Author: Jeremy Botter

Jeremy Botter: The UFC often holds their press conferences and other events in easy-to-find locations. That was probably also the case today, but in Atlanta, nothing is easy to find. Not even depending upon my trusty old GPS delivered Jonathan and I to the destination without a little bit of backtracking and headshaking.

All told, we finally found the Park Tavern, just off a large parcel of land that appears to be a combination golf course and festival ground. I say festival ground because they’re in the process of either setting up or tearing down what appears to be a large carnival. I made a mental note to myself to come back and check it out, even though I despise carnivals for reasons that I won’t get into here.

We walked into the park tavern, where our gracious UFC hosts had a decent lunch spread waiting. I did the only prudent thing, however, and went straight for the chocolate chip cookies. It was a good decision.

I caught up with a few media cohorts that I haven’t seen in awhile, and then set down for the press conference. We’ll expand on the actual press conference itself later today, but needless to say, it was fairly uneventful. Jones and Evans no longer have the fire towards one another that existed even a month ago, and it didn’t make for an interesting event.

As one person close to Evans told me: “He’s tired of it. He just wants to fight.” And I think we all pretty much feel the same way at this point. The trash-talking has been done to death. Now I want to see these two fighters test themselves against each other, and nothing more.

Jonathan Snowden: It’s always interesting to see the fighters walking around the city before the big bouts. Think there is a PED problem in MMA? Maybe. But the guys that really need to be tested are the corners and entourages. I haven’t seen this many swollen muscles since my last WWE show.

Today we hit the press conference. The UFC isn’t even trying to present this as a deep card. Two fighters will be there—Jones and Evans. It’s fitting. This is a one fight card, but man, what a fight. Can Jon Anik squeeze a little more out of Jones and Evans, who have been talking about each other for months? Hopefully both men have saved some A-material for the big day.

Jeremy Botter: Fight week doesn’t really kick off until Wednesday. Nearly all of the fighters participating on the card are already here, having arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and then whisked away to the airport by a Zuffa shuttle. Tuesdays are used to check in with the Zuffa staff at the host hotel, make a trip to the grocery store for food to sustain them through a difficult weigh cut and fill out all of the necessary paperwork required by the promotion and the local commissions.

Wednesdays are different, though. That’s when the hype machine kicks into full drive, usually with a press conference or open workouts.

Here in Atlanta, the press conference comes first. Later on today, Jon Anik will host a unique press conference featuring Jon Jones and Rashad Evans. Pre-fight pressers usually involve four to fix fighters on the main card, but this one is different. All eyes are focused solely on Jones and Evans, and rightly so. And for the first time ever, the UFC put out a call for questions from the fans via Twitter, which gives the hardcore fans a chance to get their burning questions answered directly by the fighters.

We’ll be attending the press conference, which kicks off in a little over three hours. Stay tuned to Caged In for text updates and videos, because we’ll be bringing you plenty of coverage.

Jeremy Botter: I’ve traveled across much of the world over the past three years, flitting here and there to cover Ultimate Fighting Championship events. The mystery of the thing started to wear off roughly around UFC 116. Don’t get me wrong – this is a fantastic job, and I feel privileged to do it every time I leave for the airport, both coming and going.

What I’m trying to say, I guess, is that it’s been a long time since a UFC main event truly captured my attention the way that this grudge fight between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans has. I’ve wanted to see this fight ever since Jones won the belt, mostly because there are so many interesting storylines going into it. I don’t need to rehash them here. It’s just an intriguing thing on so many different levels.

So yeah, I’m pretty excited about this fight. I just arrived in Atlanta, where I’ll spend the week covering the event with fellow Caged In correspondent Jonathan Snowden. We’re going to provide you with a ton of written content from this week, to be sure, but we’re also going to provide you plenty of video as well. Stay tuned for that stuff starting tomorrow.

What’s this you’re reading, then? It’s our little behind-the-scenes diary of a UFC fight week. Jonathan and I will take you behind the scenes and bring you the little encounters that you don’t see in stories or on video. We’ll update this UFC 145 Fight Week Diary with anecdotes and stories that don’t warrant their own post, and we’ll post the occasional photo of cool stuff you might be interested in.

You can bookmark this post to see the latest updates, or just follow us on Twitter: @jeremybotter and @mmaencyclopedia, respectively.

UFC 145 Fight Week has kicked off in Atlanta, and Caged In authors Jeremy Botter and Jonathan Snowden are in Atlanta to bring you all of the action.

In this UFC 145 Fight Week diary, the boys will bring you small stories, photos and videos of all the happenings during one of the UFC’s most anticipated events of the year. The goal is to give you, the reader at home, a small look behind the scenes at all of the media events and fighter interactions that you don’t see at home.

You may bookmark this post for the latest updates, or follow Jeremy and Jonathan on Twitter for updates.

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