My Weekend in Las Vegas for UFC 143

  It was quite a weekend to say the least, courtesy of my boss at CagesideSports.com.  My girlfriend and I got on our connecting flight from Boston to JFK, then JFK to Vegas for our first UFC event.  Considering I aspire to be an MMA journalist, I felt that a live experience would give more clarification on if it is what I want in life.  Needless to say I am more motivated than ever to accomplish my dream.  We attended the weigh-ins on Saturday, and the seats were not all that good.  However the atmosphere was very cool.  The place was packed, and it was better than I expected it would be.  Earlier in the day I got to meet Nate Diaz at The Gun Store on East Tropicana Ave.  After the weigh-ins my girlfriend and I went to Joe Rogan's comedy show.

  There were a lot of UFC references between Joey Diaz and Joe Rogan.  Rogan was on for about an hour, people were buying him drinks; he was raunchy and hilarious.  The next day we tried to see if we could meet GSP.  People had been lined up at the Las Vegas Fight Shop as early as 5:30 that morning.  We were unable to meet GSP, but I did get interviewed by MiddleEasy.com.  Finally we made our way to the Mandalay Bay Events Center for UFC 143.  I couldn't believe how awesome the new intro and the "Baba O'Riley" montage were.  We stayed for all of the prelims and the main card (obviously).  I enjoyed the majority of the fights with the exception of Pierce/Koscheck. The main event came and about 80% of the crowd was behind Nick Diaz.  I found myself rooting for Condit because most of the "Diaz fans" didn't seem like actual MMA fans.  Anyway, that is my trip in a nutshell.  A lot more happened, but it would be difficult to retell everything.

  I have some content on my blog, http://www.crumxmma.tumblr.com, I hope you guys take the time to read the two articles I have posted.  Also list who you think should be next for each of the fighters on this card.  Feel free to respond to my take on the Condit/Diaz fight as well.  I hope this encourages people to attend a live UFC event, it really was incredible.  Sorry for the long read.

http://crumxmma.tumblr.com/post/17177472068/weighing-in-on-the-diaz-condit-controversy

http://crumxmma.tumblr.com/post/17173874746/matts-take-recapping-ufc-143-diaz-vs-condit

Sounds like a good time man. Good luck with mma journalism.

Props for not being the people who don't show up until the main card, that bothers me too. All that is pretty awesome though, sounds like quite the experience.

I wondered before if that was just because most people are still lined up outside. If I was paying to see fights I'd sure as hell wanna see them all,

Sounds like a great weekend good luck with the journilism. Same here with the people not turning up until main card i dont understand why?

thanks guys!