UFC 127, Wed, Thurs and Fri

The past three days have been filled with us continuing our daily workouts and rest. George did the press conference Wednesday, he had his photo shoot and interviews for UFC yesterday and today is a rest day in terms of appointments for George.

The only thing that we need to do is 6pm today we have to get his banner and fight shorts approved by UFC then its to bed early and off to the weigh ins tomorrow at 1130am. The venue for the weigh ins is about 40min away at the Acer arena the same place the fight will take place at. I posted a picture and video from the past couple of days.


Press conference at Star City casino.

George sprinting the hallway and punching my camera.

UFC 127, Tuesday,Open Media Workout

Today started off with our usual 7am boxing session. Everything went as good as usual. George has been dropping weight and it still hasn't really effected his intensity. After another great boxing session, Eric, George and I headed to the hallway near our room where George ran his sprints.

I'm pretty sure the hotel staff had never seen anyone actually run sprints down the hallway as they gave us weird looks as they would pass through our make shift workout area while pushing their carts past us!!

After we were done with sprints Eric and I met Adam Thompson a Australian reporter who has become and good friend with Team Sotiropoulos ever since the last fight in Australia. Adam also shadowed us at the Lazon fight in Detroit. Adam drove me to the mall where I was able to buy clothes since my bag STILL has not arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just as I thought things were getting better and was glad I finally had some clothes, my credit card gets declined because of "suspicious activity". After dealing with my credit and debit cards for a little bit they finally went through and I was able to get my new clean clothes. You would be amazed how simple things we take for granted can really make your day.

Adam and I at open media workouts showing off my new clothes.

Anyway it was now back to the casino where we met George for the open media workout. It was held in the main casino where reporters and fans were able to meet the fighter as well as watch them display a little of their workout sessions.

Team Sotiropoulos (Eric Jetton, George Sotiropoulos, Eddie Bravo and Leonard Gabriel) at open media workout.

George shadow boxing for the media.

The workout went smooth and George was clearly one of the main fighters that most of the fans came to see. George was one of the last ones scheduled for the workout and the fans stayed after to make sure they were able to get photos and autographs with George.

George being interviewed by FOX Sports.

Tomorrow will be the press conference so stay tuned for updates.

UFC 127, Sun 20th and Mon 21st

STILL NO LUGGAGE!!! The day started off with me meeting Jason one of the UFC drivers in the lobby at 4:45am so I could catch a ride to the airport to see what happened to my luggage. I'm not sure yet if the trip was worth it. I was sent to four different departments and spoke to 6 different people and I still don't know where my bag is or which airlines have it.

Since I had to head to the airport so early our regular boxing workout at 7am was postponed. When I got back to the hotel George and Eddie was in the workout room going over his jiu jitsu. George was looking as good as usual. Once he was done with his jiu jitsu he went to eat and headed to his room for a rest. Eddie was happy with George's workout and I was glad I was able to make the last part of their workout.

If anyone is not familiar with Eddie Bravo and the 10th Planet jiu jitsu, you don't know what you are missing. Eddie is a true master of his craft and a awesome coach!! Not to mention one of the funniest most down to earth guy I know.

After a couple of hours we were back in the training room working on his boxing. I was amazed that George was so crisp and strong doing his workouts considering he is in the process of dropping weight. Dr. Parone also arrived and sat in on the workout.

George and I working on the mitts.

Dr. Parone, George and Eric.

As a cool down George worked his kick boxing as well as going to the body on the belly pad I was wearing. I can tell you that my left side of my rib cage is killing me from George ripping to my body. Hes definitely picked up more power in his punches since his last fight. This wrapped up our last hard day of boxing and will be cutting back on the workouts tomorrow.

George then headed for another meal and back up to the room and rested. After another couple hours of resting, George was back in the training room wrestling with Eric Jetton. Once again George looked on point. He was fast and explosive and given how happy Eric seemed to be with George's wrestling, I could tell he was doing just as well with his wrestling as with his boxing and jiu jitsu.

George and Eric wrestling.

This wrapped up a very busy day for George in the sense of working out. As I said earlier Team Sotiropoulos will cut George's workouts down tomorrow. Tomorrow is also open workouts for the media where I'm sure you will be able to see the videos on the UFC website.

I'm also crossing my fingers that my bag finally get here. I'm giving it until 10am before I head out to the mall and buying all new clothes!!!

UFC 127, Leaving for Australia

February 17, 2011

Today we leave for Australia. The day starts off with me meeting George for sprints at 7am. George is in good spirits and looking strong. These sprints have become a regular routine for us as the morning workout on the departure day for George's UFC fights. Once the sprints are done its off to do last minute errands and off to the airport.

We both get to the airport 2hrs prior to our departure thinking this will be enough time to make our flights right???.................. Well lets start off saying things didn't go quite as planned. First as we get to the ticket counter the computer is unable to scan our passports which ends up taking at least 20min with the assistance of a United agent. After we finally get everything done the agent tells us to go to gate C4. After another 15min-20min in the security we get through and see that we have enough time to stop at Starbucks and get a coffee.

This isn't to bad being that we can see gate C4 and know that we aren't to far from it. So we order our coffee taking our time talking knowing we are close. After a bit we walk over to the gate and I notice that there is no plane at the gate or passengers sitting in the area. At the same time me and George look at each other and say "Oh s@#$".

I look at my ticket and realize that the agent who told us to go to gate C4 was looking at my seat number and not the gate which was actually E7! Of course gate E7 is on the complete opposite side of the airport from where we are.

