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Not long now until my rematch in Las Vegas with Frankie Edgar. It’s been almost three years since I beat him but, on New Year’s Day, the UFC Lightweight World Title will be on the line at MGM Grand. A lot of people have asked me if I feel like the uncrowned champion, because I beat Edgar and Edgar has to beat me to prove that he’s the ‘real champ’. I appreciate the thought, but there’s no question Frankie is the real champ and I have to beat him next weekend. ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ? In this sport, you don’t have to beat everyone in the division and they work out your won/loss/draw ratio at the end of the season. In this sport, you beat the champion, and that makes you the champion. And Frankie Edgar beat the champion – BJ Penn – twice. That makes him Number One and he has nothing to prove against me at all other than what we have to do in the Octagon on New Year’s Day. The next thing I get asked about a lot is if I am pissed that Frankie got the title shot ahead of me, even though I beat him. I’m not. I just don’t think like that. It will all work out. I don’t go into this sort of mental second guessing ‘Oh, why did they pass me up? Why did this happen? It’s not right!’ I don’t do that. Frankie deserved his shot, and I deserve mine. Some people say ‘But beating BJ Penn for the belt means more than beating Edgar’. Well, OK, really? Because Edgar beat Penn twice, and who knows if Penn will come back down to 155 pounds to fight me when I win the title. I can only pay attention to who I have in front of me; and right now that’s Frank Edgar. I want to hold the belt for years, and beat all sorts of guys, so it will work out. I am ready. No disrespect to Frankie, he’s a great champion and a gentleman and I respect him professionally and personally. But he’s losing that belt and is going to be ‘one and done’ with the championship. Nothing personal, it is just the sport. I’m not one of these fighters who feels he has to invent a reason to hate a guy just to motivate himself to drive past the burger bar and to the gym each day. Winning, getting closer to the title, winning the title, defending the title and becoming eventually known as a great in the sport is what motivates me. I don’t need to know if you’re a bad guy, a good guy, or whatever. If you sign to fight me you are getting the best version of me I can become in the gym, and I will come to beat you as bad as I can, good guy or not. If someone is an idiot and I want to beat him extra bad, hey, great, but I don’t need to convince myself that someone is an idiot if they aren’t. I train very hard either way and I am always trying to get better. I think the fans are ready for a big fight between guys like me and Frankie, who don’t smack talk but will go in there and fight their hearts out without stupid and fake smack talk.? How many letdowns have we seen from these smack-talkers anyway? You can hype a fight up, you can talk a lot of crap, say you’re gonna score a brutal KO, beat someone so bad, but then you gotta go and do all that and if you don’t you look like a clown. How many times have these smack talkers gone out and done nothing like what they kept saying they were going to do?

We’re getting closer to the fight with Gray Maynard on January 1st, and just finished up another good week in camp. I got back on Sunday from Ricardo Almeida’s fight in Montreal and got right back into things on Monday. I went up to Phil Nurse’s in the city in the morning, and then I went over to Renzo’s and took John Danaher’s class, and Renzo was there as well. Then I shot over to Toms River and finished with strength and conditioning. That’s what a typical day is like in camp – I’m always on the road. The city’s the farthest I go, though I still go up to Hamilton to Ricardo’s academy, which is like an hour away. It was nice to break up camp a little bit with Ricardo’s fight, and he beat a tough guy in TJ Grant at UFC 124. I think Ricardo has fought his last three fights two or three weeks before my fights and I like it. I like the fact that I get to go and take the whole UFC event in without having to fight. It kinda gets me prepared for what’s to come. And as far as breaking camp to work his corner, that’s just how we roll. I know he’s gonna be in the corner for me and he’s my teammate, so we sacrifice for each other. When he sacrifices for me, that’s the least I could do for him. It’s funny, but I had people asking me, ‘you’re the champ, why are you carrying someone else’s gear?’ But I’m real. I feel like I’m a working class fighter, and that’s what a working class guy would do. And it’s the least I can do – if anything, I feel honored to carry his stuff from the cage because I know he would do it for me. While in Montreal I got to see the commercial for my fight on the big screen, and when they called me the best lightweight in the world, it was great to hear that and to finally get that recognition. It definitely adds a little pressure to the next fight for sure, but you have to use that pressure as motivation more than anything. Ever since the second fight with BJ, I feel like I’m getting a little more love, and I’m enjoying it, but as long as my family and teammates treat me the same, then it’s all good no matter what happens. You can’t get too caught up in what people are saying though, because I’ve got a big fight in front of me. And I can’t really look at it as revenge; I’m just looking at this as my next fight, and I need to defend my belt against a tough opponent. It just so happens that he beat me and a win would be a perk of the job. Our first fight was almost three years ago, and I watch it a little bit, but I think we’re two different fighters. I watch more of Gray’s recent stuff, but I’ve definitely sat down with my team and reviewed it somewhat. One thing a lot of people don’t remember from around that fight is that I was the first person from the Jersey shore on MTV because they had me on ‘True Life’ even before the Situation and Snooki made it big. A lot of people ask me about ‘The Jersey Shore,’ and the first season I didn’t watch too much, but the second season I started watching it, and it’s pretty entertaining. I literally live over the bridge from where they film it and that’s not acting – there are people like that. But back to the first fight with Gray. They were filming the ‘True Life’ episode for MTV and I was getting married ten days after the fight, but I’m not a big excuse guy. He was just better than me that night. If anything, I would blame the loss on my technical skills at the time or my gameplan, stuff like that. And when it came to the altitude in Colorado that night, I thought I felt fine. It was definitely one of my fights where I didn’t have the same energy levels, but I wouldn’t say it was the altitude. When things aren’t going your way, sometime you feel a little more tired than normal. That was a long time ago though and we’ve both gotten better, so I think this is going to be a great fight on January 1st. Christmas is coming up on Saturday, but it’s still time to work, so this week I’ll go hard, and I go hard right until I get into Vegas. My body’s always pretty healthy, so I don’t really tone it down too much and being that I don’t really have to cut weight, my body doesn’t take too much of a beating. But before you ask, that doesn’t mean I’m leaving the lightweight division anytime soon. There are definitely enough challenges at ’55 for me and being that the WEC got acquired by the UFC, there are a lot of interesting opportunities ahead for me, so we’ll see what happens. Happy Holidays to everyone and thanks for the support. I’ll see you back here on fight week. For more information on Frankie Edgar, follow him on Twitter @FrankieEdgar

Sydney, Australia – The Ultimate Fighting Championship® organization return to Australia has resulted in the fastest sell-out in company history. UFC 127: PENN v FITCH, which will emanate from Sydney’s Acer Arena on February 27, sold-out in half an hour when tickets went on sale last week, equaling the company record set earlier this year by UFC 115 in Vancouver, Canada. The UFC’s previous incursion into Sydney – February 2010’s UFC 110 – set box office records at Acer, and sold out within two hours. UFC 110 remains the fourth fastest UFC sellout ever, meaning two of the top five best selling UFC events have been hosted by the Harbour City. UFC MD of International Development Marshall Zelaznik said: “We’re ecstatic. Tickets sold out literally as quickly as the Ticketek phone lines and website would allow, and that’s despite us working with our partners at Acer to add an extra 600 seats to the in-arena configuration we had at UFC 110. We will have just over 18,000 fans in attendance at UFC 127 in nine weeks’ time and expect to blow the roof off.” Zelaznik said the rapid-fire sell out is indicative of the stunning growth of the sport Down Under. ? He said: “The UFC’s popularity is exploding in Australia, even faster than we could have expected. Over the last 18months, Australia has become one of the top three or four markets in the world for us. When you consider UFC programming is enjoyed by tens of millions of fans across 150 countries, that’s a big statement about the passion Australian sports fans have for the UFC. “Thank you Australia for being so awesome; we can’t wait for February and are bringing a stacked card which is certainly a front-runner for one of the most exciting of the New Year.” UFC 127 will be screened LIVE around the world in the usual timeslot for UFC events, meaning the event takes place on 26th February in North America and can be viewed live in exactly the same time slot as any other UFC PPV. Information on how fans in Australia can watch UFC 127 will be released shortly. For more information, go to UFC.com.?

