Montreal is a world class city.  Last year, when I was up there for UFC 83, it impressed me as clean and professional.  The people were friendly, polite and engaging.  This year was no different.  For a city that has as many smokers as it does, people butt out in the proper places instead of casually tossing their cigarette away.  You can see the difference.

Truly, I would have little problem living in Montreal.  In addition to the aforementioned qualities, the city feels safe and has a lot of culture and history to it.  Perhaps it is a case of “familiarity breeds contempt,” but in my humble opinion these traits are lacking in Toronto, which is the closest major city to me.

This year, there were three of us who went up for UFC 97.  We made the drive in a little over five hours, despite stopping to grab some grub.  We probably averaged about 130 km/h there.  We made great time by leaving at the right time, avoiding rush hour in both Toronto and Montreal.  Listened to Russell Peters, Chris Rock and more as we headed up, all the time on the lookout for cops (and surprisingly there were plenty).  One highlight of the trip was unexpected.  In the opposite direction on the “Highway of Heroes” the Canadian Forces were delivering the body of a soldier recently killed in Afghanistan.

It makes one proud to see Canadians display their respect and patriotism.  It makes me sad to think that it takes the death of a Canadian soldier to bring it out.  On every bridge from Toronto to Trenton there were people from all walks of life.  Police parked on the side of the highway waiting.  Fire trucks with ladders fully extended, at the top of which was a Canadian flag.  Honor Guards from retired detachments and bands from the local cadet corps.  It was a moving and powerful display to be sure.

We stayed at the Travelodge on Rene Levesque Blvd.  It was a great location, but the room and the shower were the smallest that I have ever been in.  The place looked like it had recently been renovated, as each room had a new paint job, new air conditioner/heater, free high speed Internet, and a 26″ LCD television.  The hotel was next door to Chinatown, not that that made much of a difference.  It was 1.5 km from the Bell Center.  One could not argue with the price, however.

A walk up and down Rue St. Catherine will yield dozens of restaurants catering to all types of culinary delights.  From fast food to fine dining (and even a stripper buffet or two), it’s all there.  For those who are into shopping, especially clothing, it is hard not to label Montreal as the hub of North America.  Even a crappy dresser like me can find decent clothes in this city.  Truly, to get some decent threads I need to save a bit of money and make a return trip.

We did a lot of walking.  Surprisingly, I did not have any troubles with my legs, feet or back, despite being horridly out of shape.  We made a number of walks up and down Rue St. Catherine, Blvd. Rene Levesque, and numerous side streets.  We hit the TapOut Party at Clup Opera which turned out to be a tad disappointing (it was a sausage-fest, if you get my meaning).  Joe Rogan was supposed to appear, yet they had posted on the door that he was not appearing.  Ah well – you never know unless you try.  The music was pretty good though.  It was also the first time I’ve seen a bottle of water cost seven dollars.

Continuing on…one highlight of the trip was meeting Wanderlei Silva.  Got a pic, too!  He is a very humble and respectful individual outside of the octagon, and I wish I had had more time to spend with him.  He thanked me for posing with him and is genuinely appreciative of the fans.  Most fighters that I have met are like that, however.  Unlike most boxers and professional wrestlers, mixed martial arts fighters are down to earth and more than happy to sign autographs and pose for pics.  They always make the time to interact with their fans.  On a personal note – Wanderlei’s forearms are bigger than my thigh muscles.  The man is absolutely jacked.  You can see the effect of thousands of hours in the gym, especially up close and personal.

I had a great time, wandering the city prior to UFC 97, hanging out with friends, and taking in the culture and history of the city (and the occasional lap dance).  One of the guys I was with acquired a bit of food poisoning (after eating Chinese food which he was warned about eating prior to eating it!), which forced the other guy to consume his half of the beer keg (since I do not drink).  I have witnessed many things, but consumption of over eight litres of alcohol within a fifteen hour period was a new one.  Scary enough, it only produced a four-star hangover.  Next year we have to remember to bring a cooler or two as well.  As it stood we filled the garbage cans with ice creating our own redneck swamp coolers for the booze and my juice.

