Dragon Boat Festival: 54-40

"54-40 are one of the most important popular music groups to emerge from the Canadian cultural landscape. With more than 2 decades of performing and recording behind them, the band has an unbelievable catalogue of hit songs. Lead by chief songwriter Neil Osborne, 5440 have carved out a legacy of gold and platinum albums and a outstanding reputation for their live performances that carries through to this day."

For those who are unfamiliar with 54-40, that was a brief description from the band's website.

Steve told me that 54-40 was going to be in town at the dragon boat festival and was wondering if I wanted to go and meet them. Definately.

The Dragon Boat Festival is a yearly event here in Ottawa that sees dozens of race teams compete in dragon boats. Tens of thousands of people visit each year. It really is just a big party. There are various kioks set up and a large beer tent.

We headed down to Mooney's bay to try and meet the band before their concert. Unfortunately, we didn't get there on time and would need to wait until the end of the performance to get our autographs.

This turned out to be very fortunate for us because 54-40 put on a fantastic show. I was suprised how many of their songs I knew. They played all of their hits and worked the crowd extremely well. There were points where lead singer Neil had the audience split in half and each half would take turns singing the chorus. It was great to see.

After their show, the band left the stage and headed back to a trailer that was behind the stage. After the crowd had exited, lead guitar player Dave Genn and dummer Matt Johnson came out to talk to some family and friends that had waited around. We were able to grab photos and autographs from these two almost right away.

There were rumours that the Neil and Brad had to catch a flight and had to leave immediately which would have been terrible for our photos. You can't have a group signed photo without key members of the band....especially not without the lead singer.

Steve and I headed around to the back of the trailer by the gated exit in hopes of meeting the other two members of the band. Eventually, Neil came out the back entrance to talk with someone he knew. He was really a pleasant guy and had no problem signing autographs and taking pictures.

After another bit of a wait, a van pulled up to take the band back to their hotel. The rumours of a quick flight were not true. As Brad came out to get in the van he fired off a few autos and pictures.Every band has a jerk. 54-40 might be the exception. Each guy was really nice.

Bif Naked

I can honestly say that this was one of the weirdest places I've went to get autographs.

I had heard on the radio that Bif Naked was going to be in town for the Simply Raw festival. Great! Another celebrity in Ottawa to meet. The guys on the radio stated that she was going to be a speaker at the festival and not performing. So, after doing some research, I found out that the Simply Raw festival aims to promote healthy lifestyles through raw vegan food and active living.

Steve and I headed down to the festival around 30 minutes before Bif Naked was scheduled to speak. The festival was simply made up of booths in different tents. There was a microphone set up under a larger tent and that is where people would be speaking. Thankfully there was no rain on that day.

The booths were promoting all organic products....from raw burgers to other foods. They weren't selling raw burgers, its a way of cooking the burger on a low heat for a longer period of time. It didn't make sense to me at all. There were people sitting around in a circle on the grass playing various instruments. It really seemed like a hippy festival.

Anyways, we saw another autograph collector walking around and he had already gotten his photo signed. We immediately went on the hunt for her. Until the guy pointed her out, I never would've guessed that it was her.

We went up to her and asked her for an autograph. She is one of the nicest people I have ever met. "Have you guys tried the food yet", she asked. "Not yet. What do you recommend?" She told us "EVERYTHING".

After grabbing a photo and an autograph from her, we were getting ready to leave when Steve asked me if I was going to try the food. No chance.

Legends of Boxing: Smokin' Joe Frazier

I thought I would give a bit of a background on Smokin' Joe Frazier for those of you that are unfamiliar with him.

"In 1967, Muhammed Ali was stripped of his world heavyweight title due to his refusal to be inducted into the military during the Vietnam War. To fill the vacancy, the New York State Athletic Commission held a bout between Frazier and Buster Mathis, with the winner to be recognized as "World Champion" by the state of New York. Although the fight was not recognized as a World Championship bout by some, Frazier won by a knockout in the 11th round and staked a claim to the heavyweight championship.

