UFC 129: HANGING OUT WITH A FEW OF OUR FRIENDS

OK now that I've posted my rant about the uber corporate greed of the UFC, it's time to talk about the events of the weekend. I attended a little free "fan festival" at Dundas Square on Thursday, then Collette and I went to the big even, UFC 129 on Saturday night.

The fan fest was a free event, held on a cool drizzly day which wasn't a bad thing, as it kept down the ravenous crowds that went to the fight and to the pay-to-enter Fan Fest also held this week.

There were a few tents on the square, one of them holding various pieces of UFC memorabilia.

Among other things in the truck was the only authentic touring UFC belt ... not exactly sure why I should be excited about this, but here it is
A few fighters showed up to sign autographs, including perennial lightweight contender John Fitch ..

... self-styled mma badboy Josh Koshcek ...
Koshcheck and Fitch remained on stages but light heavyweight Ryan Bader walk around the square, letting anyone pose with him for a picture and even allowing a rather dubious young man demonstrate his "kung fu" moves. Security wanted to move in my Bader waved him off; the person in question probably weighed about 145 pound while Bader could rent out his back as a highway billboard.
But this soggy little "festival" was merely a precursor for the real deal: UFC 129 at the Rogers Centre (that's the Skydome for us old farts)
Collette and I (and 55,000 of our closest friends) entered our corporate coliseum to watch our heavily tattooed and endorsement bedecked gladiators do battle. We got there in time to watch the first fight at 6 pm and stayed till the very end, some 12 fights later.

The UFC promised us spectacle and that, overall, is what they delivered. Hundreds of computer controlled lights, dozens of video screens, some 80 feet wide (and from our seats in the 200 level, we needed those) and a sound system powerful enough to be used by police to disperse crowds.

Beyond spectacle, the greedimaniacs at the UFC knew what we wanted ... the fight card was stacked with Canadian fighters, most from Montreal and a few from Toronto, such as lightweight Mark Bocek. Eight Canadians in all including the main draw of the fight, welterweight George St-Pierre who defended his title against American Jake Shields. The Canadians did well, winning most of their bouts. Local boy Mark Hominick lost his quest for the featherweight belt against Jose Aldo, but showed a lot of grit, including fighting through a goose egg on his head the size of a Gemini space capsule, and taking the champ to the mat in the final round and pounding the tar out of him .. too little too late perhaps, but the crowd reacted with a roof raising roar.

The two loudest roars of the night came at the entrance of two particular fighters. No surprise that Canadian champ St-Pierre got a crushing ovation but so did an American: UFC hall of famer Randy Coture, fighting in the last bout of his long career. Now, Randy has said this before, but he is 47 and I don't see another comeback, even for Captain America.

Overall we got what we came for: Lots of actions, knock outs, many fights not needing to go to the judges score card. George won, which is what we wanted, even if it was not the most thrilling fight of the night.

There is an adage that in the right circumstance, a crowd can become its own character, that it can be a factor in a sporting event. Local fighter Claude Patrick has said that the first time he slammed Daniel Roberts to the mat he could feel the crowd respond .. so he kept slamming the man and won the match.

I've been to the Rogers Centre many times but I have never seen as it was Saturday night; absolutely filled to capacity. Literally, every seat in the stadium was occupied. And although there were more than a few young men intoxicated before the first leg kick was thrown, most were there for the same experience and the tens of thousands of us were united for a common purpose: To see these highly skilled and strongly motivated athletes kick some ass

Records were set. The largest crowd ever for a mixed martial arts event. Tickets sold to patrons in just about every country on the planet. And of course, more money stuffed into the UFC's pockets than ever before.

The greed of the UFC still leaves a rather bad taste in my mouth but I have to say, as a fan, I left the dome very satisfied. We saw some great fights, many times I was driven to my feet and I bounded with some of the fans around me.

But I'm not taking any of them home.

Here's a video with highlights from the fan fest and from the fight itself. The fight footage was recorded on Collette's new Panasonic DMC-TS3 waterproof pocket camera.

