The trip was amazing! There are so many highlights to include; I'm trying to remember everything.
Indianapolis is a great city, the people were incredibly friendly, and everything was easy to walk to. We stayed in a great hotel in Monument Circle in the heart of downtown with easy access to White River State Park and Mass Ave (a popular arts district).
We spent Friday walking around downtown and exploring, eating at a couple of great restaurants and of course testing out the desserts!
Saturday we got up early and searched for breakfast, before heading to White River State Park and the Canal District. Just as we got going we passed Chris Lytle on the street! We spent several hours walking around and along the canal, considered renting a paddleboat, but instead sat along the waterside relaxing. On the way back to the hotel we passed a cute bar and stopped in for an afternoon drink. Around 5:45 we made our way toward Conseco Fieldhouse--the streets were packed! We got into the arena around 6:30 and made our way to the balcony. We had great seats with the exception of a couple of our neighbors. The guys behind us talked the WHOLE time. Every punch. Every takedown. Every move. Another guy a few seats down from us must have had a lot of money riding on the fights, because he was going CRAZY! He was really into it and yelling pointers to the fighters by name as if he knew them. Though, considering the target market, and the fact that they sold alcohol at the venue, it really wasn't that bad.
The fights themselves were pretty good. We saw a bunch of good preliminaries. Among the highlights was when Julio "The Dominican Demon" Paulino walked out to "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus. Of course, he lost.
Melvin Guillard beat Jeremy Stephens, Sean Sherk beat Evan Dunham, Chris Lytle beat Matt Serra, and Ryan Bader beat Antonio Nogueira. The main event was the least exciting even though my favorite fighter was in it, and won it. I was really disappointed in Frank Mir last time I saw him fight, but I thought that it was because he had bulked up too quickly and was fighting at an unnatural and unhealthy weight. This time he was much smaller and a lot quicker, but he seemed a little tentative. I was hoping he'd be a bit more aggressive, particularly against someone as tough as Mirko Cro Cop. They spent much of the first two rounds locked up and getting split up by Herb Dean, something you generally see more in boxing than UFC. Finally, in the third round Frank threw what looked like a fluke knee that hit Cro Cop flush in the head. After a few punches Cro Cop was unconscious and Mir had won. The knockout was great, but the rest of the fight was pretty painful.
The next morning we got up early again, had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, and headed out. It was about 30 degrees cooler than the first two days in the city, but we bundled up and walked over to Mass Ave. We wandered the gift shops for a bit and then went back to pack and head to the airport. While at the Delta check in we saw Antonio Noguiera, but decided not to bother him for a picture--then, on the way to our gate we walked past Joe Rogan and a couple other fighters we’d seen in the prelims.
All in all, it was a great trip to a great city!
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