Wow, what a week!
Well, a whole lot has happened since I last updated. It's barely been a week, but since then, I:
Competed in Grappler's Quest, losing in the first round of the bantamweight blue belt division by armbar. I was stupid in almost every aspect of this fight that one can be stupid in. He pulled guard right away and I felt good on top, dodging his sweeps and sub attempts. I had an opportunity to pass, but was too conservative. Finally he pulled me back down and latched on a super-quick armbar. As soon as he put on this armbar I totally panicked and forgot every armbar escape and just got owned like some 2-month white belt. Yet at the same time that I was failing to offer any intelligent escape, I was cognizant of the fact that I *could* escape, and refused to tap, while I thought of a way out. Unfortunately, since I had a dude basically deadlifting my forearm and separating it from my elbow while I was thinking of an escape, my elbow made some popping and snapping noises, and the referee stopped the fight. The guy who beat me ultimately ended up winning the division; I was unable to compete in my 3rd-place match.
I was in a lot of pain that day, and it was suggested more than once that I see a doctor, but there was no way I was giving up corporate box seats to UFC 100. I iced my arm, got Gavin to wrap it up, popped some Tylenol and head out to the fights. And thank god. This was truly a card that lived up to the hype. Those who just saw it on PPV probably didn't realize the first two fights of the night but ended with guillotine chokes which put the opponent to sleep (must have been something in the Vegas water that prevented people from tapping on Saturday). The first of those chokes was a mounted guillotine and Matt Grice, still trying to escape the choke, suddenly passed out and went limp right into the corpse/snow angel position. It was awesome. Hendo's amazing KO-of-the-year against Bisping had me jumping up like a schoolgirl. There was the great Danzig/Miller fight, the crowd going nuts for Coleman, a vintage performance by GSP and -- of course -- the first ever Buffer 360!
The UFC event -- and the subsequent nightclub outing to Pure -- was a great last night in Vegas. On Sunday morning, Gavin, Kristen and I led two Brit girls in Vegas (Louise from PokerStars and Francine from Sunset and Vine [the TV company that does the EPT]) on a 3-car convoy to their place in Orange County. Louise, Francine and I did Disneyland together on Monday. I hadn't been to Disneyland since I was about 12, and it was the first time for the two very giddy girls. On Tuesday, I met up with Laren at Venice Beach, near her new apartment, and got caught up with her.
Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated to the trip up the I-5 to Vancouver, and it was smooth sailing most of the way until Seattle. The 50-mile stretch between Lakewood, WA and Shoreline, WA took over three hours -- just as long as it took me to drive through nearly the entire state of Oregon earlier in the day.
Of course, I return exhausted on Thursday night, only to have Mike Johnson's bachelor party up in Whistler on Friday night. Diligent readers may recall I already mentioned MJ's bachelor party in a previous post a couple of weeks ago; that of course was his Vegas bachelor party, the mere warmup to the ridiculous depravity that ensued this weekend. Again, I am bound by guy code to keep things private, but I will say that I woke up to some, um, noises at 5:30 AM, the perpetrators of which were still unknown as of 10 AM this morning. Hrm.
After all that, I crashed really hard this afternoon. But no rest for me: tomorrow, I begin filming a poker show for PokerStars. Whew! I hate to sound like a jackass, but I seriously need a vacation from my vacations...
Competed in Grappler's Quest, losing in the first round of the bantamweight blue belt division by armbar. I was stupid in almost every aspect of this fight that one can be stupid in. He pulled guard right away and I felt good on top, dodging his sweeps and sub attempts. I had an opportunity to pass, but was too conservative. Finally he pulled me back down and latched on a super-quick armbar. As soon as he put on this armbar I totally panicked and forgot every armbar escape and just got owned like some 2-month white belt. Yet at the same time that I was failing to offer any intelligent escape, I was cognizant of the fact that I *could* escape, and refused to tap, while I thought of a way out. Unfortunately, since I had a dude basically deadlifting my forearm and separating it from my elbow while I was thinking of an escape, my elbow made some popping and snapping noises, and the referee stopped the fight. The guy who beat me ultimately ended up winning the division; I was unable to compete in my 3rd-place match.
I was in a lot of pain that day, and it was suggested more than once that I see a doctor, but there was no way I was giving up corporate box seats to UFC 100. I iced my arm, got Gavin to wrap it up, popped some Tylenol and head out to the fights. And thank god. This was truly a card that lived up to the hype. Those who just saw it on PPV probably didn't realize the first two fights of the night but ended with guillotine chokes which put the opponent to sleep (must have been something in the Vegas water that prevented people from tapping on Saturday). The first of those chokes was a mounted guillotine and Matt Grice, still trying to escape the choke, suddenly passed out and went limp right into the corpse/snow angel position. It was awesome. Hendo's amazing KO-of-the-year against Bisping had me jumping up like a schoolgirl. There was the great Danzig/Miller fight, the crowd going nuts for Coleman, a vintage performance by GSP and -- of course -- the first ever Buffer 360!
The UFC event -- and the subsequent nightclub outing to Pure -- was a great last night in Vegas. On Sunday morning, Gavin, Kristen and I led two Brit girls in Vegas (Louise from PokerStars and Francine from Sunset and Vine [the TV company that does the EPT]) on a 3-car convoy to their place in Orange County. Louise, Francine and I did Disneyland together on Monday. I hadn't been to Disneyland since I was about 12, and it was the first time for the two very giddy girls. On Tuesday, I met up with Laren at Venice Beach, near her new apartment, and got caught up with her.
Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated to the trip up the I-5 to Vancouver, and it was smooth sailing most of the way until Seattle. The 50-mile stretch between Lakewood, WA and Shoreline, WA took over three hours -- just as long as it took me to drive through nearly the entire state of Oregon earlier in the day.
Of course, I return exhausted on Thursday night, only to have Mike Johnson's bachelor party up in Whistler on Friday night. Diligent readers may recall I already mentioned MJ's bachelor party in a previous post a couple of weeks ago; that of course was his Vegas bachelor party, the mere warmup to the ridiculous depravity that ensued this weekend. Again, I am bound by guy code to keep things private, but I will say that I woke up to some, um, noises at 5:30 AM, the perpetrators of which were still unknown as of 10 AM this morning. Hrm.
After all that, I crashed really hard this afternoon. But no rest for me: tomorrow, I begin filming a poker show for PokerStars. Whew! I hate to sound like a jackass, but I seriously need a vacation from my vacations...