IKF World Classic, side notes and epilogue

I wanted to squeeze in a few other cool things that didn't make it into my blog previously. I saw some pretty cool things, and there were some low-lights as well.

In the division one lower than mine, in the 120-130 division, I got to see a really skilled female fighter named Jessica Gladstone. She is a student of Trevor Smandych. You may remember seeing him on The Contender Asia. Jessica is really fun to watch. Both she and Trevor were really awesome to meet, totally humble and nice people.

The World Center Resort had a food court. This is an awesome convenience and is one more thing that made the venue really great.

I only have one complaint about the tournament; the refs were terrible. They seemed to have no idea what the rules are for Muay Thai matches. Sometimes they would break the clinch at some arbitrary time when the fighters were still working. They were not diligent about fouls. This was bad for two reasons; a.) they allowed fouls to happen, endangering fighters. b.) It was easy for some fighters' cornermen to take advantage of this lack of knowledge. One fat kid was obviously losing his fight in the clinch. Each time he'd get clinched, take a bunch of knees to the belly, and then fall down. His corner started screaming at the ref that his opponent was pulling his head down, and that you're not allowed to pull your opponent's head down. Meanwhile, the fat kid was trying to do some sort of takedown on his opponent by wrapping his leg behind the other guy's leg and then sliding down it like a stripper pole. The ref didn't say anything about that, because he clearly didn't know it was illegal, and because he was arguing with the fat kid's corner. The refs also had attitude problems. Some of them were rude, and some of them were pushovers. Some of them seemed to play favorites with the opponents. Some of them were just inexplicably obnoxious. When I got an 8-count in my second match, the ref looked at me like I was disgusting. "Do you want to keep fighting, or not?" he asked in a heavily sarcastic tone. These people need to bone up on their subjects, because it is not a job that should be taken lightly.

I had a Choco Taco after the tournament was over. I can't remember if I've had one before, and liked it, and that's why I wanted one, or if I'd never had one before and that's why I wanted it. Either way, during your next post-fight culinary debauchery, I suggest you start with a Choco Taco.

I also got myself a 40 after I got home. A 40-ounce Orangina, that is! Damn, that soda is good. I only know of one better, and that is Pink Ting. They don't come in 40's that I know of. I'd been craving Orangina since way before the tournament. I had it with chicken and broccoli, and potatoes. Oh, yeah. I love potatoes. And just in case you're starting to think I'm some sort of goody-two-shoes who doesn't know how to party, I also had a delicious Woodchuck.

If you live in the Atlanta area and you haven't been to Fat Matt's bbq joint, you are wasting your life. Get on over there. I had about 4 glasses of their homemade lemonade and a half slab of ribs (which, sadly, I couldn't finish.) No one looked at me funny for having my face busted up.

And, finally, I got to hang out with Meghan and Creed Perry from mmawesome.com. Check out their website! They have a lot of cool stuff there. They were nice enough to interview me today, and I'll let everyone know when that gets posted.