My 2010 UFC Fan Expo experience!

[windmortal]

Amazing. That pretty much sums it up. I think the numbers released by the UFC of 125,000 people is a little big, but there were a lot of people there. Like other posters said, Saturday was absolutely crazy. No way 125,000 people though. Still, a great time!

My wife and I arrived in Vegas on May 22 and did a lot of the touristy things the first part of the week (Gondola ride at the Venetian, 70-minute time share presentation for the free $100 food coupon at Pampas Brazilian Steakhouse and spending countless bucks on Pai Gow and Three Card Poker and watched the lions at MGM Grand sleep .... and sleep .... and sleep). We stayed at Luxor and had very good meals at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grille, Aquanox and my favorite, N9NE at The Palms. We also visited downtown Vegas and the Pawn Shop as seen on History Channel. I posted pictures from there in a thread here. We visited a few MMA stores, the fight museum in Mandalay Bay and where the MMAJunkie.com radio show is broadcast live everyday, but other than that, we pretty much just relaxed because we knew a busy weekend was to come ...

We aren't fighter stalkers who wait around the hotels for them to show their face then mob them for photos and autographs. While at Mandalay Bay though, a family was near us and talking to Mike Swick in a hallway. They asked if I could take a pciture for them, and I obliged. Quick then asked if I wanted a picture, which I gladly accepted. My wife took it ...



We also ran into Mark Ratner walking around and we talked for quite a long time. Come to find out that his son Hayden plays in the same college basketball conference where I went to school. Not the same college, but same conference, so I guess that's kind of cool. Ratner said his kid was the starting point guard, so he must be pretty good.





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[windmortal]

The first real MMA thing we did was the Thursday night before the Fan Expo. We learned Anderson Silva was going to meet people at Las Vegas Fight Shop on the north part of the strip. It was a perfect opportunity for me to get my Round 1 base card signed for my IP set. THe signing was from 5-7 p.m. so we went up a little early to get something to eat. I had pork tacos and my wife had fish tacos at Segundo's, which was awesome.

We ended up at the Fight Shop at about 3:30 p.m. and no line, waited for awhile until the line started forming, then jumped in. We were fifth in line behind a woman and a family of four (two little boys).

Silva walked in to lots of hoots and hollers from fans waiting in line, which got extremely long by the time he showed at a little after 5. He was in a good mood, and when he got to the stores entrance, where we were standing, he noticed the little boys, stopped and stooped down to eye level with them to give them a big thumbs up. You could tell they were happy about it.

When the little boys were at the register to get pictures with the champ, he was just awesome with them. Learning their names, and calling it out to them several times when they were leaving.

When it was my turn, I shook his hand, congratulated him on his success and thanked him for being so accessible to fans. Not sure how much he understood, but I was just happy to talk with him. He signed two Silver Star promo cards as well as my Round 1 offering. He also signed a photo for my wife. I was a great experience.

I did find a couple pictures from this. Here's Anderson signing my Round 1 card and the next one is when he stopped at the front of the line to give the kids two thumbs up.




I guess eye-level was a bit of an exaggeration ...



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[windmortal]

From past experience, I had an idea of what to expect going in. I had a specific goal to work on my Round 1 autograph set. I was up at 5:15 a.m. Saturday morning to wait in the long line. To my surprise, when I got to the expo doors 30 minutes later, there were only two guys in front of me - a guy named George, and a little short guy named Oliver. Come to find out, he is a collector too and we made fast friends. He should be signing up here any time now.

Anyway, we were in the front of the line and were amongst the first of the general public in the expo at 10 a.m. Those of you who strolled past to get in line may have recognized me as the guy sitting on the folding camp stool. It really let you take a load off while standing in the long lines.

Unlike last year, the UFC autograph sessions were very well organized. Instead of one line for six or eight fighters, there were a total of six lines, with two or three fighters signing in each. Fans could choose where they wanted to go. I couldn't see lines 1, 2 and 3 from where I was (at line 5), but on our side, the line for Forrest was crazy long. I was fourth from the front in my line. VIPS and ULTIMATE VIPS, who were let in an hour early, were already waiting when the general pub got in. Still, not too many were interested in who I was waiting for - Manny Gamburyan.

Can you believe it? Five hours in line for The Anvil. Yes, because he was the only signer in the first session that I needed for my set. He was cool, and the short line let me get out in a hurry to find more of my needs.



Oh, I almost forgot. We kind of got a little lucky here. While waiting for Manny, Forrest Griffin came out and was signing autos and taking pictures with people in line. We simply walked over to him, he stood for photos, and he was off. We didn't have anything ready for him to sign, but we felt pretty good that we didn't have to wait for Forrest for a photos (which was tough at the UFC signings anyway). We have his auto from before. My wife was really happy because the photo with him and her from Columbus 2009 he has his eyes closed.




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[windmortal]

After my Anvil autograph, Jeri and I hit the floor. The UFC lines were really long, and although there were great fighters on the list, we knew there would be many more fighters signing at sponsor booths around the convention center.

We stumbled upon a forming line at the Suffer Fight Gear booth and asked who was signing. Frank Mir. They said he was coming in a few minutes, and they were right. Not too long thereafter, he came in, chatted it up with the sponsors for a bit, then sat down at a table to sign and take pictures. We were probably 12 from the front. We were expecting him to be in a good mood because we were among the first people, but he wasn't. He did sign an autograph and took pictures, but he didn't go out of his way to make you feel like he was happy to be there. He smiled in my wife's picture with him. I tried to make idle chit chat, but he just nodded or mumbled uh-huh or no. He did sign a sponsor photo as well as a Round 1 card. Second one!



