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My Live Strikeforce Experience
First, a little backstory.
When I first heard that the Carano vs. Cyborg match was a go, I was all over it. I had my little secret code to get tickets early and I wasn't afraid to spend the bucks for good seats. Because of that, we ended up getting sixth row on the floor. Sounded good, but you never really know with these things.
I know people who are truly into MMA aren't usually Carano fans; they seem to think she's a fraud and is only as popular as she is today because of her good looks. For whatever reason, I became a huge fan of hers. I've seen all her fights, watched every episode of Fight Girls and American Gladiators, watched countless interviews and more. She just seems very real; you never get the sense she's being fake. She's confident in her abilities, yet not cocky. She's humble, funny, adorable, approachable, personable, etc. I simply can't find anything not to like about her. She's a star. OK, maybe those are the reasons why I like her. Ha!
While I was most excited to see Gina fight live, I also thought it'd be pretty cool to see Nick Diaz. From what I've seen, he seems to be a talented fighter. Plus, he's a local boy. He's from Stockton. I'm from Modesto. Local enough, anyway. Well, that didn't exactly work out. I wonder how many people went to the event thinking they'd be seeing him?
Now, I'm not normally, but when it comes to my favorite sports teams and athletes, I can get a little superstitious. I begged my husband, who made a work trip to Vegas weeks before the fight, not to bet on Gina even though she was a huge underdog. He said he was, but I thought he was just joking to get me upset. Turns out, he was not. Not only did he bet on Gina, but he made the biggest bet he ever had. To say I was pissed would be an understatement. So things were already not in Gina's favor. She was already jinxed by my husband. I threatened not to go to the event because of his actions, but who was I kidding? I wasn't going to miss this. I should've threatened to give his ticket away.
I hadn't eaten anything all day. I believe I had a Red Bull in the morning and nothing else leading up to the event. To say I was nervous, would be putting it mildly.
We get to the arena hours before the main card is to start. We had spent the big bucks; you better believe I'm getting my money's worth and watching all the fights, including the undercard. To my surprise, there were already thousands of people waiting in line to get in. Way to represent San Jose!
Fights are about to start and I need something in me (That's what she said!), so naturally, I get a Coors Light. Food is overrated. We get to our seats and we are close. So close. It's awesome.
I notice Scott "Hands of Steel" Smith is sitting with his wife and son two rows in front of us. Nice! My first celebrity...athlete? sighting. I'm getting bouncy at this point.
It is then that I notice Cyborg is standing behind our section taking a few pictures. Dalton (my husband) grabs my camera to go get a pic. I'm too embarrassed/nervous about going up to people and asking for their picture. Unfortunately, Cyborg is incredibly nice and even poses fight-style for the picture. Good thing Dalton looked at the picture before sitting in his seat or he might not have noticed all that showed up was a big blur of light...oh, that's right, he didn't. There went my Cyborg pic. I was a little upset over that one. Stupid camera. Stupid Dalton.
Cyborg is done taking pictures and decides to prove how relaxed she is for this fight by sitting in the audience and watching some of the undercard. Can you imagine Gina trying to do that? Where does she decide to sit? Directly in front of us. Hee. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but she's a lot smaller than I realized. Seriously, she's short and little. She did have a sweatshirt on, so I didn't see that eight-pack of hers, but still. I wanted to try to get into her head and psych her out. I quickly realize, while I am half Portuguese, I do not know the language. Plan aborted. Strike two against Gina.
"Hands of Steel" then decides to come over with son in tow and explain to Cyborg how big of a fan of hers his son is. This is when Smith dropped down a notch in my book. You root against Gina and I can no longer root for you. I'm sorry, that's just the way it is.
In between fights, I spot Glenn Carano (Gina's dad) and he is nervous with a capital N. He gets up and down from his seat the rest of the night and paces back and forth. I feel bad for the poor guy. Can't imagine what it must feel like to watch your daughter out there, especially with what happened later in the night. It's OK Glenn. I hear she's fine physically, might've just injured her pride a little.
