UFC Fighters you have met

[TriangleMonkey]

Mike Chandler back in Columbia, MO in early 2013, right after he defended the Bellator Title against Dave Rickels. He was probably the biggest name outside the UFC at that time.

He was a very nice guy.

I've also met a few other people, like Michael Johnson, Paige Van Zant, Thiago Alves, Jeremy Stephens, Chris Holdsworth, James Krause, Tim Elliot, Danny Castillo...

Michael Johnson and Chris Holdsworth were easily the coolest of the bunch, they were real down to earth guys. Thiago Alves and Paige Van Zant were also very friendly. Stephens is exactly like how he comes off on TV lol, but he was cool too.

Tim Elliot and James Krause were dickish though, especially Elliot. Real douchey demeanor.

Ive trained with Rickles, he is legit too.


Yea Krause def a douche. I was scheduled to fight him a couple times. There was a time when we were both ammy and he use to be terrified of me LoL. He was coddled during his pro run and Im actually impressed he has won so many times in the octagon. Its like every fight goes his way some how....

 

[Mental Ray]

Shogun in a restaurant.
Korean Zombie, for my surprise he appeared 11pm at my gym (not my gym, Marco Barbosa gym, KZ is a black belt under a Marco Barbosa disciple in Korea), he was getting used to the time zone in Brazil to fight Aldo.
Thomas Almeida was a training partner, bjj only.
I met Rodolfo, demian, Ben Henderson in ADCC, Lovato and others.

 

[L0ki]

Sean Sherk, D.C. and Wanderlei were the biggest highlights.

 

[UncleChester]

I met Jacare and Mike Brown. Jacare was cool and Mike Brown is a funny, intense and opinionated kind of guy.

 

[Fedor5723]

I remember this superman looking MF

Lol me too. He was supposed to be the next UFC heavyweight champion

 

[SherdogWasNeverMyFriend]

I met Jason Delucia... he was a real dick! Worst dude ever

Can you elaborate on that?

I met Rich Franklin at a local Hooters restaurant when he was in town doing promotional work for a local fight league. Super cool guy, said he wanted to meet everyone and sign any autographs, but asked if he could put in an order of wings first because he was starving. That was right after his title defense against David Loiseau. That's what killed me about the Anderson fight, I had recently met Rich and knew what a good guy he was.

Accidentally ran into Tito Ortiz in the infield at Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Oaks, the same time they were airing TUF Ortiz versus Griffin. Was walking down one of the sidewalks, looked ahead and there was an entourage of guys in black suits, and the one in the middle had a head the size of a 5 gallon bucket. Turned out to be Tito Ortiz. As soon as I yelled his name, he stopped shook my hand, and was awesome to talk to.

I attended the first UFC on VS card at the KFC yum center in Louisville, the night of the Diego Sanchez versus Martin Kampmann fight. I was headed to take a piss, and met Sean McCorkle in one of the breezeways. This was right after he had beaten Mark Hunt. Dude was absolutely enormous, but was also willing to stop and shoot the shit, cool as can be.

Most recently about a year ago, I was at a local fight card. I was cage side, along the rail. Looked up and realized that Chris lytle was between me and the cage, calling the fight. Yelled his name, and he gladly turned around and talked to me and my cousin as if he had known us for years. Great representative of the sport!

Great stories! By the way, why are you posting so rarely? You average 1 post per 2 years!

 

[davidj5491]

Can you elaborate on that?

Great stories! By the way, why are you posting so rarely? You average 1 post per 2 years!

I'm more of a lurker. Lol. I'm on daily, but this place can get real interesting once you start commenting!

 

[PeacePipe]

I started drinking 9am on UFC day, as it starts this time in Aus at events. I was blind drunk by nighttime.

Anyway, ended up at this strip club in Melbourne, Adesanya brother and his friends were there. I thought he was talking shit so I took some photos of him and my friend to check later.

Turns out it was him.

Also got kicked out by three mark hunt looking Samoans for taking photos in the club.

Didn't get bashed as I showed them pics of one chubby black dude and then Adesanya.

The end.

 

[Bearknuckle]

Met evan tanner a long while back at a blackjack table in vegas. We sat at different ends but chatted back and forth about ufc/mma. After he was done he actually walked across the table to shake my hand. A few months later i heard he had passed away.

 

[snackgod]

Who and how was your experience?

ive meet hundards of fighters an i say 99% were nice but there was a few that were jerks but still was able to get an autograph from.

 

[countswagula]

Glover at the airport in Miami if I'm not mistaken. Funny thing is, I'm originally from a city which is very close by to his home town.