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[windmortal]

Just a few steps away from the Suffer booth, I stumbled on Jake Rosholt. He was just kind of standing at a table my himself, kind of looking for someone to talk to. In a way, I felt bad for him and some of the other guys the casual MMA fan didn't recognize (Matt Brown, Justin Wren, Phil Davis). You could tell they were excited to be there, but just weren't commanding the attention of the other guys.

Jake was really cool, he had a baseball cap on and long hair flowing out from behind it. Being from Central PA, I know quite a bit about amateur wrestling just from being around it all the time, and that's really about all we talked about. I probably could have stayed there all day with him and chatted, but a line then started to form. I wished him luck in his training, he signed a sponsor card for me, which he wasn't even on :(



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[windmortal]

Next was a really weird encounter, but I had to do it. Stephan Bonnar was at a booth selling big portraits for $75 a piece. They were nice, but I wasn't going to buy one. He sure tried to sell them to me though.

We were again near the front of the line, so in minutes, I was shaking his hand and talking to him. I said I enjoyed his fights and believe his fight with Griffin for the TUF title was one of my favorites. I got my photo taken and he did sign my Round 1 card for me ... I had three down already!

After he signed the card, he wanted to talk about selling the pictures, and everything he would say to me, he would pause afterwards and just stare at me, waiting for me to say something. He was like, "I'll give ya one if ya buy three" then just a long, long stare. It was very weird. I was kind of glad to get away from him.



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[chrisborene]

hey keep the successes coming from this, im enjoying reading these, and wished i could have been there

[windmortal]

After meeting with Bonnar, we roamed the floor of the convention center to kind of get a feel for everything and learn where everything was at. I also wanted to find the Topps booth to see what they had to offer.

Topps was stuck in a row between some big booths, and it was hard to get to at first. The showcase out front showed dummy boxes and packs of the new UFC product. **I stopped at my local LCS today and he said the release date is 9/1 and the boxes will be about $55 each WOOHOOO**

When I did get to the booth, I was hoping for a cool giveaway, but they were just packaged up Main Event cards. A base was on top of each one and the bottom showed the back of a Fight Poster card. I only got three of the packs, which were given away like water. When I got home, I opened them to find one of each a base card, gold parallel, top ten fight, TUF tribute and Poster inserts. I wish I would have gotten more, I might have been able to finish my ME insert sets.

They were also selling limited edition poker chips of five different fighters, all numbered to /499 - Couture, St-Pierre, Penn, Lesnar and A. Silva. For the first 100 that bought all five chips, a ticket was given for a special signing with Randy Couture later in the day. I figured I was getting the chips anyway, so I got the ticket. The same offer was for the next day, but the signing was Anderson Silva.

I'm going to skip ahead here just a bit to get with the Couture signing. He was about 1/2 hour late to the 4:30 p.m. signing. He gladly signed my card and kind of gave a little smile when my wife took the picture, but I could tell he was worn out. All day, security was shuffling him here and there. He was getting grumpy.





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[windmortal]

Okay, so one of my favorite fighters, Wandy, was scheduled to sign at the Silver Star booth I think at 11 a.m. There were two lines, one for people with purchases and one for people without. You can guess which was the better one to be in. I planned to purchase a backpack at the Expo, but when I saw the talent signing with Silver Star, I made a good move. Instead of a backpack, I bought a Silva shirt for $35 and it came in a Silver Star bag, which I discovered was a sort of a golden ticket.

I used the bag to stand in the purchasers line for Wandy and didn't have to wait long. I think I said previously that I brought two gloves to be signed - one my Wandy and the other by Nog. Here was a great opportunity.

Right next to Silver Star, there was a long line for Jaco for a Wandy signing AFTER the Silver Star signing. There was only like five people in front of me and about four or five behind me when I noticed how long the line across from us was. I mean, it was long ... I asked a guy across from me who they were waiting for and he said Wandy. I couldn't believe it. They should have just come over and bought a $15 beanie and got in the short line. I don't know how long Wandy signed at Silver Star, but I do remember coming back in that same line hours later for Anderson Silva and watching Wandy move 30 steps to the Jaco booth with the same people still waiting in the front of the line. I hope I explained all that properly.

Anyway, after last year's expo, I was looking forward to Wandy. He is always, always awesome with fans and he didn't disappoint. Last year, we stumbled on him at the expo while waiting in line for Marcus Davis, if you can believe that. We stepped out of the Irish Hand Grendade's line pretty darn quick to get in Silva's. He gladly signed a promo photo and was happy to sign my glove and pose for a picture. He thanked me for coming to the expo, which was cool, and he smiled the whole time.



I didn't edit this photo yet, so tilt your head to the right please, for full effect ....



Of course I could never post a pic of my wife without her approval, I did want to mention her encounter with Wandy. He signed a photo for her and definitely enjoyed her company, and when it came time to take a picture, Jeri held out her hand to kind of show people how big his hands were compared to his. She said she could tell he really didn't know what to do, and just kind of giggled. She blushed.

Oh, the gold nugget was the bag. I used it to be in the line later that day for a signing with Anderson Silva. SWEET!

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[windmortal]

Well, it had been awhile since I got any of my set complete so I wanted to just kind of roam the floor and see who I ran into. I didn't feel like waiting in long lines anymore (although I had the trusty camping stool) so we spent the rest of the day stopping at the short ones. With an exception, which will be the next post. Here's a few of those encounters ...


Kit Cope


Ross Pearson


Gray Maynard


Chael Sonnen


LC Davis


Steve Cantwell

In between the meetings with these fighters, we visited sponsor booths just looking at products and seeing all there was to see. We ran into Shonie Carter, who we seem to run in everywhere, and got to chat with him for awhile. As always, he was pimped out to the 9's. We took a little break to get something to eat and ended up leaving the expo around 6 p.m.

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