UFC 126!

Since I was In Vegas for work last week, I decided to extend my trip and stay through the weekend and attend UFC 126. I talked one of my good friends Mark Allen into meeting me in Vegas later in the week and we would attend the event together.

Before leaving, I warned Marlo that after my conference was over, I was going to be attending fight events for the rest of the week. I don't think she minded at all, Brittney, Brandy, her dad and mom were all there to keep her and Drake company.

On Weds after my conference ended, I jumped in a cab and headed over to the Mandalay Bay, they were having a press conference for the event that I wanted to attend. Coming straight from my three day meeting, I wasn't dressed like your typical MMA fan. I also had a badge around my neck that I had worn all week for work. I decided that I looked the part and so I opened some doors and headed on back to the media room with the fighters and the press. (You may notice in some of my pictures at the end of the post, I have a badge turned backwards around my neck.) On his way out of the media room, I talked to Dana White, the president of UFC, and got real press conference credentials for the night of the fight.

The next day there was an open workout for the fighters and I wanted to check that out. When I have attended fights in the past, I have never been able to attend the pre-fight events, due to work or other obligations. Being that I was off from work for a few days, I wanted to take advantage of it. Again, I used my badge and was able to get front row seats for the workouts and saw all of the fighters up close and personal.

That night Mark arrived and we planned out the next day. We had different autograph signings we wanted to attend and we wanted to go see the weigh-ins.

On Friday, we left early in the morning and we were gone most of the day. We met a ton of fighters and had a great time. (You can see all of my pictures with fighters at the bottom of this post.) We attended at fighter Q&A and I even went up and asked a question to Urijah Faber. The weigh-ins were also real exciting and got us pumped for the fight the next day.

Finally Saturday arrived and we were ready to finish our UFC weekend! Again we left early and met a few fighters before heading over to the event. When we got to our seats we realized that we were pretty high up, but the events center at the Mandalay Bay isn't too big, so we had a decent view. After all the drunk people yelling and screaming at the fighters, we decided that in the future we may need to spend a little more to get better seats so we can enjoy the fight more. It was a great night of fights with some incredible knockouts.

Knockout of the Night! Anderson Silva kicks Vitor Belfort in the face.

After the fight we headed over to the post fight press conference and took our seats. I enjoyed listening to the reporters ask questions of the fighters and we even met Steven Seagal who was credited with teaching Anderson Silva the front kick seen above. After the press conference we headed over to In-n-Out and headed home.

I had a great time in Las Vegas for UFC 126. We couldn't have done it without the Langford's letting us stay at their house and drive Lon's truck around all day.

I had a great week in Vegas, it started out by celebrating my 30th birthday on Saturday. Everyone made it very special, from the shirts with my face on it at the airport, to the trivia game about my life, the Langford's went above and beyond to celebrate. I have a great family and great in-laws. I am looking forward to spending time with both my family and the Langford's this year.