Morning everyone! or is it evening? I have no idea at the moment – I’m quite disoriented, tired and hungover. Mostly hungover, but the tired thing too.

I have over an hour to kill in NYC before heading home to Montreal, so I decided I’d write some random/quick thoughts about UFC 111. I was in attendance and will have some pretty cool videos to share with you later tonight when I get home.

Trip down to Newark - It was eventful, to say the least. We were stuck at customs for over 2 hours, and the agent that spoke to me thought I was coming to “beat people up” when I said I was here for UFC. I asked to step aside and asked many questions, much to the dismay of a bus full of people eager to get the F back on the road already.

Arrival in New York – I missed my connection to Newark and was misinformed by 2 different people. Consequently, I was thoroughly confused and arrived 2 hours late for breakfast with Zak of www.watchkalibrun.com, one of my favorite MMA blogs. Thankfully, Zak is a gentleman and a sweetheart and was unfazed by my tardiness and eight-hour-bus-ride smell.

UFC pre-party – Coors Light, Yuengling, Hoegaarden, OH MY! We met some interesting and cool people, as well as some interesting people in the not-so-cool way. I swear, while we were waiting for a cab at the hotel, as a town car approached us, a horrible woman said, and I quote (and Zak can vouch for me, she actually said this) “I’m not getting into an unidentified vehicle with a Hispanic man.” I wish I could have put her in a guillotine choke, but the stink of her perfume and the dye in her hair were so toxic, I probably would have passed out.

UFC 111 – Random thoughts all over the place because I’m tired and don’t care quite as much as I could/should about being coherent right now:

This was my 2nd live UFC event. Balcony > Ringside. SERIOUSLY. Looking into the octagon as opposed to having it right in front of you and having to look UP into it is much, much better. If you’re interested in going to a UFC event, save the cash and buy a $200 ticket in the balcony instead of shelling out anywhere from $300 to $600 for lower seats.

I don’t know if it’s because the two UFC events I’ve attended were in Philly and Newark respectively, and I will preface this by saying I do not mean any disrespect to anyone in those areas, but holy crap were these two crowds full of meatheads and douchebags. The incessant booing any time there is grappling in a fight for more than two seconds, the rude and disrespectful comments constantly hurled toward the fighters and the general misconception of what MMA is – this all takes a lot out of the live UFC experience. All the more reason to save when buying tickets for UFC, in my honest and humble opinion.

There are two decisions I did not get at all. The Jim Miller one and another I can’t remember, Hamman maybe? I must re-watch these fights, because I had the decision win going to the opposite fighter in two cases and don’t really get how they were judged. Maybe I was drunk, but I’m still pretty alert when I drink. Actually, no, never mind. No I’m not. I still think these two decisions were borderline at best.

My favorite fight of the evening has to be the Kurt Pellegrino one. Some sick moves by both fighters and they kept us on our feet.

My least favorite fight was the Matthew Riddle vs Greg Soto one. Disqualifications always suck, but to me it looked like Riddle was fine, the ref motioned to both fighters to regain their corners and was about to start the fight, then Riddle shook his head and looked like he was convincing his corner that he couldn’t fight. But I was way up there in the balcony so I don’t know. Please refer to comment about being drunk above.

I’m so happy my Mir vs Carwin prediction was wrong and that Carwin pulled off the TKO. What the hell happened to Mir? I’m not saying Carwin wasn’t a worthy opponent, but he got ROCKED. Could it be that his obsession with beating Lesnar went overboard and messed with his head instead of making him plain hungry for victory? In any event, Carwin will face Lesnar this summer and I am thrilled. Frank Mir is too smart for some of the shit he says, and I think he lowers himself to unnecessary levels. He lost me as a fan of him as a person, that’s for sure. On the other hand, Shane Carwin is classy, works hard and is one of the good guys. I always appreciate a fighter who doesn’t feel need to convince us that he has balls with ridiculous trashtalk.

And finally, my Georges’ fight. Total domination by GSP (I believe judges scored it 50-43, 50-44 and 50-45) (feel free to correct me). Much like everyone else who watched, I cannot BELIEVE Dan Hardy didn’t tap out to that deep armbar and kimura GSP sinked. During his post-fight interview, Dan Hardy said, “I never tap, I told you this. I don’t know the meaning of the word “tap”.” That was the quote of the night as far as I’m concerned. I have a great deal of respect for Dan Hardy’s heart and determination in this fight. Lasting 25 minutes in the cage with GSP is worthy of anyone’s admiration. On the other hand, I feel bad for GSP who felt like he had to apol0gize to his fans. He mentioned he had made mistakes and would work on them with his coach – is this accurate? I’ll have to watch the fight again to see what there mistakes were. To me, it looked like GSP was on the defensive because there was some booing during his fight and he probably felt bad he wasn’t able to finish the fight. In your defense, mon beau Georges, many a fighter would have tapped in Hardy’s place. He’s still number 1 in my heart and I can’t help but love him more when I see him so dejected about a CHAMPIONSHIP VICTORY. Maybe Joe Silva and Dana White need to stop giving him opponents who are good at stand up, and put him up against a grappler to ensure a truly spectacular fight that won’t make ignorant fans boo all the live long day, much like giving Anderson Silva a striker as opposed to a submission artist who just lays there on his back waiting for Silva to step into his guard (Thales Leites anyone?).

Oh, and how’s this for complicated: In order to get back to our hotel, we took a fifteen-minute walk to Penn Station; waited half an hour for a train to the Newark Airport; train + air train to appropriate terminal; half-hour wait then waited half an hour for our hotel shuttle. Moral of the story? Newark needs more cabs, especially around Prudential Center.

Overall this was a night of epic proportions and I want to thank everyone who was included in it in some form. Must run to catch my bus, but follow me on twitter and subscribe to my RSS feed for notification of when pictures & videos of my UFC 111 are up! Thanks to all for the continued support and I hope you enjoyed reading and sorry for spamming you for 3 months about this night!