Saturday, April 24, 2010

"Weighing in" to fight!

I drove 30 minutes from Eagan to downtown Minneapolis to the Target Center. As an invited "local Media person of interest," I collected my credentials and joined the other photographers and live cameramen to document Friday evening's "weigh-in" of the fighters for Saturday night's "XKL Evolution II - Mayhem in Minneapolis" event. The Xtreme Kombat League 's mixed martial arts sport will explode into action with 10 bouts fought in the metal cage in the center of Target Arena. I surprised the Japanese female fighter and her friend by asking them some questions in Japanese! Ganbatte kudasai!

Here's the Official XKL Evolution II Fight Card:
155 lbs - Gideon Ray vs Derrick "The Eraser" Noble
170 lbs - Dave "The Warrior" Menne vs Dave Strasser
170 lbs - Brock "Raging Bull" Larson vs Brian Green
145 lbs - Shana Olsen vs Yoko Takahashi from Tokyo
(#6 Female in the world & pioneer of Women's MMA in Japan)
145 lbs - Surgio Gomez vs Chaz Haag
170 lbs - Matt Delanoit vs Ray Steinbeiss
Heavy - Brad Kohler vs Travis "The Iron Man" Fulton
145 lbs Nate Schut vs Brian "The Duke" Geraghty
Heavy - Travis "Diesel" Wiuff vs Jeff "Snowman" Monson
185 lbs - Isaiah "The striking Viking" Larson vs Brendan Seguin

Tickets available thru "Ticketmaster."




18 comments:

Dina said...

I'm impressed--not by the muscles but by how you got in.

Kate said...

Now Slick Leif, how did you get that media press pass? C'mon, we want to know your secrets.

I think I'll pass on the event, tho.

Jørgen Carlsen said...

Leif, you seem to be everywhere...and speak all languages!

Louis la Vache said...

All «Louis» can say is "WOW!"

Virginia said...

Local media person of interest. Sounds like the cops are after you! :)
V

Tussy said...

Interesting one, Boxing used to be very popular sport in here, but now seem soccer gets more fan.

You Got A Posty
My Bangkok Through My Eyes

Stefan Jansson said...

Cool! I missed an event just like this last week, so I'm happy to see that you documented this. Speaking Japanese must have impressed the babes.

Rob Siemann said...

Local media person of interest vs...?

Unknown said...

Leif I am glad you were "certified," but cage fighting scares me......

Jan said...

That's cool. My son-in-law use to fight in a cage, but now just has his own studio.

EG CameraGirl said...

You can ask questions in Japanese? You are one amazing guy! Did you understand the answers. :)

Anonymous said...

Somewhere I read, that mankind is intelligent, because of having fingers. May they all have a satisfying event and a remaining health.

Please have you a wonderful Sunday.


daily athens

2cats said...

That is so cool! I bet you freaked those girls out! It normally happens when a Japanese person meets a gaijin who can speak Japanese.
And you got a press pass. Now THAT is awesome! :)

VP said...

I thin you surprised everybody, not only the Japanese fighter. Nice set of picture... with a press pass!

Gunn said...

Wow, that is something I don`t know anything about.....
But if I go to Japan again I will go and watch these HUGE guys fighting!:-)

GOD HELG!

Kaori said...

I think it's wonderful how you surprise everyone with you language skills! Any type of combat fighting, especially K-1 and boxing are really popular here! Gambatte :)

Mary Ann said...

Glad to see that they have women in the ring--knocks my socks off.

Emmanuel.K.Bensah II said...

"Fight Club", eat your heart out!;-)