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By: Anwar Perez, MMATorch Columnist
Not having the ability to watch PPV's here at my apartment (the app on Xbox 360 is great, but internet connection, not so much), it forces me to go out of the house to see the UFC's cards. As of late, it's been Hooters since there was one right down the road, making it an easy destination.
I was meeting three other people there on Saturday night for UFC 144; my friends Angie, Trenee, and her roommate Stephen. As I got there, the first fight of the prelims was just finishing, but from what I was told, even though Chris Cariaso defeated Takeya Mizugaki, Trenee and Stephen told me (and my buddy Richard as well, via text) that Takeya got robbed.
Right off the bat, within the first fifteen minutes, we already had better service than our previous times at Hooters. Never outright terrible, but not good. Saturday, we got our drink orders in and food done in time, and it kept going on throughout the night. Thanks Bridget!
The crowd there was what I expected with a fight not headlined by Brock Lesnar, Jon Jones, or Anderson Silva. Meaning, it was packed, but not loud or overflowing.
Even though most of the prelim fights were steadily paced, and good fighting affairs, nothing really got the crowd excited until the beginning of the main card. The crowd did pop for the Vaughan Lee submission of Kid Yamamoto and TKO stoppage of Eiji Mitsuoka by Takanori Gomi, but it was more of a mild excitement on the level of Monty Python knights rejoicing.
Conversation shifted to how people were complaining on Facebook about having to wait around for seats to eat at a Buffalo Wild Wings because of the fight. Angie had noted that they were WWE fans, and this was a pretty weak argument even more so because of that. The same could be said that if it were a WWE PPV, and people wanted to eat and leave, they couldn't do so because of the same reason. Apparently, the people waiting said they thought that MMA was no more a sport than billiards. Yet, they (and myself included, big wrestling fan) are fans of a scripted (see: choreographed) program.
The Anthony Pettis-Joe Lauzon fight got everyone excited as Pettis knocked out Lauzon with the head kick, yet the loudest the crowd got was (not surprisingly) during the comeback of Tim Boetsch. The crowd was already "oohing" and "ahhing" because of the way Yushin Okami was taking it to Boetsch, yet, when he came out in the third round, and took Okami out, the place went nuts. People clapped, the managers and wait staff kept looking at the screens and were just pumped from that comeback. It was a great place to see that fight and hear the reactions of the crowd.
It was about this time I asked the manager if they were staying open until 2AM due to the UFC adding the two fights to the main card. He had no clue that was the case, and literally said "well, I guess we're going to play it by ear when it gets there." Luckily, they stayed open, and the fights lasted until near 1:30AM.
Stephen started talking to Trenee and Angie about Brock Lesnar and his last fight against Alistair Overeem. Sounded really innocent and just giving an overview of the fight really, until he said something that I will never forget. He said (and this is a direct quote) that "Brock Lesnar was like, the most dominant champion in WWE, yet when he went to the UFC, he couldn't be as dominating as he was in WWE." I didn't say anything to retort because, really, that wouldn't have helped at all. Nice guy, but I'm not sure if anyone's ever told him that pro wrestling is scripted. Or that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny aren't real.
The crowd became a little more sparse near the end, I'm sure due to having to endure all the fights on the card. Surprisingly, yet not surprising, Rampage Jackson got a lot of boos in the restaurant, yet no reaction to Ryan Bader. The slam to Bader from Jackson got a nice reaction, but nothing special. Especially when they went to the ground or in the clinch, you sadly could see how the rest of the fight was going to go. Disappointing for me, but everyone else at the table liked that Rampage lost.
During the main event, most of the restaurant was on their feet, in my opinion not because of the excitement of the fight (which there was) but because of the hard stools that most of us had been sitting on since 8PM. The replays of Frankie Edgar getting his faced smashed in and his eye bleeding made the whole place go "OH S***!" Both fighters had fans throughout the place, and once it went to the deeper rounds, many Edgar fans could be seen sitting back down knowing what outcome was going to come about. Henderson fans rejoiced, and a long night of fighting had ended for us.
Next time the UFC is on PPV, though, I'll be there in person for UFC 145 Jones vs. Evans. So that will be a hangout report just slightly better than being at Hooters. Only slightly.
Follow me @anwarsajperez for comments, thoughts, rants
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