UFC 129 from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

FIGHT FANS FIGHT TO BE FANS

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

HOW TO GET BEAT UP BY THE UFC WITHOUT EVER ENTERING THE CAGE

For those of you who regularly read this blog (I will stop asking why, we all have mental health issues) you will know that Collette and I both fans of the combat sport know as Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA. You may also remember that I have been a big supporter of this sport being sanctioned here in Ontario and that, of course, I take full and personal responsibility for making that so

Ahem

At any rate, it did not take long for the UFC to announce a major MMA card here in Toronto. They wanted to break an attendance record for the fight and were careful to load the card with Canadian fighters, including the reigning welterweight champ, George St Pierre

UFC president, the urbane and erudite Dana White (that is so a joke, this guy has all the class and manners of a drunken 500 pound gorilla from the Ozarks and yes, that is an insult to people from the Ozarks) selected the Rogers Centre, formerly the Sky Dome as the venue, hoping to sell at least 40,000 seats. No, that is not a typo. Forty thousand seats
Collette and I wanted to go. Not just because we are fans of the sport but because we have been waiting for this for a long time. We've never before been able to see a big scale MMA event and we wanted in on this one And for once, we were in a position to grab really good seats, even with an announced price range from 800 dollars (ringside and close enough to identify which fighter's blood you have just been splashed with) to 50 dollars (in the upper 500 seats where you not only good nose bleeds but you are given free oxygen.
We knew these tickets would go quickly. MMA and the UFC are hugely popular here, Ontario regularly buys more UFC pay per view events than other location in the world. But this is also Toronto, where if something is new, if it's the first, people have to jump all over it, just to say they could. And if it costs money, like an inordinate amount of money, they have to get in on it, just prove they have more money than brains. That is like a badge of honour in this city.

So we knew we had a fight on our hands. But I never thought it was a fight that would make me feel as if I had just gone a round with the champ

OK, Mr St Pierre could make me cry with a stern look, but you get my point. One thing I did to gain an advantage was to join the UFC Fight Club, which would allow me pre buy tickets a few days before the general public for the oh so lovely low low price of almost 100 bucks. Yes. It's true. During this whole endeavour, I may have lost my mind

Or lost more of my mind

Or the rest of my mind

Or something

Now, for this pre sale, the only way to acquire tickets was online, via TicketMaster. You know TicketMaster, otherwise known as the Anti Christ. I hate Ticket Master. I have never had a satisfactory experience dealing with them. It always seems to me that no matter how diligent you are, jumping through the hoops they establish, I never get the seats that I want, seats that always seem for sale on the street the evening of the event. Whenever I can, I deal directly with the box office of the venue, but that option at this point was not available.

So there I go, my 100 dollar pre sale code in hand, at my computer right on time, hovering around the Ticket Master site as if it was going to do something miraculous, like part the Red Sea or turn my ponytail brown again ...

I connected with Ticket Master right away. Less than a minute after the tickets went on sale, the best I could do was the 200 section at the Dome. A minute after that, only 500 level seats were left. Five minutes after 10 am, no tickets were available ...

I know some people through this offer were able to get the floor seats I was yearning for. Part of the problem was that you were allowed to purchase 8 seats per order. I know for a fact that many people did this even though they did not have that many people in their party. So golly, we aren't much encouraging scalping are we?

At first "only" 40,000 seats were available. They were sold out by the time the public could purchase, a couple of days later. So they opened up the rest of the dome. For kicks, I went online again. Public tickets went onsale at 10 am. I was offered a couple of seats 10 seconds after 10 .. and only 500's were available

At first I was disapointed and certainly pissed off. All is not kosher here. There are lots of floor level seats available on Craiglist and sites known for scalping. There is no doubt in my mind that Ticket Master "loses" large blocks of tickets that show up for sale elsewhere

But I know many many many many people, who paid their 100 bucks and did their due dilligence were not able to get seats. And I know at least half a dozen people who "lost" their tickets in the electronic Hell that is Ticket Master

So I am not so much disapointed. Not pissed off, but I'm disgruntled. Hell, I'm almost always disgruntled. I think that is part of my charm.