On February 16, 1970, Frazier became the undisputed world champion when he defeated WBA champion Jimmy Ellis at Madison Square Garden by a fifth-round knock-out.

On March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden, Frazier and Ali met in the first of their three bouts which was widely called the "Fight of the Century" in pre-bout publicity and the press feeding frenzy.

Many factors came together for Frazier in this fight. He was 27 years old and at his lifetime peak both physically and mentally, while Ali, 29, was coming back from a three-year absence, taking on Frazier soon after a bruising battle with Oscar Bonavena, whom Ali had defeated by a TKO in 15.

Frazier lost a number of early rounds but took Ali's combinations without backing down. As Ali started to slow in the middle rounds, Frazier came on strong, landing hard shots to the body as well as powerful left hooks to the head. Frazier would win a clear, 15-round, unanimous decision and hand Ali his first loss.

Frazier's undefeated record of 29-0 and championship run would come to an end at the hands of powerful puncher George Foreman on January 22, 1973.

Frazier's second fight against Ali took place in 1974, in New York, with Ali winning a 12-round unanimous decision.

Ali and Frazier met for the third and final time in Quezon City (a district within the metropolitan area of Manila), the Philippines, on October 1, 1975 and was dubbed the "Thrilla in Manila". The fight for Ali's title, which was attended by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, caused another media frenzy and was seen live aroudn the world. It was far more action filled than the previous encounter (there was no belt at stake in the second fight), and was a punishing display that ended when Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, stopped the fight before the 15th and final round with Frazier sitting on his stoo. Frazier never spoke to Futch again. For his part, Ali described the match as 'the closest thing to death' he had ever experienced."

Frazier would finish his career with a 32-4-1 record. Thank You Wikipedia!!

Frazier was in town for a charity event and Steve and I felt we needed to meet the legend. We headed down to the event and were able to meet Smokin' Joe, Gerry Cooney and Daniel Alfredsson.

I was able to get to Joe's table and grab a photo with the two boxing legends.

Seeing Joe was great. He needs to walk with a cane now, but its always a pleasure to meet legends of any sport. I was able to get a boxing glove and photo signed by him.

He has a sweet graph.

Gerry Cooney was a really nice guy. Not much attention was directed towards him at the event with the presence of Frazier. The guy is huge. I won't put a background on him, but Don King named him The Great White Hope, creating a controversial battle of race between him and Larry Holmes.
Holmes would win by TKO in the 13th round.

I had already met Daniel Alfredsson, but it was great to get a photo with us both in suits.

His family had already left to head back to Sweden, but he felt that this event was important enough to stay in town an extra day and fly back to Sweden alone. Its great to see how much he does for charity in this town that goes without notice.

I hope you enjoyed the read.

UFC 114: Saturday

Saturday was a little different than Friday for us. There wasn't much research that we could do for that day so it seemed like there would be a bit more running around that day.

Me met up with John again in the morning. He joined us in line and we discussed our plan of action for the day. John said that he only really needed Machida that day and that was basically it for him. He promised his wife that he would go for lunch with her that day. Understandable.

When the gates opened, we parted ways with John and headed directly to Tito Ortiz's booth. He wasn't scheduled to sign until noon and it was only ten am. I waited in line to start while Jordan went and grabbed an autograph from Forrest Griffin. When he came back, he waited in line and I left to go and get in line for UFC legend and hall of famer Ken Shamrock. I had no idea that all of these vets would be there. It was really an experience getting to meet all of the guys that paved the way for MMA.

Ken was great to meet. He was really friendly and signed a Muay Thai bag for me and signed Jordan's program for me as he was still in line for Tito.

I then went back to wait with Jordan. As we got closer to noon, we noticed that Matt Hughes had stopped in the booth right next to us. He wasn't doing a formal signing, but was headed to his induction ceremony and had wondered by. I couldn't get my photo out in time for him to sign it. He was gone fast.

