I get that. I understand what you’re saying, and thats true for views, but not subscribers. If you look at the date im uploading these videos theyre literally real time uploads on youtube that im specifically uploading for the UG/OG. No guns to anyones heads.
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A stephen bonnar?
No worries. We get salty when someone that hasn’t been around in a while shows up asking for shit.
Looking RIGHT at you Icy Mike!
I avoided posting online and social media for the most part the past 7.5 years while getting hired and sailing (OPSEC)
While living and training in vegas i wouldnt have talked about nor shared much of what ill be talking about. Thats just man code. I figured enough time has passed to discuss.
OPSEC + man law= quiet TFIHY.
Forrest griffin,
So I knew Forrest Griffin before I ever even met Forrest Griffin. Three degrees if separation stuff. Kevin bacon. You see, I was training at Throwdown or Warrior or whatever it was called at the time (mma gym names seem to change unnaturally high in this area) and Forrest and I would lift/work out around the same time. Even though I didn’t know him, I’d make small talk. By the 2nd or 3rd time we worked out at same time I told him about our connection. He use to train with my first “coach” I believe in Tennessee. My first “coach” in parenthesis because that only lasted a few weeks because the gym closed. Regardless, that connection was Noe Hernandez. Noe and Forrest use to train together. (Somebody was posting on here before about Noe and Michigan training. And nobody having Noe Hernandez vs Chuck Liddell ufc fight. That Noe.)
So I tell forrest about Noe and Forrest perks up, and says, “did Noe ever tell you about the time he put me through a sheet rock wall while training?”
Pretty much every encounter I had with Forrest afterwards, both there and later at Xtreme Couture, weren’t exactly pleasant. Like when rolling no gi bjj at Throwdown 3 weeks into training in Vegas, forrest was odd man out and so was I and I asked him to roll and he said no cause I, “roll like an asshole” lol. Which at the time made no sense to me but I do recall doing well the rest of class and doing takedowns against the walls with others. All while forrest watched me be an, “asshole”
Although I doubt I even register in his memory. I didn’t train with people his size. And he trained different times later in vegas for the most part the next few years while I trained at Xtreme Couture. But we still crossed paths and he still wasn’t that pleasant. He’s honestly 1 of maybe 3 “known” mma/ufc fighters I’ve met who weren’t awesome, nice, cool, engaging people. (King mo is one of those on my “not pleasant” list)
Here’s some footage i took of him sparring/training for his fight vs Rich Franklin:
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Great thread OP
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Thank you
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Also great name and profile image. I remember that
Shinya Aoki match. Hes got some great pants!
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When I met dana white the first time i instantly pitched him a tv show. Another time, I wanted to hand him my resume. So I figured out where they filmed the ufc reality tv show The Ultimate Fighter training and competing scenes, and filled out a next day air UPS envelope with that locals address, and labeled it to dana white and then I went there. Told them that it has missed the truck and I was delivering it but I needed dana to sign for it. some other guys signed. But I like to think dana got my resume. He probably wasnt impressed.
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-so Overeem is one of my favorite fan/geek-out moments. Here’s another favorite ufc moment with Conor Mcgregor:
When I met conor he was sitting front and center for the weigh ins of anderson silva vs nate diaz in Las Vegas. I was there with 2 friends who had flown in from Michigan. I asked them to walk around and take in the sights of the weigh ins but they didn’t want to lose their decent seats.
I walked away and came across the head of security who I knew, and and asked him if I could go a level down and take pictures. He said, “sure no problem”.
When I got to the bottom level, where more security and the reserved seating was, I told them that the HoS said it was fine for me to take a few pictures, and I motioned up to HoS who waves me on. Now all I had to do was get to conor. And that man travels with a pack of security and entourage. I b-lined it to him, and as security rushes in, I tell conor, “I just lied and conned my way down to ya” as security steps in. But connor saw the clever conman before him and told me to sit down by him, “sit down brotha”
Anyway, we said a few words. We took a picture. Hustlers appreciate hustle. He was cordial. Then the next day at the fights, I was with my same friends I was with at the weigh ins. We had seats in the nosebleeds. I suggested we move down and one of my friends wasn’t going to miss out again so he followed. The other stayed behind. We weasled our way to about 6 rows back from the cage and met Mac again. Along with: Anthony Kiedis from Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Demi Lovato, wilmer valderrama (who was with demi and didn’t appreciate my attempt to flirt with his woman), Jon Jones, tj dillishaw, shogun, uriah faber etc etc. We weren’t like hanging out or friends. I dont want to give that impression. Just friendly people being friendly.
