It's coming. It's happening. It's finally here. Yippee. What has me so elated? The first big UFC mixed martial arts fighting event is coming to Toronto this Saturday. So not just yippee. Yippee motherfucker.
Collette and I are very excited, we've been waiting for this for a long time. But my excitement is tempered by a fair amount of disgust as well. And no, not disgust at the notion of two adult men hammering the bejeesus out of each other, that's the exciting part.
I enjoy this sport, as does Collette and I can appreciate for the fighter's skill, their conviction, their determination and the sheer competition of it all. But from the entire ticket buying process up to today, I am building a fairly acidic level of disgust for the organization that owns the fights, the UFC
Myself and many others had issues with how the tickets were sold. I acknowledge that this was a much anticipated event and I knew what it was going to sell out. This knowledge drove me join the UFC Fight Club for the opportunity to pre-purchase tickets, before the general public. We all know what happened. Something like 44,000 tickets sold out in minutes. When they opened up the rest of the Rogers Centre seatings opened up for sail, those went just as fast
Now let's reflect upon the fact that being a Fight Club member is not any kind of honorary talent. You pay for that privilege. All things said and done I paid over 100 bucks. Just for the opportunity to purchase seats far from where I would have wanted, in about 5 seconds after they went on sale. I still don't know where all those tickets to went so fast.
Today there was another incident that had me wondering. Today were the official weigh in's for the fight tomorrow. This is something that has evolved from some half naked guys standing on scales so that their official weight can be recorded to a full bore media event with the anticipation of said half naked guys trading punches ..
Well, it was free, so I decided to go. And with my oh so expensive Fight Club membership, I would get in earlier than the regular public. Now let's talk about "free" for a moment. When I go to Ricoh stadium it was clear from the already huge lineup that pretty much all the seats, certainly all the good seats would be going to the Fight Club members. People who paid to attend this free event.
Just like the fight itself
Of course I brought cameras. I brought Collette's Nikon and I brought my handycam. Now I know for the fight no audio-video recording devices will be allowed, fair enough but nowhere on my Weigh In "free" ticket that I had printed out beforehand did it make mention of this. Nor did it mention something about the lens on the Nikon being "too big"
I was told I could check my cameras. At a stadium filled with thousands of people and cared for by teenagers who's lack of energy only matched their lack of experience. Are you fucking kidding me? That is thousands of dollars worth of gear. That little piece of paper you give me in return is just not going to cover a mistake is it. "It's a professional camera" they told me. Well it could be used by a pro but it's not a Hasselblad, it's not even the highest end Nikon DSLR by a long shot .. you can't just automatically call it a pro camera
And sorry, I am not checking it. So I went home. Was I a spoiled brat? That's Collette's baby. Sorry, I'll stomp my feet, cross my arms and hold my breath before I turn it over to strangers
I am curious to find out how many members of the public got in to this event This free event. Where first seating went to people who paid a hundered bucks
I am looking forward to the fights tomorrow, I want to concentrate on that action but I am getting a very bad taste in my mouth about the UFC.
I'm a fan not a fighter. But I'll fight for my right to be that fan
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