10 (tie) – Rick Story All right, I know, I’m being indecisive, but when it came to the tail end of the list, I just couldn’t pick two fighters out of the trio of Chris Leben, Evan Dunham, and Rick Story to leave out. One (Story) went 4-0 this year, which is an amazing feat. The second (Dunham) lost a fight, but that one fight he lost he probably should have won on the scorecards. And the third (Leben) won three big fights, but the first was over a fighter (Jay Silva) who can’t be considered on the level of his other two victims. So…a three way tie, and I’m sticking to it. Anyway, Rick Story has always been a tough kid with a lot of potential. In 2010, he started to break through to the next level with two close wins over Jesse Lennox and Nick Osipczak, a brutal TKO of Dustin Hazelett, and a gut check decision victory over Johny Hendricks. Story is the real deal, and he’s only going to get better. 10 (tie) – Evan Dunham Unheralded lightweight Evan Dunham quietly made a name for himself in the UFC in 2009 with wins over Per Eklund and Marcus Aurelio, but in 2010 he moved from prospect to contender with an impressive come from behind finish of Efrain Escudero and a clear-cut decision win over Tyson Griffin. Next up for the Las Vegas resident was former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk at UFC 119, and Dunham not only showed his talent against “The Muscle Shark”, but he showed his heart and grit in battling back from a nasty cut over his eye to arguably win a fight which ultimately went to Sherk via a controversial split decision. 10 (tie) – Chris Leben Entering 2010, Chris Leben’s UFC career was on the line after back-to-back losses to Michael Bisping and Jake Rosholt, but amazingly, by the time he forced Yoshihiro Akiyama to tap out in the third round of their UFC 116 bout in July, he was back among the ranks of middleweight contenders. This amazing transformation took place thanks to wins this year over Jay Silva, Aaron Simpson, and the aforementioned Akiyama, with the latter two victories occurring within a two week period. Next up for the resurgent “Crippler” is a January 1st date with Brian Stann. 9 – Rashad Evans Following the loss of his UFC light heavyweight title via knockout to Lyoto Machida in May of 2009, fight fans were wondering how Rashad Evans was going to react in his next bout. Well, in January he decisioned Thiago Silva, going back to his wrestling roots and surviving a late sequence when Silva got him in trouble. And four months later he headlined another major event when he took on – and beat – bitter rival Quinton “Rampage” Jackson with another solid wrestling-based victory at UFC 114 in May. Some would say “Suga” is back, but in reality, he never left, and in 2011 he will be rewarded with a shot at light heavyweight boss Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. 8 – Yushin Okami Long seen as the forgotten man in the middleweight division, Japan’s Yushin Okami always seemed to be one win away from the big one when he would slip back into the shadows after key losses to Rich Franklin and Chael Sonnen. But in 2010, “Thunder” put it all together

It’s come down to this – 16 of Canada’s best athletes have been whittled down to two, and now fight fans can make their voices heard in the final battle for 2010 Canadian Athlete of The Year between UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby by voting for GSP at http://www.sportsnet.ca/more/athleteoftheyear2010

The fights – they’re why everyone tunes in when the UFC is on television or in a local arena, and when it comes to classic bouts, 2010 has kept the organization’s history of excellence intact. So without further ado, here are this year’s Highly Unofficial best. 10 – Jeremy Stephens W3 Sam Stout On paper, this UFC 113 bout had all the stylistic makings of a Fight of a Night, and neither Stephens or Stout disappointed, as the lightweights went at it tooth and nail for 15 minutes, with Lil’ Heathen emerging victorious via three round split decision. Early on, it was all Stephens thanks to his harder strikes, but Stout’s resilience and fast hands kept him in the fight, and when he scored with a big body shot in the third, it looked like he was going to pull out the win. But Stephens shook it off, got back to his feet, and the two ended the fight the way they began – by throwing punches. 