I met Wand for the first time at a XYience kiosk held in Montreal before UFC 97 to get a picture with him and shake his hand. He was fighting at 205 back then. He was walking funny, as if his legs were fucked up or something. Not a tall guy, and not a big guy either. I’m 6 feet tall and he looked 5”9’- 5”10’ish…Huge hands and big head, though. His face looked like it was made of leather. Even someone who has no idea who he is could tell the guy had been in a scrap or two. LOL.
Later on that day, and before the event started, my friend and I walked around the Bell Centre looking for a restaurant, and we came across a couple fighters, including Joe Lauzon, who looked about as tall and big as Wand (in terms of his head and hands, although he definitely was thinner and not as muscular), as well as Luiz Cane. Cane was fighting that night, at 205. He was fucking huge, and pretty tall too. I remember thinking how insane it was that both Wand and Cane fought in the same weight class, especially given that Cane probably had cut weight for his fight, while Wand was likely at his casual weight.
Crazy to think that such a regular-sized man fought the likes of Crocop, Mark Hunt, Fujita…
