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By: Dan Moore, MMATorch UK Columnist
I'm a huge soccer fan, and have been lucky enough to have experienced some of the biggest club and international games around the world. I've attended an FA Cup Final, UEFA Champions League games, and even a FIFA World Cup match when I lived in Germany in 2006. I've seen live NFL and NBA games, been bored to tears watching the Baltimore Orioles, and even attended a superb F1 Grand Prix in Bahrain several years ago.
Never before have I experienced a sporting event quite like UFC Fight Night 46.
I've been to many MMA, and in particular UFC events over the past few years. I was fortunate enough to watch Cain Velasquez defeat Brock Lesnar in front of 15,000 hysterical Hispanic fans in Anaheim. I also got to see first hand the shocked gasps of an entire arena throughout the unexpected T.J. Dillashaw win over Renan Barao earlier this year.
None of them remotely compares to what I witnessed this past weekend.
Dublin was always going to be a relative success, irrespective of the performances of the Irish contingent. Starved of UFC action for five-years, fans have been campaigning to get another show ever since. Not only that, Dublin is a vibrant city associated with alcohol. It isn't quite Las Vegas, but it's the number-one social spot in Northern Europe, and thousands flock there in the summer to experience the spectacular night life and plentiful Guinness it offers.
Even before the first preliminary fight started, the atmosphere in the arena was electric. I thought the noise would eventually reach a plateau at some point, but the crowd kept on giving more and more; then the intensity began to crescendo into absolute hysteria.
The Irish fighters on the card were sensational. Patrick Holohan, Cathal Pendred, Neil Seery, and Norman Parke all delivered on the night. Some, like Pendred (what a comeback!), took a little longer to get going than others, but each and every win raised the bar for the next Irishman waiting to step foot inside the Octagon. No one wanted to be the one to disappoint. Even Gunnar Nelson, who trains in Ireland with SBG, managed to further elevate the crowd noise.
Then came the turn of 'The Notorious' Conor McGregor.
The noise and outpouring of emotion when Leon Roberts hauled McGregor off Brandao was off the charts. TV didn't do it justice, it never does. I got soaked in beer, as did thousands of other fans around me. I also received an unwanted celebratory hug from an Irish guy sitting behind me who would make Cain Velasquez look small. My throat at that point was drier than the Sahara Desert and I literally had nothing to say in reply when he spoke to me.
Imagine your favorite sports team winning in the last second of championship game, against your biggest and most despised rival.
After five-hours of (largely) enthralling action, I was physically and emotionally drained. I know 99% of the UFC events I attend in the future will never come remotely close to what I witnessed in Dublin, but I'm OK with that because I got to live through the experience just once.
This event was never about the UFC. They were merely the platform, albeit a very large one. They simply provided the vehicle, and the Irish people did the rest. It was a phenomenal outpouring of national pride. Much like the USA at the recent World Cup, they did it together and were united. They were 'one team, one nation' for one night only, and boy was I glad to be part of it.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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