Many other celebrities/fighters walk by our section throughout the night. Some of the highlights: Herschel Walker, Frank Shamrock, Gus Johnson, Big Rob from MTV's "Rob & Big" (Seriously, the guy is hard to miss), Royce Gracie, Randy Couture, Josh Thompson, Fabricio Werdum, Andrei Arlovski, all of the refs and the person that got Dalton to stand up and yell his name at the top of his lungs, "Jimmy Lennon Jr.!" That might've been the funniest part of the night. Jimmy got all excited over the shout-out.
I later heard Nick Diaz was at the event, but I never spotted him. However, his brother, Nate, sat directly across from us during one of the fights. He seemed nice enough.
A couple of the undercard fights were pretty good. Glad we didn't miss them. Was very confused why the Jay Hieron fight was not on the main card, but found out later. Give that guy a break and let him fight for a title or at least on national television. He keeps getting screwed.
So, let's just get to the reason I went to the event in the first place. Gina Carano vs. Chris Cyborg. Cyborg comes out to boos, huge boos in fact, which sort of surprised me. I figured Gina would get more cheers, but I didn't know Cyborg would get hardly any. Way to give her more motivation, crowd! Strike three, foul tip for Carano. I am not mean-spirited and clapped politely. If Cyborg was nervous, she certainly didn't let it show. She took her sweet ass time making it to the cage. She even threw in some punches and spinning kicks for good measure. While I'm sure that was just her confidence, I took it as her being cocky and ran with it. Oh, it is on Cyborg! Bring it!
Gina comes out and is all business. I think it took her five seconds to get from the entrance to the cage. I'm not sure if that was nerves or just her game-face. I was starting to think nerves. Foul tip No. 2 for Carano.
Here's a link to my video I took of her entrance: www.vimeo.com/6130819
Cyborg was smiling over on her side of the ring and Gina was pacing like her father had been hours earlier. This is not looking good, folks. And another foul ball for Carano.
Cyborg is introduced and again hears it from the crowd. Boos all around. By the time "Gina Conviction Carano" is announced, I can hardly hear Jimmy anymore. I simply hear cheers from the crowd, myself included.
The fight hasn't even started yet and the crowd starts the "Gina! Gina! Gina!" chanting. I'm getting chills, but I also still feel like throwing up. It is at this point that I turn to my husband and say, "I don't think I can watch this. I'm just gonna close my eyes and you can give me the play-by-play. This is gonna be bad."
I don't really want to discuss the fight. It felt like the longest five minute round ever. What looked like an absolute ass beating in person, didn't seem as bad on television. I missed some of Gina's punches and kicks. What I was impressed with was Gina's ability to get out of some of Cyborg's submission attempts. When the fight ended with one second to go in the first round, I had to stop myself from punching something. I was irate! One second? Are you frakkin' kidding me? Strike three, Carano. Sit down.
Gina is such a good sport. She got up and hugged Cyborg and her entourage, even telling one of them, "She's the best. She's the best." Classy. I can't say enough good things about her. I really wish she would've stuck around for a post-fight interview but I don't blame her for high-tailing it to the locker room. She had to be disappointed. In fact, I couldn't even stay for Cyborg's celebration. I was so ticked off that I said, "Why are we even still here? Let's go!" I barely talked the whole car ride home.
What started out as the best sporting event I had ever been to, turned into one of the worst...I take that back, it was in fact the worst. To be there in person and witness the fall of Carano was just sad. I, honestly, wanted to cry. It's disappointing to completely invest yourself in someone and then witness them losing the biggest fight of their lives right in front of you.
This is not the end for Gina, though. Perhaps she even needed this loss to become more focused, more motivated. There's no doubt these two will meet again and if Gina has a better gameplan and fewer mistakes, I could see her taking Part II. One more winning fight for Gina and I say, rematch!
