Ok, some of this will be very boring as I'm writing this mainly to my friends and family, so some of you might want to just look at the photos of the fight.

So this is how the story goes... My son inlaw (Todd) gets 4 free tickets from the VP of Marketing of the UFC (4th row from ringside!!!!!). Long story short, Todd, his dad Steve, his brother Craig and I all flew down there together. I have to say, I wasn't too fond of our reception in Atlanta. lol Everywhere we went, we kept getting hustled. Once we got off MARTA (Atlanta's rapid transportation), walked a block to see where we were to go, all of a sudden 4 guys come up to us trying to get us to follow them so that they could "show us the way" to our hotel. We soon found out that they were lying and were up to no good, so we quickly walked into a hotel lobby and called a cab. We figured we would be fine with a cab, but oh no, we told the driver where we wanted to go, but he acted all lost and wasn't sure, so he drove us block after block after block. We ended up finding it ourselves! The guy HAD to know where it was, our destination was only 1 block away from where he originally picked us up. We noticed he never turned the meter on, so we suspected he was really taking us for a ride and pocketing the money. Needless to say we weren't too happy.


You couldn't go a single block in Atlanta without being hustled by at least 2 people minimum. Not a place to want to visit that's for sure! And talk about humid!!!!!!!!!!! YEOW


Aside from the constant harrasment of the homeless, I had a great time. We all ate at a VERY nice resturant right before the fight (thanks again Steve!!! He paid for it all.)


We heard that some of the fighters were either hanging out, or staying at a particular hotel, so we decided to go there to see if we could get some autographs. There was a pretty good size crowd on fans there. People were hanging out around the elevators to see if any fighters would come out. So the 4 of us got autographs from Alex Karalexis (super nice guy), Rampage (not very socialble lol), Uriah Faber (super nice guy), Chuck Liddell's trainer "The Pit Master", and a few other guys who I recognized but couldn't remember their names.


You'll have to excuse many of my photos, I didn't have all the right equipment with me (a flash for one), because we were concerned that my equipment wouldn't be allowed, so I took just a few pieces of camera equipment. Needless to say, I wasn't able to get the best pictures that I am capable of.

Sept. 06, 2008 Craig, with fighter Alex Karalexis & Steve


Yeah, some of my photos didn't come out so hot, but you get the picture (no pun intended). Here I am with Alex Karalexis . We had all of our autographs signed on our TAPOUT shirts (front and back).


Todd with Alex Karalexis .


Here I am with fighter Miguel Torres.


My son inlaw Todd with fighter Miguel Torres.


Todd with the VP of Marketing for the UFC.


Me at the arena doing a poor imitation of Chuck Liddell. See the guy sitting down up close to the cage? That is Todd, that is where we sat.


Brothers Todd & Craig at the arena.





Referee Mario Yamasaki .


Craig with ring announcer Bruce Buffer .


Craig, Steve & Todd. ... Guess who sat right behind us?? Hershel Walker! . (He's between Steve & Todd)


On the left, Cutman Stitch Duran .


Uriah Faber (in the middle) with a couple of unknown fans.




Ryo Chonan (he won his fight against Roan Carneiro)


Roan Carneiro


Roan Carneiro


Jason MacDonald (he won his fight against Jason Lambert)


Jason MacDonald


Kurt Pellegrino (he won his fight against Thiago Tavares)


Michael Patt (he lost to Tim Boetsch)


Dong Hyun Kim (he won his fight against Matt Brown)


Matt Brown


Nate Marquardt (he won his fight against Martin Kampmann)


Nate Marquardt


Martin Kampmann


Dan Henderson (he won his fight against Rousimar Palhares)


Dan Henderson


Rousimar Palhares


Dan Henderson being interviewed by Joe Rogan.


The owners of TAPOUT clothing line (the two guys dressed up weird lol).


Rich Franklin (he won his fight against Matt Hamill)


Matt Hamill I met Matt's mother in the hotel and talked to her. She was worried as a mother would be. By the way, Rich Franklin & Matt Hamill are actually very close friends.


Rashad Evans (who knocked OUT Chuck Liddell)


Chuck Liddell


Chuck got hit soooo hard, that he didn't get up for a number of minutes! The audience went silent. Paramedics came to his aid. He had to be helped out by his trainers to leave the ring.


Chuck & Dana White after the fight.


Winner of the fight, Rashad Evans (with Dana White).


UFC President Dana White


Rampage in the audience looking on... Heavyweight champion Randy Couture was there also, but I couldn't get a photo of him because of the crowds pressing him.


Todd, Steve & Craig talking to UFC's VP of marketing after the fight.


After the fight, the crowds left immediately. We all stuck around, good thing because Todd & I hung around and got to talk to football great Hershel Walker by ourselves for about 10 minutes. A real gentleman, friendly and easy to talk to.

The stadium after the fight.... Yep, a wonderful trip! I'd like to personally thank Steve and Todd Henderson for making this trip possible. I had a great time with them and Craig!! It was a once in a lifetime event for me! I can't say enough Thank You's to them!!! I'll remember this trip for the rest of my life!

And last of all, here is a photo of Uriah Faber and I at the Sacramento, Ca. airport. He was on the same flight as me, I shook his hand on the plane and talked to him for a moment. Uriah is from Sacramento. A super nice guy who is willing to please his fans.

By the way, if you ever want to buy a standup cardboard cut out of some of the UFC fighters, Steve Henderson is the owner of the company where you can purchase them. You can order them at: Advanced Graphics .

Todays (9/9/08) Very Sad News UFC great Evan Tanner dead! One of UFC's Very Best!
Click here to read about it here