Finally Tito arrived and thanked everyone for waiting in line for him. By now his line was huge again. Was I ever glad that we were second in line. We went up and I asked him if he could sign a couple of photos for me. He said of course.

I asked him if he thought that Ken would sign my photo of Tito kneeing him in the head as well and he laughed about it. I think he realized after that Ken was at the expo also and clearly showed that there is still some hate that exists between the two.

He looked at my second photo and commented on how swollen his face looks. He had a pretty good shiner in the photo so we asked him about it. He said that he had broken his orbital bone about a week before the fight. So when asked why he decided it was still a good idea to fight, he responded, "I had to feed my family". How crazy is that. I also asked him how his injury was doing. Tito was forced to pull out of his fight with Chuck Liddell because he needed neck surgery. He said that it felt so much better. He didn't have numbness in his arms anymore and he didn't have pain when he slept. I can't wait to see him back in the ring.

After we left Tito, we saw a short line for Stephan Bonnar. While we were in line, I remember that he used was from Chicago. It was the night of game one of the Stanley cup finals between Chicago and my Philadelphia Flyers. Needless to say, we had a good chat about the series as I was wearing my Flyers shirt.

We then grabbed a photo with Jeff "the snowman" Monson. Another oldie from MMA.

We decided we should meet Guy Mezger also, so as we started to head to his booth, we saw Jay Hieron with nobody in line. We grabbed a quick photo with him. Jordan asked him if he was going to get the other sleeve done. He said that he had other stuff he needed to do first.

Guy Mezger was another legend that used to train in the Lion's Den with Ken Shamrock. It was after Tito Ortiz beat Guy Mezger that he put on a shirt the read "Guy Mezger is my bitch". Ken Shamrock was furious thus starting the hatred between Ken and Tito.

It is always nice to meet the old guys. There were a lot of people at the expo that had no idea who these older guys are. It is only the hardcores that really knew. I guarantee it.

We then went and got in line for Shane Carwin. His lines tended to be pretty big, but we were in line early for him. I told Jordan I would be right back and went and got in line a the Spike booth just as Antonio Nogueira and Stephan Bonnar arrived. When I got up there Bonnar immediately remembered me and said "You Again". I grabbed a photo with both guys and then asked "Minotauro" if he could sign my photo. I asked him how come he wasn't at his brother's workout on Thursday when all of the other teammates were there. He said that he was moving and wasn't in town yet. He appologized to me for not being there. I told him he had nothing to appologize for. I then headed back to meet up with Jordan.

Its amazing how last year nobody knew who Shane Carwin was and he had short lines. Everyone knows him now and his lines were big. I guess when you become champion people know your name. I can't wait for his brawl with Brock.

After meeting Shane, we went back to our hotel to drop off our things as it was getting close to fight time. After the fights, I was walking out of the arena and was able to grab a quick photo with Vitor Belfort as he was walking directly in front of me.

All in all, a really good weekend for meeting people. I got a ton of things signed and a lot of pictures. Next up, Boston!

UFC 114: Friday

Friday was the first day of the fan expo and would prove to be a busy day. A lot of the day revolved around the experience that I had gained at the UFC 100 expo last year. That being said, we woke up at around 6:45 am to make sure we were at the fan expo for 7:30am. We then waited in line until around 10am when the expo started.

Research was key to this fan expo. There was said to be around 100,000 people that visited the expo over the weekend. If you don't know where a fighter will be until after he has already started signing, you don't have a chance. It is a lot easier to work when you have numbers. Jordan and I started talking to a guy in line who was at the expo by himself. The three of us all agreed that it would be better if we worked together. Have one guy wait in the long lines while the other two meet other fighters and then switch.

All that being said, Jordan and I immediately went to Randy Couture's booth while John went to the Bony Acai booth to meet Lyoto Machida. I missed Randy last year, and I only knew that he would be at the expo for sure on Friday. He was scheduled to begin signing at 10:30. We were about 7th in line and quickly grabbed a photo and an autograph from the UFC hall-of-famer.

