# Bad Experience Meeting Fighters?



## Rellik (Feb 26, 2007)

Yea I read the write up on the Matt Hughes book and have had a bad personal experience meeting him and was wondering if any of you had unfortunate stories.
First off I was a huge Matt Hughes supporter bought numerous signed autographs and jersey's from his website and was looking forward to meeting him in person.
First time he was suppose to be a special guest ref at a local fight here in town and I can almost swear that was the occasion he talked about backing out on in his book. I didn't realize till 10min before the fight he had cancelled his trip. 
So next time he is doing a promotional signing at a local gym here in Florida which I was waiting for over a hr and a half in line before he shows up. He walks in the door with the cockiest attitude imaginable and signs autographs for 5 mins. makes some comment to his manager and fall just short of saying f**k all you before walking out the door.
Completely changed my attitude for him.


On the flip side I met Rich Franklin at an autograph signing he showed up to a wk or so after his dad had passed. He was suppose to leave at 10pm because he had a flight to catch. His manager was being a total dick when I got to go up to talk to Rich telling me we needed to hurry along they had a flight to catch. It was a little past 10 at that time and the line was getting nothing but longer. Rich turned around and told his manager he better be finding another flight because they were going to be there awhile and Rich talked to me for about 10min or so. I have so much respect for Rich Franklin he is truly someone you want to be the face of this sport. 

So just wondering how your encounters have gone?


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## ryano1985 (Jun 17, 2008)

damn dude... you seem to look up to celebs a bit much, but still that seems like a douch bag move to ditch out like that when you have fans waitin for ya.. anyways i sat in front of bader and dollaway at a local rage in the cage event.. i feel weird talking to people just because there famous, its never interested me much.. but my buddy wouldn't shut the f*ck up, haha.. they were both really cool about it

edit... maybe he had some important sh!t going on? if its something that happens often prolly not.. just a thought


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## MJB23 (Jan 26, 2007)

Randy was a dick and wouldn't talk to anyone. He ran back into the locker rooms at the IFL show I saw him at but this was during the beginning of his problems with the UFC so that might have been why.

Bas was wicked cool and joked around alot.

Pat Miletich was really nice.

Carlos Newton was really funny and nice.

Ken Shamrock was wicked cool and had no problems signing autographs.

Roy Nelson, Wagnney Fabiano, Rory Markham, and Matt Horwich were all down to earth and went out of their way to talk to their fans. After Roy Nelson's and Rory Markham's fights they came and were sitting like 2 rows in front of me. They ended up telling off some drunks who were talking shit the whole night.


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## diablo5597 (Nov 12, 2008)

clay guida was nice. He does a lot of promos with xience


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## lanceis2buff (Aug 3, 2006)

Mike Swick was real cool when I met him at UFC 68. Nobody noticed him because he was rather inconspicuous with his clothing. That and most people were distracted by Shonie Carter and all of his flambouyance. Swick was standing behind me and my buddy in the concession line. Was down to take a pic and everything.


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## bail3yz (Apr 22, 2007)

ryano1985 said:


> damn dude... you seem to look up to celebs a bit much


Why would you bother saying this? If you are a fan, and its local.. why not go? It's not like hes stalking them.



> maybe he had some important sh!t going on? if its something that happens often prolly not.. just a thought


Alot of other people have had similar problems with Hughes. I've heard alot of stories like this.. and the majority of them regarding Hughes are pretty bad. I've heard nothing but good things about Rich Franklin though.


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## Darkgecko (Apr 21, 2008)

Hughes looked to be sincere with his visit to the veteran's clinic, but video editing is an amazing thing.


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## ryano1985 (Jun 17, 2008)

bail3yz said:


> Why would you bother saying this? If you are a fan, and its local.. why not go? It's not like hes stalking them.
> 
> 
> 
> Alot of other people have had similar problems with Hughes. I've heard alot of stories like this.. and the majority of them regarding Hughes are pretty bad. I've heard nothing but good things about Rich Franklin though.


there is no problem being a fan or showin up and i didnt assume he was a stalker. im not sure if that across wrong or what..


