Contributor: Taylor Engel
Myself and my friend left from Saskatchewan to Winnipeg, and got to our hotel, which was probably three or four miles from the MTS Centre. As we drove up, we see the sign in front of the hotel says “PCW WRESTLING FRIDAY NIGHT DOUBLES CLUB.” Now, as both of us are enormous fans of both MMA and wrestling, we were both pretty excited that we would be able to take in just the lowest level of both MMA and wrestling in Winnipeg.
After we got checked in, we just decided to grab some shit to eat and then headed to the hotel bar, because what else is there to do in Winnipeg? So, after a few too many drinks, we thought it would be a terrific idea to go swimming in the hotel pool. Well, as it turns out, that was a terrific idea. We swam for a few hours until they kicked us out, and then passed out for the night.
Friday morning we got up, and went to the grocery store next to the hotel to grab breakfast, and destroyed some cinnamon rolls. We went downtown, shopped for a bit, and then headed over to the MTS Centre for the TJ Grant Q&A. He is not really the best for Q&As, as he has the personality of a yam, so that was.. Yeah, that was a real thing. We stuck around for the weigh ins, which went over without anything special happening. After weigh ins, we grabbed supper quick and headed back to Doubles Club for some intense PCW wrestling. In all honesty, PCW was exponentially more fun and entertaining than UFC 161 was. It was the promotion’s fifth event, I believe, and while there were probably only three or four wrestlers out of the ~25 that wrestled that had any talent, either on the mic or in the ring, it was still incredibly fun. There were probably about 75 people there, and everyone was completely shitfaced, standing ringside for the matches. Probably the highlight of the night was when one wrestler was thrown out of the ring, and his opponent signaled for a few people, including my friend and I, to put our feet up, and he smashed the guy’s face into the soles of our shoes, and then high-fived us all. Just an incredibly fun night, all around.
Saturday morning we woke up, and again, didn’t do anything but eat some grocery store breakfast, and then headed downtown. We shopped for a few hours, and then headed to the UFC block party, where we listened to the Q&A Showdown Joe Ferraro did with Sarah Kaufman and Jordan Mein. As an aside, holy hot damn, Jordan Mein is a babe. After an hour or two outside, we got into the MTS Centre, which is an absolutely top class facility. We were in the upper bowl, which has a full concourse of it’s own, with numerous bathrooms and places to grab food. It really impressed me, for an arena of it’s size. The fights began, and the people in the seats around us started coming. The rest of our row was there by the second fight of the night, and they were the type that needed to go grab a beer every other round, and never waited for breaks. As such, they all began to piss me off, as I had the aisle seat and had to get up EVERY FUCKING TIME they needed a drink, which, considering the amount of people in our row, was basically once a round. The row in front of us was solid dudebros, which made for some great conversation (it didn’t make for great conversation.) The experience, not including the fights, was definitely a mixed bag. The fights themselves definitely had their ups and downs. The first fight had me pretty pissed off, as I thought Dustin Pague had clearly beaten Yves Jabouin, but lost a decision. After that, the highlights for me were as follows:
– Mitch Clarke’s win. Yeah, it wasn’t the most exciting fight, but he’s the only fighter to ever make the UFC from my home province, and he’s gone through some huge adversity over the last year. Seeing him so emotional after finally earning his first UFC win was a great scene.
– Roland Delorme. As a disclaimer, I really, really dislike Delorme. I don’t like his face, I don’t find him exciting, but holy hell, did that arena pop for their hometown boy. It was a really fun fight and good time to hear everyone cheering for Delorme.
– Sam Stout vs. James Krause. Easily the best fight of the night, apart from the sole KO of the night, it was the only fight to take me out of my seat on the evening.
– Tyron Woodley vs. Jake Shields. Man, what else can I say that hasn’t already been said?! An incredible battle between two fierce warriors, this fight lived up to all the hype and then some. I was personally stunned to find out that Krause and Stout stole the FOTN from them, and I look forward to seeing each of these two men fight again.
– Shawn Jordan. I had a lot of mixed feelings on this fight, as although I’m a pretty huge Pat Barry mark, it was a great redemption performance from Jordan after the bed shitting against Kongo.
– Alexis Davis vs. Rosi Sexton. Well, the ladies lived up to my expectations. I expected a great fight, contested largely on the mat, and that’s exactly what happened. I look forward to seeing Davis fight again, hopefully against the winner of the McMann vs. Kaufman fight, and I hope that in time, the UFC opens a 125 lbs. women’s division so that Sexton has a place to thrive.
– Stipe Miocic. Great performance from him, with an equally terrible performance from Big Country. The cynic in me makes me wonder whether or not Miocic only looked so good because Nelson fought so poorly, but regardless, a great, if not somewhat unexpected, performance from Stipe.
– Hendo vs. Rashad Evans. After a fairly grueling group of fights, I was excited to see one of the legends of MMA do battle. The noise in the building as Hendo walked in was deafening, and the boos for Rashad were just a tad quieter. The fight was good, and although it wasn’t going to end it, the momentary excitement from seeing Hendo knock down Evans was euphoric.
At the end of the evening, I was still disappointed, but still far more satisfied than I was after UFC 149. It was also a much more entertaining and fun weekend than 149, so overall, I really enjoyed myself. I only hope I have the pleasure of witnessing a spectacle on the same level as Ryan Jimmo vs. Igor Prokrajac once more.
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