UFC fighters youve met

[Credo]

Tito in OC
Gus in Stockholm/night club

 

[JustOnce]

Im bored and at work might as well.

Brad Tavares was great, told us he didnt think Nick Ring was gay but his boyfriend was for sure.

Dana White, met him roughly 8 times. cool dude, really funny, sold handshake.

Anderson Silva. Gave me the worlds worst autograph and was half out of the picture when I tried to take it. Hes a lot bigger than I thought though.

Tito Ortiz. Massive human being irl. Was impressed by his handshake, would shake again.

Todd Duffee. Awesome guy, hung out with him for like 20 minutes in boston like 7 years ago. Was the card Conor was on when they did that stupid documentary. Really cool guy, told him one of my female friends wanted him to wreck it and he was so excited.

Shogun. Worst english I ever heard. Signed my shirt and tried to talk to me and I walked away sadly.

Saw Fedor, but was interrupted by Werdum in NYC during the... fighting tournament for... Affliction? Bellator? I forget. Overeem was there to. Werdum signed my cincy reds hat. Funny guy, told him he was mr beat your favorite fighter. chilled with him for a little after that.

Frank Shamrock. complete dick and told me my phone was a piece of shit. would not shake hand again.

Clay Guida burped in my face and tossed me an open energy drink.
Clay guidas mom and dad, met them before the clay guida / maynard fight. Very nice people. Saw them after the fight and wanted to vomit. asked me if it was fight of the night and nearly laughed myself to death.

Chris Weidman. Neighbor. good dude, solid family, dad is a hell of a guy.

Al Iaquinta. Good dude, quiet in real life. Banged my female friend. Would not let him bang again.

Gian Vilante. cant stand him. thinks hes gods gift to the world. Dudes huge, but actually very simliar to weidman in size. dont like him but hes good to bring with parties. Knocked someone out in a place called Fire Island and lied about his name and swam away.

Dom Cruz was cool. Met him in philly in a tent. sounds bad typing that but whatever. Asked him why he moves the way he does in the cage. he said its so nothing lands clean on him and its easier for him to focus on his opponent if they are struggling to read him. Made sense but just wanted to hear the little man talk.

Matt Serra. Ive known him for years. hes fat and cool. trained in valley stream, my neighboring town before he became Matt Serra. Also sold him furniture.

Met Alvarez before he was in the UFC. Was at a philly card chilling with the UFC but wasnt yet in the promotion. Signed my gloves the weirdest signature ever that I still dont understand. Told me hes gonna be champ in the UFC one day. Told him I think hes the goat. Hes probably my least favorite fighter tbh.

Played Borderlands 2 with Frank Mir. Terrible aim but talks a lot and is fun to play with. Declined his invite once due to some nonsense and he I think he deleted me shortly after.

Destroyed Mighty Mouse in soul calibur 6 live on twitch. Homeboy barely gets any views but I never let him live it down.

Met Luke Rockhold in Boston. easily the most fun guy ive met. Told me Fedor is his favorite fighter. Told me friend that his girls ass is really nice. facts. told me fighting isnt about the money but the money is good enough to fight.

edit - im adding mr solomon hutcherson to this list since hes commenting in this thread. honor to meet you via internet sir.

 

[NulDertig030]

I met Jones at the house of my coke dealer.

 

[sweetviolenturg]

Great stories.
I grew up in Lovejoy about 4 houses down from Kevin (rip) Kevin was a great guy and would do anything for you.

You knew ol' "Bigfoot"? Well, all right! That's so cool. It's a small world, huh?
Yep, not only was he a great guy but he had no fear. He would take a fight in basically any discipline at any time. Boxing. Kickboxing. MMA. You name it. If there was a paycheck involved, he was there.
Just like with UFC 1. He was given the call to participate in it on very short notice & matched up with one of the most dangerous men in the tournament in Zane Frazier. Who was, of course, given a berth based upon his having beaten up Frank Dux of BLOODSPORT infamy.
So, how's the weather back home today? I'm just about to sit down to watch the Bills clobber the Dolphins on Direct TV.

 

[Benoitthegr8]

Thanks for the read, I love the old school stories about the roots of what became MMA... I was going to tell briefly about my fighter stories, but when it started to get long figured it would be impolite to piggyback your post..