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## TERMINATOR (Jul 6, 2008)

Im from Iowa and hughes always comes down for pheasant season. He was at a couple of our small town local bars, and as you probably could guess total dousch bag.


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## Celtic16 (Sep 9, 2007)

Only real "Celeb" i ever remember meeting was Kevin Mcbride lol. Met him twice actually, Once when I was boxing in a club show. That was before he fought and beat tyson. Then i met him afterw the tyson fight, He came to our club and was really humble and down to earth. Huge guy.

I had always heard that tyson avoided him for years and after seeing his size I could see why lol.


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## drockh (Nov 17, 2006)

Some people just look like dbags.. Hughes has a dbag attitude before he even opens his mouth.


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## Organik (Aug 28, 2006)

Frank Trigg was the actual most down to earth mma fighter ive met yet, was a cool guy with a good sense of humor and was thrilled that he was even noticed. very relaxed and composed person, was real surprised at how cool he was, made it seem like it was an honor to meet me haha naw but for real

trigg was cool as shit

randy was a nice guy too once he didnt have 100 ppl hounding him, but it must be hard to always stay happy especially in real aggrivating situations, i can only imagine some of the questions ppl ask u in autograph signings that turn your good mood to shit.


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## Couchwarrior (Jul 13, 2007)

I've never met any famous fighter, but some people you don't even have to meet to tell what sort of person they are. Just from watching them on TV you can tell that Hughes is an asshole and Franklin in a nice guy.

Bas generally seems like a nice guy, but I don't know about those crazy self defense videos... He might flip out and break your knee caps if you happen to look at his woman in the wrong way or something.

Ken Shamrock seems like the sort of guy that will be really nice as long as you keep kissing his ass while talking to him.


MJB23 said:


> Randy was a dick and wouldn't talk to anyone. He ran back into the locker rooms at the IFL show I saw him at but this was during the beginning of his problems with the UFC so that might have been why.


Or maybe he just needed to take a shit really bad.


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## wafb (May 8, 2007)

I met a number of MMA fighters last year at the MMAEXPO here in Toronto, they were very nice. I guess it depends on the situation you meet them. If they're having lunch or whatever they might be less amiable to signing autographs. The only one I've met Hominick who thinks he's the shit when I visited Xtreme Couture in Toronto. He's like "Not now chief, I'm in the f*cking zone!!!".


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## Rellik (Feb 26, 2007)

Organik said:


> Frank Trigg was the actual most down to earth mma fighter ive met yet, was a cool guy with a good sense of humor and was thrilled that he was even noticed. very relaxed and composed person, was real surprised at how cool he was, made it seem like it was an honor to meet me haha naw but for real
> 
> trigg was cool as shit
> 
> randy was a nice guy too once he didnt have 100 ppl hounding him, but it must be hard to always stay happy especially in real aggrivating situations, i can only imagine some of the questions ppl ask u in autograph signings that turn your good mood to shit.


Trigg is one person I would think would be a total dick but the more I think about it he does seem like a pretty cool person on his radio show. 

And I totally agree with the questions at autograph signing thing. While I was waiting to meet Rich we had a bunch of guys from a little whole in the wall MMA Training facility trying to act all bad ass. I don't understand what you get out of yelling across the room that your going to beat some-bodies ass next wk. One guy even brought his belt he won at a local MMA event. And I understand pride and all but i've seen this fool 5 times and I know 3 of those times he had that belt. :confused03:


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## MJB23 (Jan 26, 2007)

Couchwarrior said:


> Or maybe he just needed to take a shit really bad.


That could have been the reason.


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## Tango87 (Oct 17, 2006)

I've met Ryan Bader, CB Dolloway, Jesse Forbes and Jamie Varner at a local EVO MMA event. CB and Bader were cool as hell. Bader was very talkative and didn't act like a jerk at all. CB was real chill too which was funny because I expected him to be an ass. Jesse Forbes was cool and I really didn't talk to Varner.