Jordan and I then went to wait in the Tapout line. It was clear that the line would take awhile so I went to try and grab another autograph from Machida with John. He wasn't signing until 11am so I figured I had enough time. The bad part was, we would wait until around 11:30 and Machida would not show up. The guy running the booth told us that Machida would not be there until tomorrow, but Junior Dos Santos would be by. We left and went back to meet with Jordan. By now the lines were getting long, but the Tapout booth always has six or so guys signing at a time, so its worth the wait.

We slowly moved to the front of the line and met Shawn Thompkins first. We then met Brandon Schaub. He had a few stitches over his eye so we asked him what happened. He said that "Big Shane" (Shane Carwin) did that to him during training. He must've caught an accidental headbutt or something. Great guy though.

After Brendan Schaub was politician and #1 middleweight contender Chael Sonnen.

Next was Ryan Bader again. I just grabbed one of his handout as I didn't want to just walk by him. Kenny Florian was next. He was dressed in a full suit. He is always a great guy to talk to and had no problem signing my photo for me.

Finally, after Kenny was Martin "The hitman" Kampmann. He could be in line for a title shot soon also.

We then walked around to see how the Tito Ortiz line looked. It was MASSIVE. At least an hour and a half wait. We figured it might be a good idea to grab a photo with MMA legend Bas Rutton and then get in line for Georges St. Pierre before that line got too long.

After meeting Bas Rutton, John told us that he would wait in line for GSP while Jordan and I walked around for a bit. We were able to quickly grab a photo and autograph from Cheick Kongo as there was no lineup at his booth.

I then snagged a photo with John Fitch. John has only lost one time in the last eight years and that was a decision loss to Welterweight Champion George St. Pierre. Really nice guy. He signed a couple of photos for me and loved looking at them.

We saw Forrest Griffin signing autographs. His line was pretty big and he looked really bummed that he couldn't fight that weekend. He needed shoulder surgery and was forced to withdraw from his fight with Little Nog.

Lastly, Jordan and I grabbed a photo with former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir. He was a quiet guy, but was really nice. He is pretty big and Brock Lesnar makes him look like a child. I hope to one day see just how large that man is.

We then headed back to the GSP line again to meet up with John. We got in line at around 1:30 pm for a 4pm signing. We had put in our time greatly to meet the fan favourite Canadian. The only problem was, GSP's booth didn't count on the disaster that would happen when GSP arrived. Immediately after he showed up, people that weren't even in line just stormed the area to grab a photo of George. It was a total disaster. After about twenty minutes, the staff finally got things organized by handing out stamps and making sure that nobody tried to jump in line. Though I had already met the champ, it was still worth the wait to get my belt shot done. That one will probably go in a frame.

We chatted to George in french a bit and right away he knew we were Ontarians. It was incredible.

We had finished getting GSP when we walked around a bit more. We saw that Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was signing at a booth but the line was huge. We decided to try for him the next day. We grabbed a photo and auto from TUF 9 winner Ross Pearson instead.

If you have ever seen him fight, you know that he is a little pitbull when he fights. He is definately one of my favourite fighters.

Lastly, we grabbed a photo with Joe Stevenson. I had met him in Philadelphia at UFC 101 when we were both drunk. He was just as nice sober and hammered.

After the expo, Jordan and I decided that we would try and go to another autograph session that night at the LV fight shop in the Luxor. Again, it was on the way back to our hotel so it only made sense to stop. Who was there that night? Jon "Bones" Jones, who was sigging along to almost every song that played, and welterweight contender Thiago Alves. I was really excited to meet "Pitbull" as it was the first time I got the opportunity. He was a great guy. After signing my photo I asked him if I get get a picture with him. He said sure and then for some reason held up the photo he had just signed in my picture with him. Strange, but funny.

That ended our Friday experience at the fan expo. We met a ton of big name fighters and there was still Saturday to come!