Ahem. Shut up

But it actually does piss me off that one company can have such a monopoly. Who's policing it? Probably not police, there isn't a Summit to patrol and young women with soap bubbles to intimidate ... but I digress. Which is pretty much the point of this blog anyway

But for all my whining and moaning I did buy tickets. And for more money than what they are worth. And we will go see the fights. And buy the overpriced beer and fart out the overpriced food ... Will we go to see another? That remains to be seen

I'm going to start saving now. And waiting in line for my tickets

THE POWER OF THE WHINE

If we didn't already have confirmation of the power of The Hairy Edge, there is even more proof. Earlier this week I wrote another post bemoaning the fact that the government Ontario failed to give in to reason and popularity, and sanction professional MMA fighting.

Well apparently, Premiere Dalton McGinty is a fan of this blog. Because it was announced yesterday that this province will soon me hosting mma fights, including the UFC. Many reporters seemed baffled by this sudden turn of events and wondered what was the impetus for the government's sudden about face on this issue. Not only did McGinty change his mind, the watchdogs could not understand what mysterious, pervasive force held such sway over the powers that be

Well, we all know the answer don't we.

Could it be this blog's incisive, thoughtful, persuasive insight that finally battered down the doors of resistance?

Or could it just be the power of the whine?

I'll let history write the answer

Now the question is: With this issue put to bed, whatever will I whine about? Oh I think that is a rather a moot point don't you. I can always find something to whine about, even it it's just that I have nothing to whine about

Pass the cheese and hang on

NO BLOOD IN ONTARIO? YOU BET!

So ... over the weekend my brother RJ and I went out to see some mma fights, including the UFC middeweight championship. We went to a local bar and for most of the fight, it was pretty packed. As I've stated before, mixed martial arts and the UFC in particular is extremely popular and particularly popular in Ontario. Fights like this one, shown only on pay per view, are purchased more in this province than almost any other place on earth.
But this is not a post about professional fighting, well not entirely. It's really a post about a lack lustre government with no sense of initiative, imagination or a sense of care about it's constituents.

Dalton McGinty's gov't has often used mma's reputation for brutality and violence as one of the principle reasons why they will not sanction it here. Never mind that Ontario sanctions boxing, hockey, football and full contact martial arts tournaments ... mma is the big bad barbaric blood sport that is just too much for us poor unwashed masses to deal with ... isn't it nice that this gov't is looking out for us?


Yeh, this would be the gov't that gave themselves 24,000 dollar raises, pay 25,000 to have their speeches written, squandered millions of dollars (our dollars) on eHealth, and permitted millions of dollars to be stolen by lottery ticket vendors on their watch ...


And that brings me to the crux of this rant. Mixed martial arts tournaments are too immoral for us to view. But gambling is good for us. Gambling is family friendly, ethics-teaching, discipline reinforcing behaviour ... This gov't is heavily invested in gambling. Lottery tickets, off track gambling, casinos, horse racing, slot machines at horse tracks ... But apparently not invested enough. Because now, as if don't have enough access to gambling, the Ontario gov't is getting into the business of online gambling.


Online gambling. Yeh, there's no possibility of that creating issues with people. It's one thing that people have to go to a gas station to buy a lottery ticket or to the race track or to a casino where you can check ID's and scrutinize a credit card and maybe have rules against people playing for 20 hrs straight ...

I have nothing against gambling. I don't really indulge myself but I view it as I view drinking alcohol; it's a choice but it's a choice for adults. I think booze is over regulated here but I also acknowledge that certain controls should be put in place, it's a potentially addictive pleasure and can affect your health. We know gambling can be potentially addictive. And we know it can have long and lasting impacts on people and their families. Having said that, I have no issue with legalized gambling. But if a gov't is involved in it, shouldn't they have maximum concerns about any potential pitfalls?