9 – Diego Sanchez W3 Paulo Thiago Diego Sanchez was running out of options. He lost a lightweight title bout to BJ Penn in 2009, jumped back to welterweight in 2010 but lost his return to John Hathaway, and then he went back to his original trainer, Greg Jackson, in order to find his mojo again. Well, he found it in October, and with his back against the wall, the “Nightmare” returned to pound out an exciting three round decision win over ultra-tough Paulo Thiago. And it wasn’t just that Sanchez got the job done, it was that he did it with the aggressive style and varied attack that made his name in the first place. It may have been the fastest 15 minutes you’ve seen in a long time. 8 – Mark Munoz W3 Aaron Simpson When I think of friends fighting friends, I always refer back to the 1991 welterweight title bout in boxing between Simon Brown and Maurice Blocker, the gold standard when it comes to two buddies putting their friendship aside and going to war. Mark Munoz and Aaron Simpson definitely did their part to add to this combat sports legacy in November with a three round scrap that had you wincing when it came to some of the blows landed by both wrestlers. And when the former college standouts weren’t going toe-to-toe, they were showing off high-level wrestling on the mat, making this a complete and visceral display of why this sport is so great. Munoz got the nod this time, via unanimous decision, but I wouldn’t mind seeing another one in the future. 7 – George Sotiropoulos Wsub2 Joe Lauzon Early in their pivotal lightweight bout at UFC 123, it looked like Joe Lauzon’s striking was going to be the key to figuring out the riddle of George Sotiropoulos. But the Aussie contender had no intention of giving up his unbeaten UFC record yet, and after a fast-paced first round that featured high-level action both standing and on the mat, he made the necessary adjustments in round two, got his own game back on track, and finished Lauzon with a tight kimura. 6 – Carlos Condit TKO3 Rory MacDonald Going into their UFC 115 match in June, fight fans wondered whether 20-year old wunderkind Rory MacDonald had the experience to hang with former WEC welterweight champion Carlos Condit. Well, that answer came early and often against ‘The Natural Born Killer’, as MacDonald took the first two rounds of the bout thanks to a dynamic attack that kept the aggressive Condit off-balance. But in the third, Condit’s experience paid off as he got MacDonald to the mat and grounded and pounded his way to victory with seven seconds left. In the end, Condit got the victory, MacDonald got respect, and the fans got a helluva fight. 5 – Sean Sherk W3 Evan Dunham Regardless of what you think of the controversial split decision rendered in Sean Sherk’s favor, the fact remains that the former UFC lightweight champ and rising star Evan Dunham put on a three round classic back at UFC 119 in Indianapolis. Sherk showed little in the way of ring rust after a 16 month injury-induced layoff, and after a couple big slams and some crisp standup that opened up a nasty cut over Dunham’s eye, it looked like the “Muscle Shark” was going to run over the up and comer. But Dunham, who already had a breakthrough in 2010 with wins over Tyson Griffin and Efrain Escudero, dug deep, put on his hard hat and went to work, apparently winning the next two frames. The judges disagreed, awarding the bout to Sherk, but there were no losers in this one in the eyes of the fans. 4 – Brock Lesnar Wsub2 Shane Carwin If you happened to doubt the punching power of Shane Carwin, it didn’t take long for you to become a believer in July as he cracked Brock Lesnar in the first round and proceeded to lay down a hellacious beatdown on the then-heavyweight champion. It was a stunning turn of events that was topped by Lesnar’s ability to weather the storm to make it out of a round he had no right surviving. Then, as the bell was about to ring for the second round, he smiled at Carwin as if to say “you got yours; now I’m about to get mine.” And he did, taking an exhausted Carwin down and submitting him with an arm triangle. In a nutshell, it’s what all heavyweight title fights should be like. 3 – Stephan Bonnar TKO2 Krzysztof Soszynski The first fight between Stephan Bonnar and Krzysztof Soszynski at UFC 110 in February was damn good. Their rematch at UFC 116 made the first one look like a three round lay and pray fest. Filled with intense exchanges that could have ended the bout at any number of times, Bonnar and Soszynski earned their Fight of the Night bonus checks, but it was Bonnar who resurrected his career with the type of performance that will guarantee him a job for as long as he decides that he wants to put on the gloves, bite down on his mouthpiece and go punch for punch with all comers in the Octagon. 