Being from the pro boxing & kickboxing worlds I've only had the opportunity to meet a couple of UFC fighters. The first of whom, Kevin Rosier, I knew long before the UFC existed. We're both from Buffalo & we fought on some of the same cards as amateurs & trained at some of the same gyms. We were pretty good friends. In fact, the very first time that I ever heard about the UFC was when he called me up in October of 1993 to tell me about this crazy "War of the Worlds" tournament that he was fighting in a few weeks later. Which he was absolutely certain that he was going to win because he was just sure of himself like that. But, he had reason to be confident because he was a multiple-time WKA super heavyweight champion & a pro boxer who won all his fights by KO at that point. So, I told him I'd order the PPV just to see him fight & in the process got totally hooked on it.
The second UFC fighter I met was Harold Howard, another old school tournament fighter who runs his martial arts school in Niagara Falls, Ontario right across the border from where I used to live. He & some of his students used to come to my gym to cross-train in boxing & kickboxing occasionally before he fought in the UFC.
Then there was Sam Stout who used to come to my gym's fight promotions & box & kickbox on our cards frequent;y in the early 2000s. In fact, his trainer, Shawn Tompkins fought one of my good friends, future WKA cruiserweight champion, Amer Abdallah in his pro debut.
The only other MMA fighter of note that I've met is Ray Mercer who fought Kimbo & KO'd Tim Sylvia in his two forays into the cage. I almost fought on the undercard of a Mercer fight in Rochester, NY as a replacement opponent for the then 4-1 Bernard Hopkins but I only weighed in at 156 & Hopkins was about ten pounds heavier so they fought another, heavier fighter for him & I was left watching from ringside as he destroyed the guy. Which, made me realize how outmanned I would have been in there. But damn, do I regret not fighting him now. I would love for my name to be on a legend's record.
Anyhow, my wife is the one who worked with all the UFC fighters.
She was a physical therapist & medical tech for Bill Kessler, "The OC Fight Doc" & she used to have an office at coach Colin Oyama's Training Center in Irvine, CA. And, many of the top UFC fighters would go there to train & receive treatment for their various injuries including Michael Bisping, the Diaz brothers, Ronda Rousey, Tito Ortiz, Rampage, Diego Sanchez & many more. Her closest friends though were Carla Esparza & the late Shane del Rosario.

 

[tmnpothead]

Frank Mir right before the Nog fight and Pat Barry at UFC Sanchez vs Dunham. Both were extremely friendly and took pictures

 

[Orochimaru 大蛇丸]

A name dropping thread for Shercreds?

his AV is a weird picture of his girl, a little bit of a bragger eh

 

[sweetviolenturg]

Thanks for the read, I love the old school stories about the roots of what became MMA... I was going to tell briefly about my fighter stories, but when it started to get long figured it would be impolite to piggyback your post..

Oh, no worries, bro. By all means, post what you were going to post. I'd love to hear your fighter stories. Seriously.

 

[redblue]

GSP, mainly because my coach at the time was friends with him and they trained/sparred together whenever GSP would have training camps. I've heard some crazy stories about him too

 

[Joshua Judd]

I’ve met Tim Kennedy, sage northcutt, and TJ dillashaw.

they were all super random. I met Tim at fort hood at like 3 in the morning one of his buddies was deploying so he was there for that, didn’t really talk just got a picture and he was off. Met TJ at an angels game talked for a second and then we missed about 3 fist bumps and it was pretty fucking awkward lol. Then seen Sage at a 24 hour fitness talked with him for quite a while, it was just before he got released from the UFC. When I went to take a pic with him my phone kept messing up so I just said peace and it was nice meeting him, they found me like 20 minutes later took the pic on their phone and texted it which I thought was pretty cool.

 

[GSP Rush]

Tito in OC
Gus in Stockholm/night club

I bet Gus is quite a cool dude.

 

[LastBlood]

I once drank and did a few lines with randy and wandy. Believe it or not.

 

[Bill Laimbeer]

Dave Benetau got me into a bar underage. I talked to him for a while it was rad.

I chatted with Cowboy and Din Thomas for about 5-10 minutes.