Here's some pics of the other fighters:
When I first heard that the Carano vs. Cyborg match was a go, I was all over it. I had my little secret code to get tickets early and I wasn't afraid to spend the bucks for good seats. Because of that, we ended up getting sixth row on the floor. Sounded good, but you never really know with these things.
I know people who are truly into MMA aren't usually Carano fans; they seem to think she's a fraud and is only as popular as she is today because of her good looks. For whatever reason, I became a huge fan of hers. I've seen all her fights, watched every episode of Fight Girls and American Gladiators, watched countless interviews and more. She just seems very real; you never get the sense she's being fake. She's confident in her abilities, yet not cocky. She's humble, funny, adorable, approachable, personable, etc. I simply can't find anything not to like about her. She's a star. OK, maybe those are the reasons why I like her. Ha!
While I was most excited to see Gina fight live, I also thought it'd be pretty cool to see Nick Diaz. From what I've seen, he seems to be a talented fighter. Plus, he's a local boy. He's from Stockton. I'm from Modesto. Local enough, anyway. Well, that didn't exactly work out. I wonder how many people went to the event thinking they'd be seeing him?
Now, I'm not normally, but when it comes to my favorite sports teams and athletes, I can get a little superstitious. I begged my husband, who made a work trip to Vegas weeks before the fight, not to bet on Gina even though she was a huge underdog. He said he was, but I thought he was just joking to get me upset. Turns out, he was not. Not only did he bet on Gina, but he made the biggest bet he ever had. To say I was pissed would be an understatement. So things were already not in Gina's favor. She was already jinxed by my husband. I threatened not to go to the event because of his actions, but who was I kidding? I wasn't going to miss this. I should've threatened to give his ticket away.
I hadn't eaten anything all day. I believe I had a Red Bull in the morning and nothing else leading up to the event. To say I was nervous, would be putting it mildly.
We get to the arena hours before the main card is to start. We had spent the big bucks; you better believe I'm getting my money's worth and watching all the fights, including the undercard. To my surprise, there were already thousands of people waiting in line to get in. Way to represent San Jose!
Fights are about to start and I need something in me (That's what she said!), so naturally, I get a Coors Light. Food is overrated. We get to our seats and we are close. So close. It's awesome.
I notice Scott "Hands of Steel" Smith is sitting with his wife and son two rows in front of us. Nice! My first celebrity...athlete? sighting. I'm getting bouncy at this point.
It is then that I notice Cyborg is standing behind our section taking a few pictures. Dalton (my husband) grabs my camera to go get a pic. I'm too embarrassed/nervous about going up to people and asking for their picture. Unfortunately, Cyborg is incredibly nice and even poses fight-style for the picture. Good thing Dalton looked at the picture before sitting in his seat or he might not have noticed all that showed up was a big blur of light...oh, that's right, he didn't. There went my Cyborg pic. I was a little upset over that one. Stupid camera. Stupid Dalton.
Cyborg is done taking pictures and decides to prove how relaxed she is for this fight by sitting in the audience and watching some of the undercard. Can you imagine Gina trying to do that? Where does she decide to sit? Directly in front of us. Hee. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but she's a lot smaller than I realized. Seriously, she's short and little. She did have a sweatshirt on, so I didn't see that eight-pack of hers, but still. I wanted to try to get into her head and psych her out. I quickly realize, while I am half Portuguese, I do not know the language. Plan aborted. Strike two against Gina.
"Hands of Steel" then decides to come over with son in tow and explain to Cyborg how big of a fan of hers his son is. This is when Smith dropped down a notch in my book. You root against Gina and I can no longer root for you. I'm sorry, that's just the way it is.
In between fights, I spot Glenn Carano (Gina's dad) and he is nervous with a capital N. He gets up and down from his seat the rest of the night and paces back and forth. I feel bad for the poor guy. Can't imagine what it must feel like to watch your daughter out there, especially with what happened later in the night. It's OK Glenn. I hear she's fine physically, might've just injured her pride a little.
