Occasional Cage Potato contributor Chad Dundas is one of the last special correspondents we have who hasn’t been dry-humped by "Rampage" Jackson (or so he says). This weekend we sent him to NYC’s Radio City Music Hall to give us an idea what it was like watching the UFC’s biggest event in one of New York’s most famous venues. Here’s what he found out.
A word of advice, Potato Nation: If any of you classy-ass motherfuckers ever get the opportunity to take in a cultural event at Radio City Music Hall – perhaps the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular or that Tori Amos concert you’ve been promising yourself for years – by all means, do it. And while you’re there be sure to visit the men’s room.
Seriously, it’s phenomenal. Like everything else at Radio City Music Hall, the bathroom is so immense and opulent that they don’t even call it the bathroom. They call it “The Gentlemen’s Lounge,” and it’s way nicer than any place any of us have ever lived.
The rarified atmosphere of New York City’s most storied performance venue made it a weird setting for Saturday night’s UFC 100 viewing party, but that didn’t stop approximately 2,500 guys in Affliction T-shirts from showing up to drink five-dollar Budweisers and yell at a 70 x 35-foot High Definition TV screen.
If you’ve ever been to a live MMA event anywhere in the world, you already know exactly what the scene was like. All your favorite MMA fan archetypes were there, including the guy seated immediately behind me who right kept referring to Yoshihiro Akiyama as “that Korean guy.” The crowd cheered Georges St. Pierre, jeered Brock Lesnar and came absolutely unglued when Dan Henderson knocked Michael Bisping into the living death.
So yeah, no real surprises, though a few of life’s most pressing questions were conclusively answered:
1. Is it pretty cool to watch MMA on a freakin’ gigantic HDTV? Yes, it is.
2. Was it weird to watch UFC 100 while seated in plush movie theater-style seats, crammed in with two thousand dudes who look like they think they’re a few sit-ups away from trying out for the next season of “The Ultimate Fighter?” A little bit, sure.
3. Was there a subtle layer of irony that city’s swankiest opera house hosted a well-attended viewing party for a sport that is still technically illegal in New York? Yeah, there was, but everybody was too busy having a great time to notice.
(CD)
I was there for the NFL draft this April. Nice commodes.