food restaurants close by, but other than that not much. It was about 10am as I was checking in and I was thrilled to have time to get in a nap before heading to the weigh ins.
Media had a 2pm checkin at a golf clubhouse south of where I was staying. The weigh ins were west of where I was staying. It didn't make much sense, but there was a very strict protocol that we had to follow in order to be allowed to shoot photos on the base. I jumped in a cab with Diann from the UFC to make it to the checkpoint in time. We found Paul and Matt from Fight Magazine as well as a dude from ESPN there. I went into the proshop and grabbed a premade sandwich out of the fridge. I wasn't too hungry and it was pretty disgusting but I had been warned about finding food easily on base without a car.
We were shuttled over to Sports USA (a large sports bar on base) where the autograph signing and the weigh ins were being held. A long line of camouflaged, uniformed army personnel snaked through the parking lot to the back of the venue where a tent was set up for the fighters. We were there about 3 hours prior to the weigh ins so we were escorted to the back to take photos. Chuck, Randy, Brian Stann, Chris Lytle, Thiago Alves and Marcus Davis all greeted each of the soldiers, shook hands, and signed autographs. The soldiers were given tickets as well as special T shirts to wear to the event. Many brought the shirts with to have signed by the fighters; they did this from 12pm till after 4.
Dana White hosted a Q&A at 4 and quite a few people stepped up to ask questions. The weigh ins started at about 5:30 and went rather quickly as they always do. Only hiccup was that Brody Farber didn't make weight. He must have used the same scale to check his weight as Luigi Fioravanti because they both weighed in about 3lbs over. Afterwards I milled around and took photos; I met a lot of really cool people that day, shouts out to all of you. You know who you are!
I headed back to Hardy Hall with Rich Clementi where we hung out until Tim Credeur was ready to go to dinner. Rich had a copy of the Octagon Book so I thumbed through it for a few. I am looking forward to it coming out on Monday and think that I may forgo my rule about autographs to have this book signed by all the fighters that I know.
Tim was ready pretty quickly so six of us piled into a cab to head off base into Fayetteville for dinner. Destination? Carraba's for some good old Italian carbohydrates. The cabbie chain smoked the whole way there and although I kept quiet about it, Tim wasn't shy about showing his displeasure. It was about a $20 ride by the time we were dropped off in front of the restaurant if that tells you how spread out everything is out there.
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As we entered the restaurant, the smells and sounds had our mouths watering. There was a little bit of a wait, but it was only minutes before we were led to a table at the back of the restaurant. True to form, I pulled out my laptop to try and get the photos online from the weigh ins. Baskets of bread were brought out to help ease the hunger we were all feeling (especially Tim!) as we looked over our choices on the menu. We started off with some Calamari and then Tim ordered a pasta dish that included shrimp, mussels and clams, while Rich ordered 2 different meals as well as a side of italian sausage. I'm not even sure what Yves ordered but Georgetown and Rich settled for spaghetti with meatballs. I don't think there was any food left on the table; every single one of us finished our meal (Including Rich who ate 2!)
It was at that point that people started coming up to say hello and ask for autographs and pictures. Tim grabbed the bill and paid for the whole meal. We argued this, but he stated that it is a tradition that he, Rich, and many of their fighters have. We ordered some dessert (I did HORRIBLE on my diet!) and the waitress comped it for us! We stuck around in the front of the restaurant until the cab (thank god not the chimney from before) arrived to take us back to Hardy Hall. I grabbed a cab from there back to the Landmark Inn to call it a night.
I set my alarm for 6:15am. I wanted to get up and hit the breakfast buffett and then get some work done. I hit snooze till well after 9am so missed out on eating. I texted Ken Pavia who I knew was en route from the airport to pick up some food on the way. This consisted of sausage, ham or steak biscuits, hash browns and orange juice. This diet coupled with the fact that there was no gym at the hotel led to a feeling that I might not like how my clothes fit the following week.
I hopped in a cab with Ken at about 3:30 over to Moon Hall where all the fighters were being shuttled to the arena; he needed to drop off banners and sponsor shirts. All the teams were outside waiting patiently for their rides; I grabbed a few photos while waiting too. Allen Berube (Monstah Lobsta from season 5 of TUF) had driven 9 hours to be there and corner Corey Hill. He was accompanied by his pit bull, Monster. Monster tried to eat me on the way to the arena; good thing he was tied up in the front seat of Allen's rental car. No but truthfully he was a friendly dog, just super aggressive!