Many other celebrities/fighters walk by our section throughout the night. Some of the highlights: Herschel Walker, Frank Shamrock, Gus Johnson, Big Rob from MTV's "Rob & Big" (Seriously, the guy is hard to miss), Royce Gracie, Randy Couture, Josh Thompson, Fabricio Werdum, Andrei Arlovski, all of the refs and the person that got Dalton to stand up and yell his name at the top of his lungs, "Jimmy Lennon Jr.!" That might've been the funniest part of the night. Jimmy got all excited over the shout-out.
I later heard Nick Diaz was at the event, but I never spotted him. However, his brother, Nate, sat directly across from us during one of the fights. He seemed nice enough.
A couple of the undercard fights were pretty good. Glad we didn't miss them. Was very confused why the Jay Hieron fight was not on the main card, but found out later. Give that guy a break and let him fight for a title or at least on national television. He keeps getting screwed.
So, let's just get to the reason I went to the event in the first place. Gina Carano vs. Chris Cyborg. Cyborg comes out to boos, huge boos in fact, which sort of surprised me. I figured Gina would get more cheers, but I didn't know Cyborg would get hardly any. Way to give her more motivation, crowd! Strike three, foul tip for Carano. I am not mean-spirited and clapped politely. If Cyborg was nervous, she certainly didn't let it show. She took her sweet ass time making it to the cage. She even threw in some punches and spinning kicks for good measure. While I'm sure that was just her confidence, I took it as her being cocky and ran with it. Oh, it is on Cyborg! Bring it!
Gina comes out and is all business. I think it took her five seconds to get from the entrance to the cage. I'm not sure if that was nerves or just her game-face. I was starting to think nerves. Foul tip No. 2 for Carano.
Here's a link to my video I took of her entrance: www.vimeo.com/6130819
Cyborg was smiling over on her side of the ring and Gina was pacing like her father had been hours earlier. This is not looking good, folks. And another foul ball for Carano.
Cyborg is introduced and again hears it from the crowd. Boos all around. By the time "Gina Conviction Carano" is announced, I can hardly hear Jimmy anymore. I simply hear cheers from the crowd, myself included.
The fight hasn't even started yet and the crowd starts the "Gina! Gina! Gina!" chanting. I'm getting chills, but I also still feel like throwing up. It is at this point that I turn to my husband and say, "I don't think I can watch this. I'm just gonna close my eyes and you can give me the play-by-play. This is gonna be bad."
I don't really want to discuss the fight. It felt like the longest five minute round ever. What looked like an absolute ass beating in person, didn't seem as bad on television. I missed some of Gina's punches and kicks. What I was impressed with was Gina's ability to get out of some of Cyborg's submission attempts. When the fight ended with one second to go in the first round, I had to stop myself from punching something. I was irate! One second? Are you frakkin' kidding me? Strike three, Carano. Sit down.
Gina is such a good sport. She got up and hugged Cyborg and her entourage, even telling one of them, "She's the best. She's the best." Classy. I can't say enough good things about her. I really wish she would've stuck around for a post-fight interview but I don't blame her for high-tailing it to the locker room. She had to be disappointed. In fact, I couldn't even stay for Cyborg's celebration. I was so ticked off that I said, "Why are we even still here? Let's go!" I barely talked the whole car ride home.
What started out as the best sporting event I had ever been to, turned into one of the worst...I take that back, it was in fact the worst. To be there in person and witness the fall of Carano was just sad. I, honestly, wanted to cry. It's disappointing to completely invest yourself in someone and then witness them losing the biggest fight of their lives right in front of you.
This is not the end for Gina, though. Perhaps she even needed this loss to become more focused, more motivated. There's no doubt these two will meet again and if Gina has a better gameplan and fewer mistakes, I could see her taking Part II. One more winning fight for Gina and I say, rematch!
Here's some pics of the other fighters:
