Most Fun I've Had...Ever?

Who is a big enough lunatic to go on vacation in Las Vegas with the main purpose being to train and fight against other people at the best mixed martial arts gym in the world? Me, that's who.

I've never had more fun in my life. I might have had an equal amount of fun before, but nothing surpasses the time I spent in Vegas (time in Vegas that I chose over waisting 3 hours on a Saturday walking across a stage). Here are some pictures from the trip.

It’s a good thing the gym had this sign placed above a urinal, because I nearly pissed myself when I read it before my first class.

This image is going on my business card after the bar. The text of my card will read:
Adam “The Brawl’n Barrister” Samons ESQ
He’ll Fight For You…Literally.

I made myself two promises before I went to the gym. 1) No touristy fan boy pictures with the fighters if I’m inside the gym. 2) If I break promise #1 at least don’t do that stupid clinched fist pose in the pictures. Here you can see me breaking both of these promises to myself, but who cares, it’s Randy freaking Couture.

Here were the staples of my diet while in Vegas: G2 to drink, grapefruit, bananas, Nutri-Grain bars, and some sort of microwaveable taco bell rice and beans thing.

Me with the most exciting fighter around today, Clay Guida. I met him at the gym the day before, but I was still keeping my promises to myself at the time. I took this when I stumbled upon an appearance he was doing at a Champs Sports. He’s a nice guy, doesn’t do the clinched fist pose in his pictures, and he somewhat resembles the Geiko caveman, what’s not to love? He’s so cool he can have his eyes closed and still be the coolest guy in the picture.

Me with Matt Hamill. I’m pretty sure he’s the baddest def man on the face of the planet. Also, the UFC lists him at 6’1, but unless he’s wearing platform shoes in this picture he’s more like 6’4.

These two brothers are the future of MMA: 7 year old Carlos Ruffo and 5 year old Giovani Ruffo. Their ground and standup techniques are both startlingly good. One day I’ll be able to say I rolled with them a couple of times way back when at a Jiu-Jitsu seminar on my graduation day. I think I’d change my anti-child stance if I knew my kids would be as fun loving and well behaved as these pint sized killing machines.

I was too into the fights on Saturday night to remember to take a couple pictures. The important thing is that this man, BJ Penn, won.

I didn’t spend all my time at the gym…well I would have, but it was closed on Sunday so I headed out to Red Rock Canyon. It was beautiful and these cell phone camera pictures do it no justice.

After Red Rock Canyon and a nap I headed out for a night on the town with these two guys that I was rooming with at the hostel. I’m pretty sure that they had names, but I never knew them. I only know them as “The Austrian Guy” and “The Guy from Switzerland.”

This is me with the Medway Submissions Fight Club from just outside London England. We trained all week together. They were great fighters and even better people. Lee, the guy on the end next to me owns the club’s gym and has his own fight promotion back in England. You can check out their websites at http://www.medwaysubmissions.com/ and http://www.cfc.uk.com/.

All the instructors at Xtreme Couture are world class, but this guy, professional fighter and Jiu-Jitsu instructor Dennis Davis was the best of the best

Boxing coach Ron Frazier was a close second behind Dennis, but you wouldn’t know it from this video.

Here's a picture of the front of the gym. It's also a picture of my next vacation destination, whenever that might be.