Ranger Up at UFC 99
UFC 99 took place in my old stomping grounds – Koln, Deutschland. This trip marked my 34th visit to the city and I could think of no better reason to be here than to kick off the UFC’s inaugural trip to Germany. I spent 96/96 hours in country under the influence of alcohol. There are a lot of stories I would like to tell, but cannot, so I will simply give you a synopsis of cool observations along with some pictures.
1) Darren Morley of Flanagans is still the man.
2) Mark DellaGrotte and Mike Goldberg have man crushes on each other. They have a genuine bromance in full effect. Their awesome wives tolerate it.
3) Europe currently has a craze where you fill your mouth with pixie stick sugar, then do a vodka shot, then shake your head as you down it. I highly recommend it.
4) Rich Franklin’s wife, Beth is extremely cool, sweet, and represents him very well. I was a huge fan – nice work Rich.
5) Dale Hartt lost his fight when his shoulder popped out of socket. Like a trooper, he rallied though and came out drinking anyway.
6) Our friend Marcus Davis lost a great fight to Dan Hardy.
7) Our friend Rich Franklin won a great fight over Wanderlei Silva. Ranger Up Fighter and Rich Franklin training partner Matt Dunlap was giddy like a school girl.
8 ) Joe Silva is about 10-15 times smarter than I am, but remains a really genuine guy regardless. He and Reed had a geek-off and basked in their respective awesomeness.
9) Suzy is hot and should be a Ranger Up Girl.
10) Ben Middleton is the shit. He is the youngest hairdresser every to own a Tony&Guy franchise (I know nothing about hair, but apparently this is a really big deal) and he is the premiere hairdresser for the UFC. At first glance that sounds kind of lame, but then you meet him. This guy is a former high-level boxer, a self-made man, is funny as hell, and is a completely genuine guy who chose drinking with us in Irish pubs over high-brow celeb events. I’m pretty sure we can’t afford one of his hair cuts, but if we could, he’s be the guy I’d recommend.
11) Mike Swick is awesome. He is absolutely pro-troops and spent the whole time asking me how he could do more to give back. If you follow MMA, he’s a guy worth watching!
13) Tracy Lee is the hardest working woman in MMA. She literally travels all night every night trying to get good shots of fighters in bars – all without a drop of alcohol.
Overall this was an awesome trip with a bunch of people who’s company I really enjoyed. We all look forward to the next fight and to a prompt recover for Dale!
Enjoy the pics!
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2 Comments
Kalani
June 24, 2009 at 11:03 pm
I was totally there. Came up from Baumholder to take part in the excellence. I was sitting to the right of you guys (judging from the pictures). I was the guy causing a ruckus during Mark D’s fight. Well it was sick but I wish I could have met up and I wish I had my Ranger Up gear on but I went with the BJ Penn instead (silly me)
Nick
June 25, 2009 at 9:22 am
Kalani,
We did a crappy job of letting people know we were going to be out there and that is totally on us. We’ll do better next time – sounds like there is going to be another Germany UFC in about 6 months…