Their justification for all this: Well all that over spending and mis-spending has put them .. or I should say us ... in quite the economic bind. And they know online gambling will inject hundreds of millions of dollars into the public coffers ... to replace millions of dollars lost to illegal handling of lottery tickets. Gosh, how do you spell irony?

So the UFC is a huge rich organization, legal in several other Canadian provinces that wants to come to Ontario. There is no doubt that sanctioned mma fights will infuse millions into the economy, including from taxes. But watching trained professional athletes beat each other up is a blood sport too rich for our blood; it's too barbaric and too psychologically disturbing.

But online gambling, which will surely have young people all over the province glued to their computers at all hours, draining their credit cards, opening themselves up to all kinds of computer fraud .. now that is good clean moral fun.

Maybe this is it: As popular as the UFC is, we probably won't have a major fight here more than once year and all the other smaller promotions just won't have the economic stamina .. whereas online, hell you can be online all the time, just pumping that money into the system. And hell, people may go into debt, they may develop an addiction, they may neglect their families and their jobs but you know what .. there won't be any blood

No blood in Ontario? You bet

MARTIAL ARTS HAVE GONE TO THE DOGS

As I have mentioned in the past, Collette and I are big fans of Mixed Martial Arts, also known as MMA, in particular the Ultimate Fighting Championship, otherwise known as the UFC. It is a full contact fighting sport that combines a variety of martial arts including boxing, wrestling, ju jitsu, mui thai, judo and many others. Essentially a typical fight is comprised of two components; stand up (boxing, kick boxing etc) and the ground game (wrestling, ju jitsu, grappling). You can win by knock out or by submission by way of tap out ... OK that is the educational component of this blog. Hope you paid attention. There will be a test later.

Yesterday, in Viewmount park, Collette and I witnessed a live MMA fight that rivalled anything we've paid for on Pay Per View. It featured two young and up and coming mixed martial arts fighters who, although they lacked in experience, make up for it in enthusiasm and ferocity. Officiating is important in MMA, the ref has a lot of power, protecting the fighters, keeping the action flowing and even stopping a fight to determine a winner. Luckily, a wily and veteran ref happened to be on hand for this match.

TALE OF THE TAPE:

IN THE TAN CORNER: A five month old huskie from Siberia, a grappling specialist with impressive submission skills, this middle weight fighter is known for his effective throat hold submission move, introducing Barky:

IN THE BLACK & WHITE CORNER: A three month old Collie from the Border regions this lightweight fighter is a stand up specialist known for her take down defence and lightning quick offense, introducing Terra:

OUR REFEREE: One of the most experienced officiants in the sport, a former welterweight champion, known for her devastating stand up as well as her dominating ground game, a legend of MMA .. Hayley:

As the first round gets underway, Barky uses his weight advantage to good effect, taking Terra to the mat, pinning her and going for a quick submission

Barky uses his superior grappling skills, to pin his smaller opponent, but Terra maintains an effective guard, keeping Barky to a side mount

In a stunning reversal, Terra breaks the hold and gains the dominant position, attempting a full mount to initiate some ground and pound .. or perhaps that should be ground and bite.

The ref moves in, reminding the two young fighters about "bites to the face"

The fighters gain their feet and quickly engage, fighting for position, locking up, dancing in the middle of the ring, testing each other's strength

The ref, like the crowd, grows bored with the action

In a stunning move, Terra uses uses an obscure and probably illegal mui thai take down and gains full mount inside Barky's guard

Barky attempts a counter, but Terra retains her position through strength, guile, and the threat of peeing on her opponent.

Terra presses her advantage, trying for total domination of the other fighter and securing her victory and .. oh wait! Is that a tennis ball?

The ref's disinterest reaches an all time high ...

Sensing the match may be getting out of hand, Terra employs a never fail martial arts technique employed by females around the world over for thousands of years .. the dreaded kiss lock

Not even our valiant grappling specialist can deal with such overwhelming technique .. and besides that WAS a tennis ball ...

So, Mr Dana White, president of the UFC, we await your call. We expect to get paid in Milk Bones. Canadian.

LOVE, BLOOD & BONDING

Please note, the word in the title is bonding, not bondage. That will be covered in a later post. Ah-hem.


What this post is really about is the things that people have in common, the things that bring them together, and the things that keep them there. OK, maybe for some of you that could indeed be bondage, but in our household ropes are used to hang pictures.


But what does bring Collette and I together is blood ... and this post is sounding kinkier and kinkier as we go along. What I mean by blood is a blood sport, in particular, the sport of MMA or mixed martial arts fighting. Collette and I are both fond of this sport, in particular the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC. And a blood sport it is; fists land, elbows fly, knees pummel. Blood flows. Sometimes liberally. A Maui thai elbow to the forehead is a pretty effective can opener. And Collette and I love it. No argument, no explanation, no justification, we jut love it.

Both of us.


A couple of weeks ago we ordered our first ever pay per view. Although we both love and devour movies it was not a movie, it was a UFC event. There was no discussion about this, no negotiation, we both knew right away that this particular event (two title fights and a truly kick ass undercard) was worth buying. This sport is a shared passion, perhaps even a binding passion.


Why binding? Because although this is an increasingly popular sport, it is not universally so, in fact many people hate it, calling it brutal and tasteless We call those people wimps. Like any passion you may have, it is always special to find someone who shares it. UFC apparently has a growing female following but I still think it's special to find a woman who is truly into the sport; having that woman be the one I live with is a real convenient bonus.


When Collette and I first moved in together, one of the first things we did was vette each other's record collection (yes, young readers, records, flat black discs of plastic from which sound emanated; like a CD, with soul). Out went Collette's Air Supply records. Out went Vic's John McGlaughlin records. One of the things we had in common was Alice Cooper, we each had three records .... but the exact same three records. Goosebumps, raised hair, feeling of soul mates met and maybe that Alice only ever made three really solid records ....


The first movie I took her to see was Harlan Ellion's A Boy And His Dog ... to all my fellow dog/border collie enthusiasts if you don't know about this movie, fair warning: Lassie it ain't. It is a little post apocalypse special starring a very baby Don Johnson and his telepathic dog; this heart warming duo roam the bombed out countryside seeking out canned peaches, porn, and women in such a state of dehydration and emotional despair they make easy rape targets. Then he meets the young lady from the civilized down under, an artificially happy environment where all the males have become sterile. So down goes Don, whose rampant survivor spunk is used to impregnate e the local female population, one girl at a time. Oh, and then Don must make a choice between his dog and the young lady and the movie ends with a cheerful BBQ ... of a sort. I look at it as a comedy.


But a first date, romantic comedy, feminist movie this ain't ... I could imagine most girls turning and running. But we know Collette is not most girls. It has become one of our favorite movies, and we own a copy on VHS as well as a bootleg in DVD We love this movie and some of the plot points and dialogue have become part of our personal lexicon.

Going back to music, this is another thing that binds us. Nothing unusual there, this is probably one of the most us things that people have in common .. or don't, with all the ensuing issues. I've always had a love of the blues, Collette had a passion for Celtic music when we met and she still does. I certainly enjoy that music but it is fair to say that she is more enthusiastic about it than I. But the blues have become another shared passion, especially the music of B.B. King who we have been fortunate to see many times here in Toronto as well as the Women's Blues Revue, about which I have posted before. We each still enjoy musical tastes that the other may not share but I can hear a piece of music and know, without a doubt, that Collette will enjoy it; that is rare, I can only say that for two other people in my life, my brother Ed and our friend Karen.

I've learned, over the years, to concentrate on the things that we have in common, as opposed to the things that we disagree on. Disagreeing is easy, finding those bonds, outside of members of your own family, is rare. Be it a post apocalyptic movie to the devil's music to a guy ripping another guy's arm out of his socket, these are things that may not have brought us together, but the things that bind us there.