I've also met Royce Gracie and he is cool as hell.

Houston Alexander is very chill and acts very down to Earth. 

Alvin Robinson is awesome. Genuinely a really cool guy. 

Ummmm BJ Penn is little as hell. I figured I'd add that. I didn't talk to him but I saw him and wow. 

And my boy Benson "Smooth" Henderson is cool as shit! You probably haven't heard of him yet but you will. 

So I've really not had a bad experience with fighters.


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## CornbreadBB (Jul 31, 2008)

The closest person I've met to an MMA fighter was Tony Bennett. He was okay.


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## Davisty69 (May 24, 2007)

No bad experiences for me. I met Randy Couture at Affliction: Banned and he was cool as hell. I walked up to him, shook his hand, said I was a fan. He smiled, thanked me, and that was that. Nice guy.

A friend of mine met Shonie Carter. He said that he was at an autograph session with UFC fighters and was standing in line. Next to him, was Shonie Carter wearing a full f*cking yellow suit as always. He asked him, "aren't you Shonie Carter?" and Shonie said, "Shhhh, don't tell anyone."

That is an awesome story.


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## Bradysupafan (Oct 26, 2008)

There are always two sides to every situation. Sometimes fighters like everyone else have bad days and dont feel like being social.Or maybe some of the fighters just dont like having MEN in their 20-30's drooling over them.


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## Red Baron (Jul 17, 2008)

i met wendel clarke a few times.
not mma but the guy sure can fight
first class dude


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## jdun11 (Apr 23, 2006)

All ive met is DellaGrotte and Kenflo. Dellagrotte lives about 100 feet up the street from me and I was walking by his driveway and he was washing his X5 in the driveway. Kenny was there with him. Sorta makin fun of him cuz he wouldnt pay for a car wash lol But it was hot out and summer time, so it was cool. But both guys are mad cool, real down to earth and chill.

On this topic. I just found out like a month ago that my grandmother and DellaGrotte's grandmother are first cousins. So that makes us 3rd cousins right? lol


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## Aaronyman (Mar 1, 2007)

I've met stephen harper and it was awesome


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## Hellboy (Mar 15, 2008)

GSP was a jerk to me. 

But he seems to have fooled most people into thinking he is a nice guy over the last few years after his earlier antics in the UFC.


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## swpthleg (Dec 31, 2006)

I'm very, very disappointed to hear that about GSP.
(insert riddum being off joke here)


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## JuggNuttz (Oct 5, 2006)

i didnt accually meet Arlovski so much as just a hand shake in passing, but when i was up in the balcony at a Shidokan show here in Chicago, AA was on the floor front row, had his belt with him (He was Champ at the time), and everyone that came up to him he signed autographs and posed for pics. He would even put the belt on who was taking the pic with him.


i did meet Shonie Carter at the Palace Station the weekend of a UFC fight... I forget the number it was silva v lutter and rampage and cro cops debut. but yeah im walking towards the casino and i see a black guy wearing very bright multi colored clothes and sunglasses (at midnite). as i got next to him my head kinda snapped over and went Shonie!!! he turned and said hey whats up man?! shook my hand and we just BS'ed for a few minutes about the Bears in the superbowl, and Chicago, and that i knew one of his training partners back in Chicago. i think he woulda talked longer but someone was calling him and asking him where he was they were waiting heh.


so 2 meets and both really cool.


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## Hellboy (Mar 15, 2008)

swpthleg said:


> I'm very, very disappointed to hear that about GSP.
> (insert riddum being off joke here)


He wasn't a Matt Hughes/BJ Penn type jerk but it just seemed like (to me) he didn't really care.


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## JT42 (Dec 31, 2006)

It all depends when you meet them I guess. Rashad, Mir, Guida, Torres, and Villasenor were all really cool at the WEC weigh-ins here in ABQ and talked and took photos with everyone. I have never met GSP but a lot of my friends have met him around ABQ and he is always super nice.


