It’s Friday at 6 a.m., which means I’m seeing more and more bleary-eyed folks walking down the strip. I’m out here to get breakfast, but I’m not sure what they’re out here for.
The way they’re dressed leads me to believe that they aren’t up bright and early to be productive. Given the minimal amount of clothing they’re wearing—and the fact that most of said clothing is made of what appears to be a combination of lycra and glitter—I’m going to assume that they aren’t going for a jog and fresh air after a long night’s sleep.
Having lived here, I can tell you that Memorial Day is one of the featured weekends in Las Vegas. And by “featured weekend” I mean, of course, that it’s one of the weekends the locals will absolutely, positively refuse to go to the strip unless they have to, because it’s completely packed with people like the party girls wearing lycra, who are desperately trying to remember where to find the Bellagio, which is where I assume they are staying.
Girls, I have news for you. It’s 6 a.m., and that is not the Bellagio. That is the Luxor. It’s fairly easy to tell them apart. One is a giant black pyramid, and one is not.
I used to do dumb things in Vegas. We all did. But I’m here for work, and I’m up early to get a few things done in anticipation of today’s weigh-ins.
Yesterday was the pre-fight press conference, or what passes for the pre-fight press conference these days. The UFC is attempting a new format where Jon Anik serves as host and interviews two or four fighters at a time.
The media is not afforded an opportunity to ask questions until the very end, and that’s a good thing. By the time we reach press conference day, the fighters are quite literally hearing the same questions from every single reporter.
That doesn’t happen with Anik in charge. He’s effortless in creating new and interesting angles, which promoted a lot of good back-and-forth between Frank Mir and Junior dos Santos.
We arrived at MGM three hours before the press conference to meet Stefan Struve in his room. We shot a pretty cool interview and video, which I hope you’ll take five minutes to watch. And after the press conference concluded, the team and I went to the media center, set up a makeshift video studio and proceeded to shoot interviews until roughly 6 p.m.
I can’t tell you who those interviews are with, and you’ll have to wait until July to see them, but let me promise you one thing: They are hilarious and not what you’re used to seeing from mixed martial artists.
Stay tuned for more today. Right now, I need breakfast, and I don’t want to settle for Krispy Kreme (again).
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