First Rule Of Fight Club.........

I was whisked away early Friday morning to Vegas to take in my first Fight Club Q&A and autograph sessions as well as the following live weigh ins.

Today's potential historic fight will only pale to the buzz of sitting through the day before activities that the UFC treats as an event unto itself.

I rolled into the MGM Grand to check in and noticed a crowd that was buzzing and growing in the lobby like always occurs when a celebrity shows up unexpectantly. It was UFC President Dana White who was taking picture after picture with fans and seemingly enjoying it more with every new fan encounter. This is the man that many contribute the current popularity of MMA to. It was refreshing to see someone enjoying their job so much.

That is much of the appeal of MMA, that anyone that is involved is usually very accessible and down to earth. Later that evening while eating at the MGM Buffett, I experienced this phenomenon myself. I was eating with my wife and fighter Hermes Franca walked past my table as I looked up. I said "Hey Hermes" and he smiled and said "Hello Sir" with a smile.

But let's get back to earlier in the day. We stood in a long line of UFC Fight Club members waiting to get into the arena for the day's activities. The line snaked around like a Disneyland qeue and we were right by a well placed souvenir booth. The air was electric as everyone anticipated what was to come. It was the hub of opinions on who would win and why.

Once in, we got a seat about six rows from the front off to stage left. I went out of the arena to an area where you could get refreshments, or meet UFC fighters Lightweight Champ B.J. Penn, Middleweight Champ Anderson Silva, Marcus Davis, and TUF 5 alum Ben Saunders. Like Dana in the lobby, these guys seemed to genuinely enjoy what they were doing.

The venue is divided into a 3rd by a large black curtain. Periodically you see venue and UFC personnel as well as MMA dignitaries come walking through. You could also see a partially constructed octagon, which was surprisingly exciting to this first time attender.

Mike Goldberg gets on stage and introduces former middleweight champion Rich Franklin who will answer questions from Fight Club members in today's Q&A session. Franklin, who will move up to 205 to fight Dan Henderson at UFC 93 in January is huge looking and very fit.

Fight Club members step up to microphones located in the aisles and ask mostly good questions ranging from whether Rich prefers the 205 class over 185 class to what he thought people getting into the game should focus on.

Some highlights:

> A FC member asked Rich if now that he has made the move to 205 if believed a rematch with Lyoto Machida would happen. Franklin said a rematch would be be stylistically boring. (This drew OOHs! and laughs from the crowd who thought Franklin was dissing Machida). Franklin followed up with the fact that it wasn't a criticism, rather the fact that Lyoto spends much of the time backing up and looking for spots to attack. He also said it was very effective. He said he'd fight if the UFC put it in front of him. Lyoto Machida handed Franklin his first professional defeat in 2003 at Inoki Festival. Franklin said he took the fight with 3 weeks notice and admitted he was arrogant and did not properly prepare.

> A guy asked if he could experience the devastation of a Rich Franklin punch in person, which Franklin quickly declined. Goldberg told a hilarious story of a drunken fight fan in Ireland that wanted Forrest Griffin to give him a leg kick. Forrest declined, but when the Irishman persisted Forrest obliged. The guy was walking like he was crippled but was screaming about how awesome it was. Classic Forrest.

> It is amazing the scientific approach that Rich Franklin takes to cutting weight for a fight. He documents everything he does and eats in a journal and constantly pores over them and makes adjustments if his progress is not where it needs to be. When asked about Paulo Filiho's recent match where he came in 7 pounds overweight, Franklin said he couldn't conceive how a fighter could miss the mark that much before a fight.

After the Q&A there was an hour gap where they let in the public for the weigh ins. On the multitude of big screens, they ran fighter features on Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar that have been on Spike. Spliced in the commercial breaks were spots for Harley-Davidson, Bud Light, a nutritional supplement, and Gears of War 2, which are all sponsors of this event.

The weigh ins occur as they call in the fighters one at a time, weigh them, announce their weights, and then have them pose against each other.

After Lesnar and Couture did this, Joe Rogan interviewed them beginning with Lesnar. The hometown crowd exploded for Couture and gave Lesnar some boos for his trouble. Lesnar seemed to tire of this treatment and after stating he saw his hand raised at the end of the fight, and that he would see Couture in the octagon the next night, he walked off.

Randy was typical Randy saying that this once again was a battle where people talked about his age and size disadvantage.

Well fight fans, I must leave you and head to the fight. Ha!