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## Damone (Oct 1, 2006)

> GSP was a jerk to me.
> 
> But he seems to have fooled most people into thinking he is a nice guy over the last few years after his earlier antics in the UFC.


Oh, he hasn't fooled me. Dude's as insincere as they come.



> I've met who thinks he's the shit was Hominick when I visited Xtreme Couture in Toronto. He's like "Not now chief, I'm in the f*cking zone!!!".


I'm a Mark Hominick fan now. That is awesome. Was he in the Ken Shamrock zone, or just the zone?


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## 3DLee (Aug 30, 2006)

I really get amazed by the people that say Matt Hughes was a prick in person. I went up to the HIT Squad grand opening and met him, Robbie Lawler, Matt Pena, Marc Fiore, and they were all as awesome as could be. I even went to the Hughes family farm aftewards for the message board only after party and he was great. His brother Mark cooked us all hotdogs over the fire and Matt even gave the girl that was with me his jacket.


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## geekpipe (Dec 31, 2006)

at ufc 79 met several.. rashad was with family and very nice. Houston alexander, T Silva, Gonzaga, edgar (with his dad), bisping, couture were all very nice

Embarassed to say but went to elitexc show in NJ and met baroni, kimbo, joey v, scott smith and gina carano. James thompson screamed right near me and scared the bejesus out of me. the only weird thing that happened was that hughes was in the press room and was just acting like a jerk.. laughing, mocking speakers, etc... was there with coleman and i think shawn merriman (football). they were laughing at gary shaw from elitexc.

oh yea plaxico was there... wouldnt say hello..


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## CornbreadBB (Jul 31, 2008)

Hughes acting like a jerk? That does sound weird....


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## swpthleg (Dec 31, 2006)

Guys, if you go to an event or have any expectation that you might run into a fighter, bring your camera or use your phone if it has a good camera, mmmmkay?


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## Tango87 (Oct 17, 2006)

swpthleg said:


> Guys, if you go to an event or have any expectation that you might run into a fighter, bring your camera or use your phone if it has a good camera, mmmmkay?


I got pics with Royce, Bader, CB and Houston. Alvin and Ben are always around so no need there.


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## MJB23 (Jan 26, 2007)

swpthleg said:


> Guys, if you go to an event or have any expectation that you might run into a fighter, bring your camera or use your phone if it has a good camera, mmmmkay?


I have pics of the weigh ins where I met most of the fighters I've met but they aren't on my camera and all I have are the actual developed pictures so I can't post any.


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## Captain Stupid (Feb 3, 2008)

Elvis Sinosic. Nicest guy in MMA - period. Pity he don't win too much...


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## wafb (May 8, 2007)

Damone said:


> I'm a Mark Hominick fan now. That is awesome. Was he in the Ken Shamrock zone, or just the zone?



lmao, nobody but Ken Shamrock can get in the zone like he does.


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## Xerxes (Aug 14, 2008)

Hellboy said:


> GSP was a jerk to me.
> 
> But he seems to have fooled most people into thinking he is a nice guy over the last few years after his earlier antics in the UFC.





swpthleg said:


> I'm very, very disappointed to hear that about GSP.
> (insert riddum being off joke here)


An acquaintance of mine happened to be seating near him in the airplane when he was going to Brazil. They talked MMA during the whole trip and they watched some fighting footage on GSP's laptop together... I guess it depends on the circumstances. :dunno:


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## ryano1985 (Jun 17, 2008)

geekpipe said:


> at ufc 79 met several.. rashad was with family and very nice. Houston alexander, T Silva, Gonzaga, edgar (with his dad), bisping, couture were all very nice
> 
> *Embarassed to say but went to elitexc show *in NJ and met baroni, kimbo, joey v, scott smith and gina carano. James thompson screamed right near me and scared the bejesus out of me. the only weird thing that happened was that hughes was in the press room and was just acting like a jerk.. laughing, mocking speakers, etc... was there with coleman and i think shawn merriman (football). they were laughing at gary shaw from elitexc.
> 
> oh yea plaxico was there... wouldnt say hello..


why is that embarassing? ... i would go for sure:dunno:


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## jdun11 (Apr 23, 2006)

Has anyone on here met Fedor or Shogun??