2 – Chris Leben Wsub3 Yoshihiro Akiyama It wasn’t an enviable position to be in – following the third and fourth entries on this list on the epic UFC 116 card in July, but Chris Leben and Yoshihiro Akiyama may have taken that as a challenge, as they went on to put on one of the best fights of the year. Featuring fierce toe-to-toe action, changes in momentum, and a shocking and exciting finish, this bout had it all. And in the process, Leben, fighting for the second time in two weeks, completed his transformation from MMA’s problem child to legit middleweight contender. 1 – Anderson Silva Wsub5 Chael Sonnen The drama before this UFC 117 bout took place couldn’t hold a candle to what happened on fight night, as Silva and Sonnen engaged in a championship fight for the ages. Yes, Sonnen dominated the majority of the bout with his ground and pound attack, but each moment before he would take the previously untouchable title holder to the mat was filled with tension as Silva unleashed the strikes many believed would end the fight. But even though he got rocked on a few occasions, Sonnen was resolute in his attack, and as the seconds ticked by, he was getting closer and closer to one of the sport’s great upsets and the realization of a dream. Then, like the truest of true champions, Silva pulled off a fifth round submission. Calling it a spectacular comeback doesn’t do it justice, but judging this fight to be the best UFC bout of 2010 certainly does. Honorable Mention – Kendall Grove-Mark Munoz, Jared Hamman-Rodney Wallace, Pascal Krauss-Mark Scanlon, Brian Stann-Mike Massenzio, Kyle Kingsbury-Jared Hamman, Michael Bisping-Yoshihiro Akiyama, Matt Mitrione-Joey Beltran, Leonard Garcia-Nam Phan, Nate Diaz-Marcus Davis, Ricardo Romero-Seth Petruzelli, Evan Dunham-Efrain Escudero, George Sotiropoulos-Joe Stevenson, Chris Lytle-Matt Serra II, Mirko Cro Cop-Pat Barry, Sam Stout-Joe Lauzon, Krzysztof Soszynski-Stephan Bonnar I, TJ Waldburger-David Mitchell

That KICK! Anthony Pettis did the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in an MMA fight…what a kick!? – Aaron Simpson ? Wow what a kick! ? – Chuck Liddell ? That’s was an amazing kick by pettis crazy.? – Johny Hendricks ? Anthony Pettis just pulled of a bad ass move! Congrats on the win, great fight? – Martin Kampmann ? I jumped out of my chair scratching my eyes like did that really just happen!! Them young bucks r crazy!! – Rashad Evans ? Anthony pettis Is unbelievable! That flying kick made me feel as if Ive been blind… Cheers to @ UFC and the best sport in the world!! #MMA? – Jon Bones Jones ? Kick shmick. I can do that, easy. #yeahrightlol? – Phil Baroni ? The last and the best headkick of WEC, and maybe the best headkick I’ve seen. @showtimepettis – Brad Tavares ? Pettis officialy pulled of the greatest move ever in an mma fight!!? – Joseph Benavidez ? Pettis kick off the cage, absolutely rediculous! Awesome performance!? – Eddie Wineland ? Good God did u see Pettis’ jump kick off the cage?!!! I’ve never seen anything like that.. NINJA – Rich Attonito ? Good decision… For a change. That kick was unreal.? – Joe Lauzon ? Wow showtime pettis just did that!? Insane? – Brian Stann ? How many fighters out there are gona see if they can throw a jumping off the cage head kick in training today???…………. I know i am! – Mark Scanlon Historic Final WEC Congrats to Dominic. I did not Fight how I fight or want to fight. It will never happen again.? Scott jorgensen ? In Phoenix finally. @ reedharriswec said that I “looked thinner.” It’s always nice when a man notices… – Daniel Downes ? Is it me or do these gloves make me look 10 times sexier?! @ UFC http://yfrog.com/h0hfgzxj – Danny Castillo ? SHOWTIME!!! That’s right the new champ! So proud of you bro. http://yfrog.com/h22olmj ? – Erik Jon Koch ? Hats off to Anthony Pettis, he had a great gameplan n execution…I can be better, u guys deserve better, I will be better… Thx 2 all my fans, friends, n family 4 the love n support…GOD is good, all the time…gonna keep my head up n get better 4 next time..