Jim Miller, Joe Lauzon, Bonner, Gilbert Melendez, Miguel Torres and Cung Le.

 

[emema]

I met Ronda’s pillow.
It was very wet

 

[contrail]

At UFC 42 I met Tim Sylvia. He was really cool. I met Tank Abbott at UFC 42 also. I asked him to sign my event program and he just took it and never gave it back lol. If you watch the live broadcast of UFC 42 they show Tank in the audience sitting next to the Undertaker and he was holding it in his hand. Man I was butthurt

At UFC 43 I met Marco Ruas, Pedro Rizzo, and Carlos Newton. All were awesome

I met a ton fighters that fought on Tito/Ken 3 and a couple UFC Fight Nights in South Florida from 2006-2007. Talked to Anthony Johnson for like 10 minutes after he won his UFC Debut. He was super cool.

Got a picture with Anderson Silva at Kimbo Slice vs. Tank Abbott

Hung out with Din Thomas and King Mo at ATT in 2016. King Mo needed to spar a pro boxer in the cage for the upcoming Phil Davis fight. I was good friends with that pro boxer and he didn’t drive so I gave him a ride lol. Shockingly I got it on video and no one said anything

At the IFL where Ben Rothwell fought Roy Nelson I met pretty much everyone that fought on that card. Got a picture with Bas Rutten. Actually talked to Denis Kang and Marcus Aurelies for a bit. During that time they were both popular so it was a pretty big deal to me then

I haven’t been to an MMA show in 10 years sadly.

I met some very famous boxers. Have pictures with Floyd Mayweather, Evander Holyfield, Miguel Cotto, Jermain Taylor, Riddick Bowe, many others. Met Wladimir Klitschko and talked to him for like 20 Minutes. He was so cool. One of the biggest regrets of my life is not asking him for a picture.

One embarrassing moment for me. Kurt Angle was at a UFC event and I mistook him for Frank Trigg lol. He was cool about it though and actually said it wasn’t the first time it happened lol

I saved the most memorable for last. The day after UFC 43 I met Kevin Randleman at the airport. Nicest man ever. Actually took one of his shirts out of his suitcase and signed it and gave it to me. I still have it in storage somewhere. Man he was so friendly. I remember when he beat Mirko Cro Cop I jumped for joy. Ever since that day I always rooted for Kevin Randleman. Greatest man ever

I’m sure I’m missing a few. That’s most of it though

That is an awesome Randleman story. Any encounter I've read about the guy has been super complimentary. Of any fighter to have met back in the day he's at the top of my list.

 

[Rob-G]

That is an awesome Randleman story. Any encounter I've read about the guy has been super complimentary. Of any fighter to have met back in the day he's at the top of my list.

Yeah UFC 43 was my 17th Birthday gift if I got good grades lol. He was there working Wes Sims corner. We were at the airport the next day. I spotted him and wasted no time lol I went right over. We talked about the Wes Sims fight mainly. (DQ Loss). I also remember him saying he was in negotiations to come back to the UFC and that he wanted Tito Ortiz. Guess he decided to stay in Pride though. God talking about this makes me want to dig up that shirt he gave me. I remember after going out separate ways an airport security guy stopped and asked “who was that some wrestler?” It’s funny I watched as he was boarding his plane he got pulled aside and searched extra carefully. Guess something they do to random people all the time. Mid 2003, - September 11th still fresh on people’s minds. He was so cool. It was quite a bit we had chatted

 

[Billthebutcher]

Met Couture, Belfort & Jones (before he became an ass and started using roids) at the Red Rock.

Said hello to Bader and Mitrione in the malls, Sims, Coleman and Randleman hanging at the Orleans, and Enson Inoue playing the poker slots.

 

[Xaero]

Met Izzy in a pub in Auckland.

It was the Conor vs Khabib fight.

Talk and lanky. Seems like a normal guy.

 

[HAWTRIDDUM]

Threadstarter is obsessed with handshakes and autographs, brags about being good at video games, and comes off as a sociopathic weirdo

 

[HHJ]

Ive met alot of them.

I even interviewed some.

All of them were friendly and cool. Except for Arlovski,not a very friendly person to his fans but i can respect that.