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## Fedornumber1! (Jun 18, 2008)

I met and trained with matt arroyo recently and he was the nicest ******* guy ive ever met in my life...when we rolled he kicked my ass but he did it _in a nice way..._


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## kujo45 (Apr 21, 2008)

3DLee said:


> I really get amazed by the people that say Matt Hughes was a prick in person. I went up to the HIT Squad grand opening and met him, Robbie Lawler, Matt Pena, Marc Fiore, and they were all as awesome as could be. I even went to the Hughes family farm aftewards for the message board only after party and he was great. His brother Mark cooked us all hotdogs over the fire and Matt even gave the girl that was with me his *huge all-american penis*.


be honest...


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## cezwan (Dec 7, 2007)

dude, i would KILL to meet any fighter..

living in Australia, we never get any events, fighters come over here.. Or anything like that..

Mark Hunt supposedly lives in Sydney, but i have never seen him. (most probably because Sydney is massive. lol.. )


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## wafb (May 8, 2007)

cezwan said:


> dude, i would KILL to meet any fighter..
> 
> living in Australia, we never get any events, fighters come over here.. Or anything like that..
> 
> Mark Hunt supposedly lives in Sydney, but i have never seen him. (most probably because Sydney is massive. lol.. )


What about Soa Palalei and Elvis Sinosic, I'm pretty sure they do a lot of appearances in Oz.


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## Mc19 (Jul 6, 2006)

Hellboy said:


> GSP was a jerk to me.
> 
> But he seems to have fooled most people into thinking he is a nice guy over the last few years after his earlier antics in the UFC.


 Really? I met him and David Loisaeu at a Mcdonalds in Toronto! lol, and they were both really nice to me, Koscheck and Sherk were also really cool guys.


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## ID06 (Dec 31, 2006)

Most of the MFS guys I've met were pretty cool, I've met Matt Hughes a few times and he's always been nice to me.

Rory Singer and his guys at Hardcore gym are all really cool. Ledbetter and Bowles are some of the nicest and funniest dudes I've ever met.

Jeff Bedard is a *****, punkass, bitch. I'd love to knock the shit out of that queer.


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## cezwan (Dec 7, 2007)

wafb said:


> What about Soa Palalei and Elvis Sinosic, I'm pretty sure they do a lot of appearances in Oz.


i should rephrase that actually.. i meant more like fighters that i admire and like..

like Nog, Fedor, Shogun, Wand, Cro Cop, Couture etc..

p.s Soa and Elvis are cool too, but yeah, never seen them either.. Australia is WAY to big of a country..


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## SimplyNate (May 27, 2007)

I'm pretty sure GSP doesn't like doing MMA stuff outside the gym. He has said in interviews he wants his free time to relax. So I can see him not caring about signing autographs. Also probably part of the reason he likes to go to brazil so much lol.


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## sbc (Jan 15, 2007)

At the HFC(?) event in Calgary where Aleks fought Bobish i shook his hand after the fight and he even postured up like a weigh in stare-down with me for pictures but my girlfriend wrecked that opportunity.

I also shook Fedors hand as he was being rushed out of the place but he made the effort to stop the security to shake my hand and say thanks. 

I'd say they were both great but maybe not being able to speak english limits their obligations to really talk to anyone.


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## Rellik (Feb 26, 2007)

3DLee said:


> I really get amazed by the people that say Matt Hughes was a prick in person. I went up to the HIT Squad grand opening and met him, Robbie Lawler, Matt Pena, Marc Fiore, and they were all as awesome as could be. I even went to the Hughes family farm aftewards for the message board only after party and he was great. His brother Mark cooked us all hotdogs over the fire and Matt even gave the girl that was with me his jacket.