The drive home wasn’t bad either.  We listened to more comedy but had to make a couple of extra stops as I needed some energy drinks.  Nodding off at the wheel is scary shit indeed.  We still made good time though, and everyone arrived home safely and in one piece.

UFC 97 is in the books, and I’m happy to say that I was live in person for the event.  I was at the previous event in Montreal, UFC 83, where Georges St. Pierre obliterated Matt Serra to reclaim his Welterweight Title.  This time, the title match pitted UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva vs. challenger Thales Leites.

Unfortunately, there were two disappointments to the evening.  The title fight was a complete clash of styles, which produced a very boring fight for the fans.  Anderson Silva, despite possessing a BJJ Black Belt under the Noguiera brothers, did not wish to engage Leites on the ground.  Leites is also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and that is clearly where he wanted the fight.

He kept dropping down to the guard position hoping Silva would get frustrated and follow him down.  However, the strategy did not work as Silva continually kicked at his legs and then let him up.  It was to Silva’s advantage to keep the fight standing as he is a Muay-Thai specialist, and the far better striker of the two.

Silva ended up taking the unanimous decision in one of the most boring fights that the UFC has put on.  Throughout the bout, alternating chants of “GSP!” and “Bullshit!” could be heard.  Unlike many who watched the fight, I do not blame the UFC or the fighters for putting on a slow fight.  Given their relative styles, and each wanting to impose their game, this is what was bound to happen.  Anderson Silva could have been more aggressive, but its hard to do with your opponent flopping down more than an Italian soccer player.  Leites, being the challenger and also wanting this fight on the ground, should have been more aggressive in going for the takedown.  He has nothing to lose!

The second disappointing fight was Ed Herman vs. David Loiseau.  I was really hoping that “The Crow” would have shown some flashes of his old self, but alas it was not to be.  He spent the majority of the fight turtled up on the ground and showed no ability to defend on the ground.  While I do not question his heart as he endured a fifteen minute beating, I question his skills.  I think it would be best for him to take about a year off and work on his takedowns and submission skill set.  By enhancing those with his already significant striking ability (the few hits that he did manage to get on Ed Herman hurt him), he would become a much more complete fighter.

The most entertaining fight of the night came when Chuck Liddell faced Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.  Unfortunately for the Iceman, Rua handed him another devastating loss by knocking him out in the first round.  Liddell is currently pondering retirement, and judging by the post-fight comments by Dana White he may be forced to do so.  Should this fight turn out to be his last, I’m proud to say I was there and would have loved to thank him for all the memories that he has provided.  He has sixteen wins in the Octagon, the most ever.  Most of these wins were by knockout as well.  Like him or hate him, Liddell always shows up to fight and his style virtually guarantees that any fight that he is in will be entertaining.  He is a sure-fire UFC Hall of Fame inductee.

On the opposite side of the Octagon, Shogun looks about as good as he has since his Pride days.  His takedowns were quick, his hands were fast, and his submission game was in good order as he attempted a calf slicer on Liddell that almost caught the Iceman.  I am thinking that his next fight may be a rematch with Forrest Griffin, as he is surely looking for some retribution.  Ultimately, however, there is no lack of challenges at light-heavyweight for Rua, as marquee names such as Franklin, Jackson, Evans, and Machida are all in the division.  A gatekeeper fight against Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine is also a possibility.

Another fight on the card included Jason “The Athlete” MacDonald vs. Nate “Rock” Quarry.  Quarry took this fight early in the first round after acquiring a dominant ground position on MacDonald and opening him up with vicious elbows.  The referee stopped the fight, likely due to the sheer amount of blood that was coming out of MacDonalds forehead.  While MacDonald was still intelligently defending himself, the fact is that the blood was in his eyes obscuring his vision, and there was still two minutes and thirty-three seconds left in the round.  It was a good stoppage.  If there was only thirty seconds left in the round, they likely would have let MacDonald continue.  In this instance it was a case of the referee preventing the fighter from sustaining unnecessary punishment that may end his career prematurely.

As an aside…it is stoppages such as this that showcase the difference between Mixed Martial Arts and Boxing.  Boxers, over the course of a fight, can absorb literally hundreds of punches and a referee will not intervene to save his career.  MMA is different.  If the fighter is not intelligently defending himself, or there is a risk of permanent injury, the fight will be stopped.

Cheik Kongo knocked out Antoni Hardonk with his heavy hands in the second round of their matchup.  Kongo is still learning the ground game but he is slowly getting better.  I would love to see a matchup between Kongo and current UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar.  It would be billed as King Kong vs. Honky Kong.  Two big boys with dynamite in their fists.  I think that Lesnar would win due to his superior ground and pound, but I would like to see how well his chin holds up after Kongo tagged it a couple of times.

In other fights, Mark Bocek impressed me with his first round submission of David Bielkheden.  It was a textbook rear naked choke, forcing Bielkheden to tap with only three seconds left in the first round.  “The Polish Experiment” Krzysztof Soszynski forced a tapout in the first round of his fight with Brian Stann by using his favorite hold, the Kimura armlock.  In the first fight of the evening, the judges awarded a unanimous decision win to Eliot Marshall over Vinny Magalhaes.  It was roundly criticized by the fans in attendence.  Personally, I’m not sure what fight the judges were watching.  Magalhaes controlled this fight, and was the aggressor throughout.  It is a shining example why fighters want to finish fights rather than put their fate in the hands of the judges.

Other winners included Denis Kang over Professor X (Xavier Foupa-Pokam), T.J. Grant via split decision over Ryo Chonan, Luis Cane over Steve Cantwell, and Sam Stout over Matt Wiman.

All in all it was a great event and I hope to return next year!

Maple Leaf Gardens was built in the middle of the Great Depression over the summer months in 1931.  Construction began on June 1st and was finished in mid-October.  To this day, it is considered a marvel of construction that this building was put together so fast.  Conn Smythe and his assistant, Frank Selke, in the middle of the Great Depression managed to get blood (money) from a stone (bankers) to build the Gardens.  How they went about doing it is an interesting story indeed.

Smythe purchased the Toronto St. Patricks in 1927 for $160,000.  He accumulated this by gambling some of his $10,000 severance pay from the New York Rangers and convincing the previous owner to leave some money in the team.  He immediately renamed the club the Toronto Maple Leafs, and introduced the blue-and-white colors sill worn today.

Both men had an eye for talent, and quickly built a contender.  However, despite their on-ice success, there was no way to turn a profit in the Mutual Street arena that they were playing in.  Smythe realized that he needed to build a new arena, but he was in a conundrum as he did not have the wealth to finance it.  At the time, Frank Selke produced a program that for the Leafs that sold for ten cents.  He had Foster Hewitt broadcast it over the air, hoping to sell a few thousand copies.  Instead, they received over 91,000 requests.  This convinced the bankers that there was interest in hockey and to loosen the purse strings.

However, there was still a snag.  When Smythe and Selke received the estimates for the building, they found that they were still several hundred thousand dollars short.  Selke, however, had an idea.  He made personal pitches to all 24 unions and offered them 20% stock options in the new building that would be christened Maple Leafs Gardens.  He convinced them that receiving 80% of their salaries in cash as opposed to waiting in the unemployment line was better in hard times such as these.  When the unions agreed, the bankers coughed up more money which allowed construction to commence.  Selke later stated that had times been good, and jobs not as scarce, the unions would never have agreed to their plan.

When the Gardens opened, it attracted a who’s-who of Toronto society.  The Leafs lost to the Chicago Blackhawks by a score of 2-1, yet went on to win the Stanley Cup that year.  It was sweet revenge for Conn Smythe, who was still furious and bitter that the New York Rangers let him go.

From World War II up until its closure in 1999, the Toronto Maple Leafs sold out every home game.  Through the great teams of the ’40′s, 50′s, and ’60′s to the horrid teams of the ’80′s, the people kept coming.  Smythe, ever the entrepreneur, opened the building up to weekly professional wrestling contests and concerts.  He sold his interest in the Gardens in the late 1950′s to a consortium led by his son, Stafford.