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Fight Chix UFC 129 in Toronto

This past weekend Elisabeth, Jake, and I traveled to Canada. The UFC Fan Expo and UFC 129 were being held in Toronto. Jake left early on Wednesday morning with all the booth supplies and Fight Chix Apparel. You know the best in MMA Apparel for women. ( wink wink) He got to the Fighter hotel just in time to check in and pick up Elisabeth and I from the airport. After quickly freshening up, went out for sushi and then called it a night.

The next day, we got up early and to head over to the Direct Energy Center. Before we left the hotel lobby, we saw BJ Penn signing an autograph. He was there with Rude Boy and some other fighters and trainers from Hilo. Now anyone who knows Jake, meeting BJ Penn is the equivalent of a 12 year old girl sitting on stage being serenaded by Justin Bieber. He played it cool though and introduced himself and Elisabeth from Fight Chix. BJ seemed to know the brand, but lit up when Jake said he would love to give him some baby clothes for his daughter, Aeva Lili’u. When Elisabeth asked what size she was, BJ responded in typical fighter style “she is about a 20 pounder.” We let him know we saw his Mom the day before and we would give the clothes to her. Then we were off to set up at the Expo.

After unloading and running around Toronto to every Walmart, Home Depot and Lowes, we set up the tent, tables,and clothes preparing for the anticipated day of chaos. Once we were done with everything, we headed back over to our hotel. However before we got there, Jake saw a tweet from Dana White, saying he will be giving away tickets to the fight, location TBA. We all started brain storming where Dana White would be giving out the tickets. Jake was SURE it would be at the Hockey Hall of Fame. Being fans of the Dana White Vlog we all knew that Dana was always driven around in a big black SUV, and sure enough there was one RIGHT by us that had a limo license plate. We were almost convinced that was Dana White, but the back windows were tinted. I could only see the driver and another man in the front seat, both of which I didn’t recognize. Well the car ended up turning and the location was announced! We tried hard to get there but traffic was insane and we arrive to see what looked like a UFC Festival in the center of Toronto. There we didn’t get tickets but we met up with Miss Rara from American Cage Fighter, Tracy Lee from Combat Lifestyle and Emily Miller who is a former IFL ring card girl and was modeling for TapouT at the Expo. We all hung out and chatted for a bit, got some pictures of Dana White and then headed back.

Time to get dolled up for a night on the town in Toronto. Arianny Celeste was hosting a Maxim Party with Cage Fighter and new Canadian Maxim Cover Girl, April Rose. April actually hails from right here in Chicago. Arianny put us on the list after checking in we walked the red carpet to the entrance of the historic Liberty Center where they had this massive banquet room thumping like the best clubs in Vegas. There were bars, table serves, ring card girls on a catwalk, elevated DJs and girls covered in body paint. Mike and John from MMAwarehouse.com join us inside and we all sat with Arianny and Mike DiSabato, from Cage Fighter. Tiki, Royce Gracie and Sean Tompkins also joined the party. Jake had fun snapping some photos, and made a little game of taking pictures of the people taking pictures with Arianny. And for the record, John from MMAwarehouse did not fall on the dance floor, he was ummm, break dancing!

The next day we got to the convention center and just had time to down a cup of coffee before the tsunami of people started flooding in. Doors opened at 9 am for VIPs and 10am for general public and we rushed straight through the day until 6 pm; already selling out of certain shirt styles. We debuted an exclusive Canada After Hours shirt and the baby clothes. All the items were flying off the racks!

That night, Jake, Elisabeth, and I went to the Joe Rogan Comedy Show. Jake is a huge fan of the Joe’s podcast, so he was especially looking forward to the show. He had two awesome opening acts and then had us all rolling for at least an hour. (Thanks again Beth and Jake!) After the show, we grabbed a bite to eat at an all night 50s style diner across from Massy Hall. Food was good but took forever! It was just so nice to sit and relax after a crazy day. Oh and before the show we some a famous Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, Above the Law guy in the lobby—you might know him.

Saturday morning, the last day of the expo, we had our routine down. Jake got up got everyone coffee and food. We rushed to get ready and headed down to the lobby. I was walking through the revolving door when I looked to my left, and saw a man walking in the opposite direction. Then it hit me, it was Randy Couture! He caught me looking at him, then smiled and waved to me. A little starstruck, I climbed in the car and we headed over to the convention center. Round 2 of chaos. Tamara “Miss RaRa” and Nate Quarry of “American Cagefighter” were at our booth signing.Elisabeth, Jake, and I were running around like crazy, there was never a moment of rest. Jake’s best friend and training partner Omar, who also owns Hiro Kimonos, arrived on Saturday and made the Fight Chix booth base camp for some networking of his top quality gis. Finally, the day had ended, and our stock was significantly smaller than what we started with. You could say that this UFC Expo was a huge success! We all piled into the Fight Chix Scion with all our gear and headed back to the hotel, for a much needed cocktail then we all got ready and headed out to a bar to watch the fight.

Watching a fight in Toronto, when GSP is fighting, is a rare treat. In typical Fight Chix fashion, we schooled the bartender on how to make Vegas Bombs and ensured she would get a fat tip if she stopped measuring the pours. Now it felt like home! We started making friends at the bar and included a few friendly wagers and some sharing of local customs. It was really cool to see how educated the Canadian MMA fans were. We didn’t hear anyone yell “put him in a body bag” or “Kiss his Ass Seabass” once! When the fights ended we followed the masses back to the hotel and grabbed some food from both a hotdog and gyros stand. Miss Rara met up with us and hung out at the hotel for a while and finally it was time to call it a night.

The next morning we went to breakfast, and then Jake headed out on his long drive back home. Beth and I were flying back home so we got to spend the day in Toronto.We went to the mall, and walked around until it started raining, but it gave us an excuse to finally go inside Second Cup for some coffee! While we were sitting inside Second Cup, we decided to go get massages, which were awesome! It was the perfect end to our Toronto stay. Oh, and by the way, thanks to proof from Youtube, it wasDana White behind us!

From UFC FAN EXPO, posted by Jacob Nuesser on 5/03/2011 (131 items)