August 26, 2009, at 10:11 pm
You’ve probably noticed that we haven’t been around much over the last two days. That’s because we’ve been putting together the pieces for a day trip to the big city to watch the world’s best heavyweight fighter, Fedor Emelianenko workout and sign autographs. It turns out, this event wound up being much, much more than just that.
Let’s start at the beginning: Check out this line. For what was essentially, a glorified chance to meet an excellent MMA fighter, this was the line that you got outside of The Fighthouse, the gym in Manhattan where it was being held. For all of those doubters who think that we are the only ones that watch MMA, check this out.
That line also wrapped around the block. We were also close to the back of the line, which meant we almost didn’t get in. Once we did however, it was freakin’ awesome. Some of the Showtime (the channel that shows Strikeforce) execs were talking to the public when we first got in, but than Fedor came out to do some work. He hit pads, jumped rope and hit the heavy bag a little bit, and looked like he hit like a freight train. When Jason asked the guy who was holding the pads what it felt like he said “not fun.” It was hard to get any decent pics, but here’s a video that represents the best that we got.
After quickly going to towel down, Fedor came down to sign autographs and take some pictures. It was an absolute mosh pit to get anywhere close. Jason managed to get an autograph: Check it out.
While Jason was elbowing people to get near Fedor, I wandered into the press area. Hey, I have a journalism degree, I’m press. What I later found out was that I could have told these guys that I wrote in sanskrit and they wouldn’t have cared. They were too busy being awesome and personable. First, I found ESPN’s MMA analyst Franklin McNeil. Franklin was really cool and even took a picture with me:
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker was also there to announce some upcoming Strikeforce news. The most important of which was that Fedor has agreed in principle to a fight with Brett Rogers. Rogers has become a popular fighter after destroying Andrei Arlovski a few months ago. Coker also made sure to tell McNeil (and myself who happened to be standing behind McNeil) that Fedor’s fight might take place on the east coast. That likely means New Jersey. Last, There will be a one night, eight fighter 145 lb. Women’s tournament sometime soon that will NOT effect Cris Cyborg’s belt. She’ll be in the tournament, but won’t lose her belt if she loses. Then, Scott took the time to put his arm around Jason.
Altogether, I don’t know how you couldn’t walk away feeling like you were part of something at this event. Fedor looked as good as you could without fighting, and smiled the whole time he was signing, which is rare for the emotionless Russian. Coker was incredibly likable and seemed like he wanted to spend some time with any fan that wanted to talk to him. Add it altogether, and it was a big win for Strikeforce in America’s most important city.
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