Friday, 17 October 2008

Fighters Only at UFC 89

John put a really cool summary of the day up on the website last night. I’d only end up echoing what he put as we’ve been pretty much joined at the hip the entire time. We have a good laugh and have done some cool stuff over the last 48 hours.

We got here and stalked Marcus Davis around the pedestrianised centre of Birmingham for a bit before checking into a hotel that seems to have had it’s last refurb sometime around 1934.

We headed down to the far swankier hotel the UFC are using for the public workouts and drank an expensive coffee or two while we made friends with some of the production staff (nice guys) and hung around for the press stuff to begin. We saw guys like Terry Etim, David Bielkheden (with Bustamante in tow), Paul Taylor and more all kicking around the lobby, as well as a sizeable Japanese posse all there with Gono.

The workouts yielded some good results for us, John’s been peppering the site with content since. We got interviews and photos with everyone from Brandon Vera to Michael Bisping. We sat in on both men’s separate training sessions, and both looked in great shape. Bisping’s striking looks unreal… un-fucking-real.

Chilling out back in the lobby later on (taking advantage of the free wifi) we hung out with the Wolfslair crowd, who were in good spirits yet quieter than usual - you can tell fights are around the corner, the mood changes a lot.

Back at our hotel I spied a Japanese guy alone and working at a laptop - I introduced myself and found out he is here because he is the chiropractor for Gono and Sokoudjou (among many others). Ken took a look at John’s shoulder (he’s been suffering for ages with a dislocated clavicle) and performed some crazy cracking wrist lock that had John screaming, yet two seconds later John could wave his bad shoulder around no probs! Ken’s response? “Magic hands!”

posted by Fighters Only Mag Editor at Friday, October 17, 2008 << Back To Main Page