Went to UFC 111 immediately following Strikeforce: Challengers in FresYes, and shot until my eyes fell out.  I held up surprisingly well for three hours of bad airplane sleep.  I’ll give the credit to a pretty swell media dinner and the company of my “team” at mmafighting.com / AOL Fanhouse.

Thanks a ton to Mike Chiappetta who picked me up from Newark Airport and brought me directly to the Prudential Center.  Sure, I could have taken a cab but when you’re running on fumes, a familiar face is often the best comfort.  Parking was a steal at $30 dollars (included tax!) and in no time I went from running between flights in Fresno and Phoenix to admiring my position beside the judge Octagonside.

Check out the gallery over at Fanhouse. It’s pretty lengthy but it includes all the bouts. My favorite shot? The second picture (as seen in the header here) of Hardy yelling into the camera, yelling along with Bruce Buffer, the two of them feeding off each others energy and excitement. And the second favorite is the one pictured here (for the time being), of Kurt Pellegrino noticing the row of cameras and then posing for us in the second round as he controlled the fight over Camoes.  Pellegrino hammed it up for a few good seconds.

My favorite moment in that fight was when Pellegrino was in Camoes’ guard, Camoes firmly gripping Batman’s right wrist, Keith Florian yelled, “Get that arm free!” and Kurt yelled back, “No duh Keith!” loudly through his mouthpiece.