Fight Night

(Sorry this is a really long post, I'm not sure how to write a short story)


On Friday night I had a new experience and attended my first "fight". Normally not something I can ever imagine myself going to, but my friend Wade was fighting so I went. My friend Jenny ended up going with me and I found out on the way to the fight that she won't even let her husband watch a fight on tv because they bother her so much, so I'm very grateful that she attended as my date. The fights are mixed martial arts fought in a cage at a club in Salt Lake. They have them every Friday night and are televised on the CW or Comcast OnDemand if you have it. I try to avoid any type of confrontation at all costs so I wasn't sure what I would think about watching guys volunteer to beat the crap out of each other.

So here is my run down of the night. I take no responsibility if the events that night did not happen exactly as I describe them. This is what I remember. And I don't know their names, and I'm not sure even if I matched them up correctly (I don't think some of them were listed on the website, not like any of you except Wade were there, so how would you know.)

Fight 1

white shorts vs green shorts

This fight went the full 3 rounds. Almost the whole thing was on the mats in different wrestling moves. It's pretty obvious to tell who is in control when one person is on top of the other smashing their face in, but when they are all twisted just laying on the ground, I wasn't ever really sure who was "winning". Green got a few good knees into whites kidneys which looked pretty painful. The first 2 rounds seemed to go to green but I was a little confused. I asked the guy next to me and he explained a little more about what was going on and how the judging goes. And proceeded to tell me how it was obvious that green won the fight. Near the end of the fight white was sitting on top of green, but just sitting there, not hitting him or anything and looked like he was going to pass out. Then they announced the decision and it went to white. So I guess I wasn't the only one confused. I didn't want white to win mostly because he was wearing these dorky overalls and straw hat as part of his "persona". He even had to put them back on before his post-interview. I think it took away any cred he had from winning the fight.

Fight 2


toughy vs newbie

(I'm not positive that is the right guy for toughy, they all look different in the ring)
This fight lasted 30 seconds. Toughy got newbie down to the mat and had his arm bent back at the elbow. His arm was gonna snap if it stayed like that and newbie "tapped out". New fighting term I learned, they tap the mat and end it. Even though this was the shortest fight of the night, it caused the most drama. Turns out newbie's dad was in the crowd and I'm not sure if it was alcohol induced, but the guy was an ass. The dad went on for at least 5 minutes screaming at the top of his lungs something about the fight which I could not understand one minute of. The fact that the fight was over and they were just doing what ever they do at the end of fight to finalize things, made it even more obvious. He start really getting on everyone nerves that was anywhere near him.

The guy sitting next me asked Wade's brother-in-law if he had his back, and then told the guy to shut up. The fact that Jenny and I were the two people in between the dad and guy sitting next to me was not the most comfortable place to be. Luckily the dad walked away after a few mean looks back. The guy sitting next to me later went to the bar and the dad bought him a drink and apologized. I guess it was his son's first fight and he was just a little amped up. Still, I wouldn't recommend he follow his son around to other fights.

Fight 3













tattoo vs some guy that I couldn't find his picture

It was pretty obvious before this fight that tattoo was a little more experienced. Some guy held his own well enough to last all 3 rounds, but it was very obvious who won, even I was able to tell that tattoo got it. During the post-interview it turned out that some guy didn't know how much he weighed and was actually in a different weight class then what he thought. So they had to find someone in a different class last minute to fight him. Sadly for him tattoo is a regular (or at least that's the impression I got.) Some guy had quite the large crowd of guys all there in support of him. The tv cameras were loving them. Jenny and I were not loving them. We had saved seats at tables and they were in the area where you just stand. If you are standing you are not supposed to go past a pole at the edge of our tables. There were so many of them that they kept standing in front of our table to see. The security asked them several times to step back, but I actually don't think any of them spoke english.

During the post interview the announcer was very complimentary to some guy and that he fought a good fight and brought a good group of fans. I think it was his first fight too and he did good considering. Then tattoo got up for his interview and the announcer went on and on about how tattoo has been really sick and only agreed to fight as a favor so that some guy wouldn't have to cancel his fight. It sort of canceled out the "great job" he was giving some guy.

Fight 4 (the most important one)



Wade "The Rascal" Haskell vs Chase "The Real Deal" Pearson

I think this fight went the longest with both fighters staying upright and not going down to the mat. A few jabs a few kicks but both fighters held their own. Then with 6 seconds left in the first round Chase got a lucky hit right above Wade's eye. The doctor came in and called the fight. This was the result.


Still smiling, ended up with a double layer of stitches. Although the fight ended early, I think I would have preferred to go out that way. Of course I'm not a fighter, so maybe it's different. But I'd rather the guy get one lucky punch in and have it end cause I have blood running in my eye, then get the crap beat out of me, or lose by a one point decision. I mean I'm sure it's better to just win, but I think Wade still did a good job. And hell, you'd never see me get in a cage to fight someone, so you got that. I already made this comment on Facebook, but I was impressed by his post-fight interview. I thought he was very gracious and a good sport. I hope he felt like he was able to leave with his head held high. And yes I will admit a little bias in this, but I'm very glad I went and was able to see Wade fight.

Fight 5



Baldy vs Toothless

(I'm not sure if toothless is the right pic, none of them looked like him)

This was the main event fight. Toothless came out and went into the cage like everyone else. Then out comes baldy. He was obviously a regular and decided that instead of just walking straight to the cage he would first take a tour through half of the club with the tv guys leading in front of him. I thought it was a little lame. As soon as they were both in the cage I leaned over to Jenny and told her that baldy was gonna beat the crap out of toothless. He did. In the second round a tooth got knocked out. I'm not sure how in the world he lasted all 3 rounds but by the end his entire face was covered in his own blood and it was dripping everywhere. It was kind of disturbing to watch. And like I mentioned before, not the way I would want my fight to end if I was going to lose. For like the last 30 seconds it was just baldy sitting on top of toothless just railing punches into his face. At least that's all I could see. For most of that fight we had one of the fight sanctioning guys standing right in front of our table. Overall I think that fight was just kind of sad to watch. It just felt like watching a bully beat up the nerd from class.

In between the fights they had people from the crowd come up and "fight" with these large gloves. Wade's little brother Matt did the first round. It was hard to get any decent photos, but this gives you an idea.

At the end of the fights they let the audience decide who had won. Now I'm not sure that Matt would have won "technically" but Wade had a good cheering section and Matt was declared the winner. I'd like to think I contributed to that win, I'm a pretty good yeller.

But the most exciting part of the night came after the last fight when they were waiting for the decision to be announced. Newbie's dad all of the sudden came back and was yelling again, very loudly, something to do with the final fight, but I had no idea what he was trying to say. I guess the guy sitting in front of us (red) had enough and told dad that he was spitting on him and to shut the hell up, or something along that line. Dad did a chest puff move towards red and red was out of his seat. I was amazed at how fast the guy next to me and Wade's brother-in-law had red back down in his seat. The had their arms around the guy's neck keeping him from going after the dad. The security did a good job of getting the dad out of there very quickly, and the wife of red made sure they left right after. I'm glad it didn't go beyond what it did, but it made for an exciting end to the night.

So that was my exciting Friday night. Considering I usually spend them on the couch watching tv with Will, it was quite an escape from the norm. Not sure I will ever go to a fight again, unless Wade un-retires, but it was definitely an adventure.

Last comment, if you ever get valet parking and they ask for a tip when you drop off the car, wait till you pick it up in case they tell you it's gonna be like 10 minutes even though your car is parked 4 spots from where you are standing in the 20 degree weather.