I never showed these back 8 years ago when i uploaded tons of pics of me with fighters.
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In
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Awesome
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That almost deserves its own thread in my mind. The irish lad back to back nights haha. He stole my haircut after that btw.
Cool pics
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When I met Wanderlei Silva I was sitting in the locker room untying my shoe when this intimatdating figure stood over me. I had just started training at Wand Fight Team in Las Vegas in early 2011.
How I came to arrive there is somewhat random. I was working at a ups store to pay the bills. I had just moved to Vegas a few months prior and had been bouncing around all the mma/bjj gyms in vegas.
In a purely coincidental moment in walked one of Wand’s bjj coaches, Sidney Silva, and his wife. They saw that I had been watching a ufc fight on the computer and were speaking Portuguese. Being the obsessed mma fighter that I was I recognized the language and said good morning,(“bom Dia”) to them.
Sidney and his wife, both of whom I would see regularly in the future, were some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. They looked at me shocked and began speaking back to me in Portuguese. But I only knew maybe 3 phrases haha. Regardless, that opened the door of communication and they started discussing the fight I had been watching on the computer. Which lead to them inviting me to one of Wand’s houses to watch teammates fight.
I of course seized the opportunity and took them up on their offer. After my shift ended I drove over to Wand’s house that some of the fighters lived in. There, the whole team had come together to watch their teammates compete. I got to meet everyone. Wand’s wife and Thor would also eventually be people I’d see in and out of the gym regularly. They too would come to ups.
I’ve traveled the world and I have to say the Brazilian born Brazilians I met in Vegas were some of the most effortlessly nice, kindest, warm, people I’ve ever met and Wand’s coaches and family were no exception. I started training at Wand’s shortly thereafter.
[Side story: ufc fighter and Joe Rogan guest, Khalil Roundtree was there at the time but hadn’t even had an “official” amateur fight yet.]
Back in the bathroom/showers/locker room I was sitting on a bench and had just removed my shoes. A looming tower stood over me. Wanderlei is known as the axe murderer. Hes a scary looking dude. As I look up, a post-shower, all smiles Wand and his penis are right in front of my face! Wanderlei is all smiles though, hand out, says “Hello my friend! I’m Wanderlei” and I had to make sure I shook the right apendage as I attempted to avoid snake eye contact.
He was cool. I’d see him, his wife, his son, their coaches at the gym, at local fights, at work. All super nice people. But I was only there a few months before I was forced to find another gym for financial reasons. That’s when I would come across the Xtreme Couture boxing coach at a club who remembered me and asked me to come back around that gym. But Wand would still come around my job and occasionally I’d put him to work.
I posted these pics nearly a decade ago but never told those stories
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Cool pics and stories. I’m enjoying reading it all, there hasn’t been stuff like that on here for years.
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Thanks. I appreciate it. I wasnt sure anyone was really reading beyond the OP. Im slowly writing, finding pics and videos, and uploading/sharing.
Im telling mma/ufc/boxing stories in this thread and its comments and then navy/msc/sailing stories in another thread in its comments:
https://forums.mixedmartialarts.com/t/navy-msc-iran-straight-of-hormuz/3742999/109
If you’re interested in that subject matter.
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Talking about Wanderlei’s hog is probably more suitable for the degenerates on the OG lol
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When I met Rousimar Palhares, who I didnt know, AT ALL, I dropped for a straight knee bar on him 2 seconds after i said, “hi” lmao. My friend captured the moment I dropped to my back and began to spin towards his leg. Thinking that was somehow socially acceptable or a smart move. A stranger attacking your knee lol. A strange man dropping to his back in a vegas cassino and grabbing your legs. Thankfully Rousimar just laughed at my silly antics.
If you dont know: He’s known for holding onto knee bars and heal hooks for too long when he was submitting fighters. He would ratch, and torque them even after they tapped, after the ref stepped in, and I met him in a Vegas casino.
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That is fucking ^ awesome
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