 

[sickness2.0]

Meet Jon Fitch and his family several times.

 

[Prince Nephilim]

I use to train with Aaron Riley in MD at Jeff Gordon’s MMA

 

[Milenkovic]

Jorge - really really nice guy. Made an effort to have a conversation with me about everything really. This was about the time he was arguing with Bisping, and Bisping didn't want to fight Yoel.

Robert Whittaker - the nicest guy, all he talked about was gaming really. Asked him about his fights leading up to that time (I think around the Brunson fight). Super relaxed, chilled out guy, talked legit for about 10 -15 mins.

Train with Ross Pearson quite frequently. The strength on his is abnormal. I've been hit by guys who would fight at LHW and he was on another level.

Volkanovski - really fun guy, just so full of fucking energy. Legs are huge, and he kept praising my step in kick. One of my mates uncle's is also his neighbour, so im sure i could train with him if I wanted too.

 

[MCarpo]

Something I love about this thread is that, 4 pages in, no one has really ever had a bad experience meeting a fighter. I’m the same — probably met 20-30 UFC fighters, and all were positive experiences.

The ones that stand out are Randy Couture, PVZ and Chris Weidman, as all of them actually asked questions about me instead of doing the minimum. Also remember approaching Urijah Faber outside a UFC show, just as he was getting the runaround on his tickets (he was still WEC at the time). Immediately regretted bothering him at that moment, but he said it was no problem and was still really friendly.

Closest thing to negative experiences were Matt Hughes and Chuck Liddell, who were kind of aloof but not unfriendly.

 

[mmadeewana]

Jiri vs Winner of Glover vs Jan
Rakic vs Ankalaev

 

[D'z]

Nate, met at a Starbucks in the airport. Eddie, been in the same bar/club with him a couple times and have a handful of guys that actually do know him. Royce, Renzo, and umteen million other Gracies I met in the 90's when I trained jitz for the first time.

I think that's about it.

* Any fighter from Philly, I have friends who they know.

 

[DarkneT]

Had a proper uncool awkward moment with Matt Serra, I don’t fanboy for anyone except Mousasi but I did it with Matt,
I think having watched him and his personality on tv for literal decades, seeing him, all 5ft 2 of him with his bald head and loud mouth it felt a bit surreal, told him I’m a fan and was rooting for ‘teh chris’ (it was the night before the silva rematch)
He noted my accent and asked where I was from and when I said near Manchester he was saying how he was just there cornering Al and I was like ‘ohh really.. there was a card in Manchester???’

I dunno why I said that..
I was there for that too.. was a couple months before when Lyoto beat Munoz

 

[piropiro]

Cung Le and Pat Barry, both in their pre-UFC days ... Cung was friendly but quite reserved, at the opposite end of the scale Pat behaved somewhat like a clown and frankly was a bit cringey in my opinion so I avoided his group (could have hung out with them for days). Both nice guys as far as I can tell from those brief memories, just very different personalities.

A close friend spent considerable time with Jeff Monson and can confirm what someone else wrote ... despite the stories and appearance he is in fact a super nice and caring man who would help anyone. I guess the old “don’t judge a book by the cover” absolutely applies.

 

[DarkneT]

Something I love about this thread is that, 4 pages in, no one has really ever had a bad experience meeting a fighter. I’m the same — probably met 20-30 UFC fighters, and all were positive experiences.

The ones that stand out are Randy Couture, PVZ and Chris Weidman, as all of them actually asked questions about me instead of doing the minimum. Also remember approaching Urijah Faber outside a UFC show, just as he was getting the runaround on his tickets (he was still WEC at the time). Immediately regretted bothering him at that moment, but he said it was no problem and was still really friendly.

Closest thing to negative experiences were Matt Hughes and Chuck Liddell, who were kind of aloof but not unfriendly.

not bad experience really but Dan Hardy can suck a cock.

a bunch of us hung back in London while the staff were stripping the octagon etc and he hadn’t long been doing commentary and he thought he was the absolute shit.
Pearson was also doing pundit work and he came over to chill with us as did James Haskell (rugby)
Hardy walks past and everyone’s shouting him over and he looked over gave a weird look and kept walking,

And you ever remember when Dustin fought (battered) Diego Brandao, well Brandao missed weight and then said he was going to stab Dustin at weigh ins LOL
There was a bunch of us meeting fighters after that event near the elevators in the mgm and tons of fighters were coming through etc fans are going wild for like Travis Browne, Ellenberger, KG etc etc
And Diego was just stood watching mean mugging everyone, not a single person went up to him, legit scumbag