The most graceful finish in all of combat sports, the submission win can come in a number of ways, but the end result is always the same – a victory for the man pulling off the move, and a look of ‘what happened?’ from the victim. 2010 had its share of memorable wins by way of submission, and in part III of the Highly Unofficial awards, here are the best. 10 – Jim Miller gives Oliveira his first “0” Jim Miller felt a little disrespected in the lead-up to his UFC 124 bout against unbeaten phenom Charles Oliveira, and despite his lengthy win streak in the Octagon, he was seen by many as the underdog. So how did the Jersey native respond? By doing what veterans do. In this case, Miller walked through a few kicks to the head, took Oliveira down, and then finished him off with a kneebar less than two minutes into the fight. Don’t expect any disrespect to be thrown Miller’s way anymore. 9 – Davis breaks new ground against Boetsch ? Already known for his wrestling and ground and pound, Phil Davis’ submission game is starting to get some positive notices as well, not surprising since three of his five finishes have come via tap out. In his most recent bout at UFC 123 in November, “Mr. Wonderful” even went as far as to create his own move, a modified kimura that finished veteran Tim Boetsch and which is already being dubbed “The Philmura.” 8 – Palhares introduces Drwal to the heel hook If there’s one fighter in the UFC that you don’t want around your feet or legs, it’s Rousimar Palhares. In March, he gave a quick and deadly demonstration why, as he caught and submitted Tomasz Drwal with a heel hook in just 45 seconds. And while these moves happen so fast that they never look like much, a glance at the pained face of the fighter on the receiving end speaks a thousand words when it comes to the devastating effects of a well-placed move like the one the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt specializes in. 7 – Dogged Dollaway hangs on to finish Doerksen Ever since his Peruvian Necktie finish of Jesse Taylor in July of 2008, fight fans have been waiting for another submission to remember from The Ultimate Fighter alum CB Dollaway. They got it at UFC 119 in September, when Dollaway showed the continued evolution of his game in submitting veteran jiu-jitsu black belt Joe Doerksen. After locking in a guillotine choke, Dollaway had to weather a feverish escape attempt from the Canadian, but he held on and modified the choke to finish matters at 2:13 of the opening round. 6 – Lesnar roars back, finishes Carwin After taking a hellacious beating from Shane Carwin in the first round of their July bout, Brock Lesnar’s odds of making it out of his corner for round two, let alone winning the fight, were slim. But the then-heavyweight champion showed his warrior’s heart by roaring back, taking down a winded Carwin, and finishing matters with a memorable arm triangle. 5 – Bocek wins battle of black belts with Hazelett A lot of times, if you match up two Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts, a kickboxing match breaks out. Not this time, and Mark Bocek made sure that his UFC 124 bout with Dustin Hazelett went to the ground almost immediately. In pre-fight interviews, Hazelett said he was just fine with that prospect, but Bocek sapped the joy out from the Kentucky native quickly, finishing the bout via triangle choke just past the midway point of the first round, and establishing Bocek as one of the game’s top groundfighters. 4 – Double Trouble – Lytle Surprises Foster and Brown When you’ve been around the fight game as long as Chris Lytle has, you develop more than a few veteran tricks.