You know I read about him taking everybody out to the family farm guess it was on the Matt Hughes website. And everybody I read that went had a great time. Guess you have to catch him at his own discretion. I wish I could have had the same experience because like I said I was a huge Matt Hughes fan. I still have mad respect for him as a fighter but after the way he treated his fan support , because it was his fan support he was the only one at the signing I went to; I lost alot of respect for him as a person.


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## Darkgecko (Apr 21, 2008)

I met Rob Emerson 2 years ago. I'm just now recovering from my beating enough to type this.


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## Couchwarrior (Jul 13, 2007)

Mc19 said:


> Really? I met him and David Loisaeu at a Mcdonalds in Toronto! lol, and they were both really nice to me, Koscheck and Sherk were also really cool guys.


Lol, wtf were they doing at McDonalds? :laugh:


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## Xerxes (Aug 14, 2008)

Couchwarrior said:


> Lol, wtf were they doing at McDonalds? :laugh:


eating?


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## GKY (Jun 3, 2007)

Never got to see any MMA fighters, but I did see the great Khali 2 weeks ago (he was on my flight and stood next to me in line). The dude is seriously massive, like unbelievable. I got to shake his finger 

BTW if you don't know who the great Khali is this pic should explain it best


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## bail3yz (Apr 22, 2007)

GKY said:


> Never got to see any MMA fighters, but I did see the great Khali 2 weeks ago *(he was on my flight and stood next to me in line). The dude is seriously massive, like unbelievable. I *got to shake his finger
> 
> BTW if you don't know who the great Khali is this pic should explain it best


BULLSHIT.. THAT MOTHER F**KER CANT FIT ON A PLANE!


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## drockh (Nov 17, 2006)

Never met any of the fighters but i was at a sushi place and a guy stopped me and started chatting with me cause he saw me wearing an affliction shirt. It turns out he was one of the trainers for sean sherk and brock lesnar. He said they were both good guys to work with.


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## XitUp (Jan 11, 2007)

Hellboy said:


> GSP was a jerk to me.
> 
> But he seems to have fooled most people into thinking he is a nice guy over the last few years after his earlier antics in the UFC.


Aw, that sucks.



MJB23 said:


> I have pics of the weigh ins where I met most of the fighters I've met but they aren't on my camera and all I have are the actual *developed pictures* so I can't post any.


What? A non-digital camera? Did you write this post on your typewriter?


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## geekpipe (Dec 31, 2006)

*fedor*



jdun11 said:


> Has anyone on here met Fedor or Shogun??


I met Fedor in NYC at the M1 press conference at ecko. Very nice guy... so soft spoken. I know hes a machine but you wouldnt think that by looking at him. I asked him to take a pic which he agreed but I asked for one in a headlock or with his fist to my face and he said no. Probably a good idea for me lol. Got some M1 tshirts and fedor dvds... good time. Trigg was in audience as well.


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## BazDaManUk (May 27, 2007)

GKY said:


> Never got to see any MMA fighters, but I did see the great Khali 2 weeks ago (he was on my flight and stood next to me in line). The dude is seriously massive, like unbelievable. *I got to shake his finger *


I duno what's more disturbing, that you shaked his 'finger' or you smiled about it?



lol just messin, he's about 7ft 2 aint he? normally guys that big are slim or don't have much muscle mass but he actually looks freakin huge!!! if he could land a punch on your head it would probably mean death? :confused05:


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## MJB23 (Jan 26, 2007)

XitUp said:


> What? A non-digital camera? Did you write this post on your typewriter?


No the pictures were taken with my ex gf's digital camera and since they weren't taken on mine I had them developed so I would have a hard copy. I never got a chance to save them to my laptop.


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## XitUp (Jan 11, 2007)

Women, they take your heart and your pics of fighters.


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## mtt_c (Jun 15, 2008)

I was about 9, noticed Muhammed Ali eating on a highway truckstop. I was too nervous to ask for his autograph but my brothers went over. They told him I was nervous and he came over and shook my hand. I still have his signature. He was a cool dude for doing that.


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