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| A UFC title belt on display at the UFC Experience. |
When it came to making a first impression, the UFC brought its
A-game to Saskatoon.
Going into UFC Fight Night 74, I had never dealt with mixed
martial arts top professional circuit in any form. To be honest, I don’t really
follow the action in UFC at all. I knew basics like who Dana White, Tom Wright,
Brock Lesnar, Georges St-Pierre and Ronda Rousey are, but that was about it.
I covered mixed martial arts to a small level in the past, but
I entered a new sporting world over the last three days that finished with the
Fight Night 74 card on Sunday at the SaskTel Centre. As a first impression, I
think the UFC has a really great thing going on.
In early July, I received a call from Julie Scott, who is
the senior editor for sports, arts and lifestyles, at The Canadian Press, and
she asked if I wanted to cover the UFC’s first ever stop in Saskatoon and
Saskatchewan for the national wire service. I jumped at the chance mainly
because I had never done anything relating to the UFC before.
Knowing it was followed by legions of fans and veteran
sports reporters, I went into the experience with an open mind. I didn’t want
anyone to taint what was my first experience with the circuit. I also ended up
writing stories for the Saskatoon Express and this blog, so I was going to have
a busy time.
While there was an initial press function on Thursday, I
jumped into covering the stop at the open workout held on Friday at O’Brians
Event Centre. Very quickly, I was impressed by the professionalism of the UFC
staffers, and that didn’t change at all during the Saskatoon stop. I ended up
befriending the trio of Carolyn Blakely, Neil Springer and Stephanie Ura, and
they were all so courteous and made life so much easier.
Things ran so smoothly on the fight night itself. Usually
when you cover a new sporting organization for the first time, there are usually
some hiccups.
On fight night, I really had to stretch my memory to recall
any problems. In all honesty, that was the best first night out I ever had,
when it came to covering a new sporting event.
It was also cool to see how accessible Wright, who is the UFC’s
executive vice-president and general manager for Canada, Australia and New
Zealand, was. Wright, who is also a former commissioner of the CFL, wasn’t just
accessible to the press, but he spent lots of time meeting fans, who were
visibly pumped to talk to the organization’s top Canadian boss.
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| Max Holloway chats with reporters. |
The fighters themselves were really engaging. They all have
cool individual background stories, and you could quickly see why the beat
reporters want to stay hooked into the circuit.
You could also tell the fighters also have a genuine mutual respect
for each other. One example of that respect came at the weigh-ins.
After the fighters for each match were weighed in and did
the press fight photo pose, they pretty much all gave each other the brother
hug. In the case of Montreal lightweight fighter Olivier Aubin-Mercier, he presented
sugary treats to his opponent in Tony Sims of Denver, Colorado.
Stereotypically, one expects the weigh-ins to break down
into a series of trash talk taunts, where the fighters appear set to throw
chairs at each other. That was far from the case at the UFC weigh-ins.
The respect aspect was reinforced during the post-fight
press conference. Hawaiian Max Holloway (14-3) had a bittersweet main event win
over fellow featherweight Charles Oliveira (20-5) of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Oliveira
came away favouring his right shoulder after an exchange forcing him to retire
at 1:39 of the first round.
Holloway, who was the UFC’s fifth ranked
featherweight, was given a knockout victory, while Oliveira, who was the UFC’s
seventh ranked featherweight, fell to the ground holding his shoulder and was
carried away on a stretcher.
In a post-match interview live from the ring, Holloway asked
the fans to pray for Oliveira. Holloway made certain to show his concern for
his opponent at the press conference, when asked about how the win came.
“It sucked,” said Holloway. “I train super hard, but it
comes with the territory. My prayers go out to Charles (Oliveira).
“At the end of the day, these guys have to understand that
he is ranked number seven in the world, so he probably only does this, and he
gets money probably only fighting. Injuries set you back.
“If you can’t fight, you can’t pay your bills. It is sad to
see.”
Out of the 12 bouts on the UFC card, the first 10 were
really good, with the last of that stretch being the welterweight fight between
Patrick Cote and Josh Burkman, which was given fight of the night honours. The
back and forth physical battle ended at 1:26 of the third round, when Cote, who
is from Rimouski, Quebec, knocked out Burkman, who is from Salt Lake City,
Utah. The crowd of 7,202 at the SaskTel Centre rose to their feet to give their
loudest ovation of the night.
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| Two girls take part in a jousting game at the UFC Experience. |
Overall, the first 10 fights overshadow boring co-main event
split decision welterweight victory of Denver, Colorado’s Neil Magny over Brazilian
Erick Silva and the bad luck of Oliveira’s injury in the main event.
Besides the fights, fans also enjoyed the UFC Experience,
which was set up in the SaskTel Centre parking lot on Saturday and Sunday. The
UFC Experience contained sport specific fun physical tests and games. One of
the most popular features was the chance to have you picture taken with the
title belt.
On Friday, the UFC also donated $10,000 to local Special
Olympics programs though UFC Community Works.
In making a good first impression, the UFC’s first stop in
Saskatchewan was a success. Hopefully, the organization’s next fight card won’t
be too many years away.
CP story Free Press style
If you are interested in checking out the story I did for
The Canadian Press on UFC Fight Night 74, it can be found on the Winnipeg Free
Press website here.
When I saw my story on the Free Press site, I was hoping
they might allow me to cover the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets as a beat writer. It was
just a thought. (Lol).
Hilltops roll Rifles
The venerable Saskatoon Hilltops made short work of the
Rifles in Winnipeg on Sunday.
The defending Canadian Junior Football League champions
blasted the host Rifles 50-9 at Investors Group Field to improve to 2-0. The
Rifles fell to 0-2.
Hilltops running back Logan Fischer gained 172 yards on the
ground, which included an 80-yard TD run. Fischer had two scores on the ground
in the romp.
Saskatoon’s biggest play came from Liam Murphy, who returned
a missed field goal 125 yards for a major in the third quarter. The defence got
in on the scoring act thanks to a long interception return touchdown coming
from defensive back Luke Melnyk.
The Hilltops and Rifles go at it again, when Saskatoon hosts
its regular season home opener this coming Sunday at 1 p.m. at Saskatoon Minor Football
Field.
If you have any
comments about this blog post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