Q: The WEC blossomed into MMA’s second biggest promotion, home to the best lighter weight fighters in the world. At what point in the organization’s existence did that become true? Reed Harris: We had all weight classes. Our approach for our events was, ‘What’s the best way to draw fans to the event?’ Whether they were light or heavy didn’t matter. We tried to find local guys, known fighters, that would enhance the cards. Dana was the one that (the lighter weight classes exclusively) forced that on me, I didn’t want to do it. He told me he wanted to get rid of light heavyweight, middleweight and welterweight. I didn’t want to do it because I had Carlos Condit, Brian Stann and Chael Sonnen and all of these guys. I did not want to do it but Dana was like, ‘You’ve got to do this to break out from under our shadow, otherwise you guys are never going to make it.’ So we did it and it ended up working great. It was a great call. Q: Is it safe to say the WEC was merely a regional promotion until Zuffa acquired you guys in December 2006? Harris: Yeah, we were regional for sure. But we were on HDNet, so we had coverage nationwide. We did all of our shows in California and only did one show back east but it didn’t do well so we never went back. We were careful. Scott and I didn’t have rose-colored glasses. We were doing well in Lemoore, California and we had a great thing going. The problem is that a lot of these other companies try to be UFC and we didn’t want to be that. Q: Worst fight in WEC history. Harris: Paulo Filho/Chael Sonnen (their second fight). It wasn’t Chael’s fault; Paulo didn’t want to fight and didn’t seem to care about making weight. I told Chael later, ‘That fight sucked.’ Chael said, ‘It’s really hard to fight against a guy who doesn’t want to fight.’ There was also a Shannon Ritch fight. He came out and got submitted in like a minute, and then walked off the ramp and asked if he could get paid (laughs heartily). Q: Reed, you’ve got the last WEC show coming up tonight. What are you going to miss most of all those experiences, all of the things you looked forward to whenever you hosted a WEC show? Harris: I think the overall satisfaction I gained having my friends and family calling me and saying, ‘Wow, what a great show.’ I’ll miss talking with the fighters before the fights, you know, I would always give them a talk about what I expected from them. I don’t think I’ll miss the relationships and stuff because I think I’ll still have ‘em. Q: Tell me how much the WEC’s success has exceeded your earliest expectations? Harris: When I first got in we were looking at throwing one show. It was more like throwing a party than a fight show. It reminded me of a party. And then the next thing I know I’m standing up on stage, looking out at this huge crowd, and a guy walks up to me and says, ‘OK, let’s talk about number two.’ At that point it turned into a business. Q: I hate talking about the message without talking about the messenger. For people who don’t know you, talk about your life before becoming a fight promoter. Harris: I started as an appliance salesman and was working at the store and a guy from a real estate company came into the store. I sold him a VCR and he said, ‘Wow, you’re a good salesman. Go get your real estate license and you can come work for me.’ And I rode that into becoming vice president of a large company. It was all hard work. There were a couple years where I worked every day; I didn’t take any days off. I actually started training taekwondo back in high school in Chicago but only trained for like a year and a half and then went to college. I took some Karate at the University of Iowa, my first year of college, and right when I started Christmas of my first year my dad was killed in a car accident. So I left school and went home to deal with that. It was real hard. Q: How old was your father when he passed? Harris: He was 43. My dad was a very ingenious guy. He was one of the first people to manufacture milk bottles in plastic. Milk had always been in cartons but my dad and this other guy had this idea to put it in plastic, gallon bottles. He invented the plastic milk bottle.