Back from Miami now and having to get readjusted to the cold weather that was waiting to greet us. It was a great FNF to attend; great venue, nice card, and one heck of a highlight reel knockout by Miranda. If you have never been to the Hard Rock in Hollywood for a night, put it on your to-do list; there isn't a bad seat in the house, very large casino (just slots and poker), beautiful hotel, and great restaurants. Plus you have South Beach 30 minutes away; my wife and I had never been until now; it's a different world that's for sure.
The best part of FNF for me was all of the fighters who were there in attendance. Our seats weren't quite as good as I thought they were, but we were on the floor, so we were able to walk over to the area where most of the fighters were seated. We got pics snapped with Klitschko, McCline, Lacy, Glen Johnson, Urango, John David Jackson, Jason Litzau, Ngoudjo, Pascal, Ouma, David Estrada, and Joe Tessitore. Interesting story about Tessitore, I had talked to him a couple of years ago when I was tailgating with Steve Kim (Maxboxing) at the Miami-Clemson game; long story short, Joe called Steve's cell and I talked to Joe for a few minutes. While my wife and I are getting our picture made with him, I say, you probably don't remember Joe, but I talked to you a couple of years ago from Steve Kim's cell phone, he responds back with, "yeah, I remember, Miami-Clemson right?" It tripped me out with all the people that he talks to that he would remember a 5 minute conversation over 2 years ago. Nice guy.
Tidbits from the night..........Lacy told me he is looking at fighting Tarver in August at the earliest and definitely not on the St. Pete undercard of Dawson-Johnson in April. I thought it was hillarious when I got home and read the Showtime press release that Tarver-Lacy was signed and sealed for April.
Glen Johnson is pure class. We asked for a quick picture with him and instead he walks around the railing separating the VIP/Press credentials and spends a couple of minutes with us. Pascal is also, as we are taking our seats he is carrying his gear back to the locker room; you would think that he would be in fight mode, but instead he spends a couple of minutes chatting and snapping pictures for us and others.
Oliver McCall gets the punch drunk award . I ask for a picture and he says that he doesn't do photos and I overhear him telling others he doesn't do autographs. You would think that he would appreciate that he still has fans. That's not the clincher though; he was talking it up for most of the night with two girls who each weighed between 200-250 and looked like they had made their weekly trip from the trailer park to gamble away their paycheck at the casino. To put it mildly, they were ROUGH. Of course ol' Olly left the arena with the two of them.
Kassim Ouma had definitely been partaking in Puff the Magic Dragon.
The Miranda KO was even more brutal in person.
Moment of the night came when we were in the casino afterwards when Miranda is walking through unnoticed with his team lagging behind. I yell out, "Miranda, you cost me my over bet with that KO!!" then we go over and shake his hand, I am pretty sure he didn't understand what I was saying though.