After a short pit stop at CVS for some double A batteries and some sugar free gummy bears, Allen dropped me off in front of the Arena. It was 4:45 and the rest of the media was out front milling around; waiting for 5pm when our credentials would be released. I shot pictures of the line outside the arena before heading back to the media room to grab a bite to eat. I took my sweet time as I had over an hour before the first fight started that night. Unlike most arenas, the media room was located right near the fighter's locker rooms. I watched as fighters, managers and corners walked in and out prior to the event.
There was a buzz of excitement that you I could feel throughout the arena. As I walked towards the octagon I noticed that the venue was filled with thousands of soldiers all wearing the UFC issued Fight Night T Shirts. I made my way to my photo position and got all my equipment locked and loaded.
The night began with a three round decison between Justin McCully and Eddie Sanchez; Justin walked away with the Unanimous Decision. When the next fight walked out, although Dale Hartt was former military, Corey Hill was the one that received more love from the fans. The fight started out like any other fights usually do and it seemed that Corey Hill took the first round. It was in the second round that tragedy struck; 20 seconds into the round Corey threw a kick that Dale checked and then they went down to the canvas. I heard Corey screaming, "My shin! My shin!" and the referee was stopping the fight. I looked to the screens around the arena to see what was happening but for some reason they weren't filming it. I knew something had to be seriously wrong. I figured he must have broken his leg, but no one really knew what had happened. When Joe Rogan interviewed Dale Hartt, they showed the replay and it was then that I saw the severity of the injury as Corey's lower leg broke in half and swung around. Joe Rogan called it the worst injury he had ever seen in the octagon. It gives me the chills everytime I think about it.
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There was quite a bit of time before the next fight as they attended to Corey in the cage. He was carried out on a backboard and it was another 15 minutes until the next fight started. Ben Saunders came out relentless and in under 2 minutes delivered a barrage of knees that left Brandon Wolff hospital bound as well; his face swelled up and one eye almost completely shut.
The next four fights almost seemed boring compared to what had already happened. Steve Bruno submitted Johnny Rees by Rear Naked Choke. Luigi Fioravanti won a unanimous decision against Brodie Farber. Baba O'Riley (you know, Teeange Wasteland?) began playing with the highlight reel on all the screens in the arena. Everytime I hear that song a happy feeling comes over me because it means that the night of excitement is about to begin. This night didn't feel the same with the injuries that had already happened.
Jim Miller, a 2 week replacement for Frankie Edgar, defeated Matt Wiman by Unanimous decision after an action packed battle. One that I feel almost ended with a guillotine in the first round. It was on my side of the cage and Matt's face was so red he looked close to passing out. As Jim's arms tired, Matt escaped the submission and they continued through the rest of the rounds to win the Fight of The Night bonus.
As if the event couldn't get any more exciting, Steve Cantwell stepped in the cage to make his UFC debut against Razak Al-Hassan. At 4:04 of the first round, Steve sent Razak to join the rest of the guys in the hospital with an arm bar submission. The Mike Swick made quick work of Jonathan Goulet with a :33 second knockout. They had a seat waiting for him in the hospital waiting room. I thought for sure that Mike had sealed KO of the night until Josh Koscheck threw a right at Yoshiyuki Yoshida 2:15 into the first round. The cageside doctors administered oxygen, placed him on a backboard, and sent him off as the final guest of the night to the hospital.
I was in shock as I played back the events of the evening in my head; 5 guys out of 10 fights went to the hospital! As I waited around in back to head back to the hotel I told Dana that it was the most brutal night of fights I had ever seen. He said to everyone around, "Had this fight happened 7 years ago, we probably wouldn't have been legalized."
Ken and I grabbed a shuttle back to Hardy Hall. Only after party I had heard of was one off base that Dale Hartt and Marcus Davis were heading to. Instead of doing that, we hopped around to a bunch of different spots where we knew people were hanging out. Dan Christoson picked us up and took us off base to a Special OPs bar called the Firehouse Pub. Chuck and his fiance Erin were there hanging out, as well as some of the other fighters and coaches. We ultimately ended up at Miami Subs for late night food around 3 am (I was avoiding Waffle House at all costs- there was one on either corner next to Miami Subs) and ran into Jonathan Goulet, Nate Loughran and their friends there.
Coincidentally, Ken and I had the same flight leaving Fayetteville. The UFC staff, some of the fighters, and some of the coaches did as well it seemed. I was tempted to pull out my camera in the airport but everyone seemed so drained (it was after 5am) that I just sat down next to Brian Stann and waited to board the puddle jumper. Considering most of the plane was people I knew, I was surprised that my seat mate wasn't "one of us". I dozed off and moments later we were landing in Atlanta. I waved goodbye to everyone and headed to my connecting flight to Nashville just a few gates over. Nashville? Thats all a part of my next adventure.
I wish Corey Hill well and hope you have a speedy recovery.