We are now in a full sprint realizing that we actually might missing our flight. We finally get gate E7 in sight and see that they are closing the door to the ramp. Both George and i about 40 yards away and are yelling for the agents to hold the gate letting them know that we were there.

Needless to say we were to late and they would not let us through. This was upsetting knowing that passengers were still actually walking into the plane when we got there. After a little exchange of words with the gate agent it was clear we were not getting on that plane.

UFC then re-routed us through different air lines that put us in Australia 2hrs. later. Our new flight plans went from bad to worse getting into LA and not being able to find our bags from the flight we missed after running all over LAX. We were then left with a choice of waiting and possibly finding our bags or making our new flight to Australia. Sooo, we got on the plane.

14hrs later and and 20hrs since we first got to PDX we finally land in Australia with no bags other then what we are wearing and our workout gear bags!! as you can guess we went up to our rooms after dinner and passed out!!

Really hope tomorrow goes better!!

UFC 127, Sydney Australia, Acer Arena

George Sotiropoulos vs Dennis Siver. George looks to return to his home country and put on a great show against a very tough Dennis Siver. We will be posting updated blogs and photos as we count down to UFC 127!!

2011 Oregon Sr. Golden Gloves Tournament

February 18 & 19
Julie Ballou

Because Leonard had to go to Australia for George’s fight, I took Joe Reynosa, Oscar Hernandez, Jorell Reynosa, and Sammy Perez to Bend for the Golden Gloves Tournament. This is a qualifier for the regional tournament in Vegas.

I was mildly, okay, super nervous to take these guys because they are all very, very good boxers and I am fully aware of my abilities as a boxing coach and have never gone without Leonard. But they were good sports and at least sold the idea they were okay with me working their corner.

Bill Mertz, retired Olympian boxing coach and former coach for Oscar and Sammy, had agreed to be at the tournament to help me. Thank goodness, now I could relax and let Bill impose his wisdom while I could sit back and watch these guys go to work.

We made it in to town and to the weigh- ins without much incident. I had a full car going down, in addition to the 4 boxers, Amanda Mercado, Leonard’s niece and Virgil Green came along for moral support. On the drive down, however, I learned Sammy and Jorell ended up in the same weight class. A combination of miscommunications, and I had a slight wave a panic wash over me. Ordinarily, typically teammates don’t fight each other so this was going to be interesting. I thought maybe 3lbs would just melt off of Sammy on the drive down, getting him to the 132 class instead of having to compete at 141 where Jorell was.

Nope. To add to that, I was told Bill had gotten sick and wasn’t going to be able to make it. Just great. Luckily, Richard Miller, the coach from Bend graciously agreed to help me out.

At the coaches meeting I learned Joe had to fight once for the championship. Oscar would fight once for the championship. And as luck would have it, Sammy and Jorell ended up having to fight each other in the first round.

Thanks Leonard, for giving me an easy one for my first one. Luckily for me Jorell and Sammy are professionals and did a great job handling an uncomfortable situation. I ended up working Jorell’s corner with Richard and at the same time felt like a traitor seeing Sammy in the other corner with help from another coach. I hate when judges end up in a draw decision and I don’t know what that would have done for someone to advance, but maternal emotions took over and I didn’t want them to have to pick just one.

It was an exciting fight, and really what I had seen day after day in the gym from these two on sparing days. Sammy won the fight but it was a great loss for Jorell. I know that sounds silly but I was thrilled to see Jorell improve on things from his last fight a couple weeks prior in Tacoma.

Oscar’s fight wasn’t until the next night and Joe brought the night to a close as the last fight. He fought a tough guy from Vegas who he will likely see again. Joe beat him and did a great job keeping the pressure on the guy until the last bell even though they were both spent.

We woke up the next morning to several inches of snow. And snow falling. A lot. By the time we checked out we had about 4 hours to kill. The obvious choice was the Bend Fun Center. We were all hungry and to a bunch of guys who had to cut weight, Izzy’s needed to happen before we got our game on. I should also mention, we didn’t leave the hotel parking lot without Oscar breaking open a huge package of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and passing them around. A buffet dinner of pizza and friend chicken could only make this better. Virgil was scoping out the salad dressing, not for a salad of course, but to dip his pizza in, and discovered a new flavor. He asked the guys, “What does Lo-Cal taste like?”

The Fun Center was a good time killer. I learned a few things about the guys when we were there. If boxing doesn’t work out for Virgil, he has a career as a guitarist because he was giving Slash a lesson on Guitar Hero. Jorell likely sneaks off to arcades to get his fix of Dance Dance Revolution, because we had a hard time pulling him off it. And really the only one of us who can play pool is Virgil. Jorell could hold his own. Joe, Amanda, Sammy and I, suck. Big time. Thanks to Sammy who hit a jack pot on a Monopoly game, the guys were able to get a few fun prizes with all the tickets they won. A stuffed snake, a squishy ball with tentacles, and a tiara.

Back to business. Sammy fought a tough kid from Tacoma and in the first round suffered a mean body shot followed by several low blows throughout the fight. Even though Sammy didn’t win he’s still able to advance to Regional’s with Joe. We pulled the gloves off Sammy and right on to Oscar. Oscar was very busy during his fight and put together some scoring combinations. More than the other guy, at least I thought. The judges thought differently. I don’t want to sound like a biased fan, but I really did think Oscar scored more points. That’s boxing I guess.

Once we were out of Bend the roads improved and we were able to make decent time since there was no one on the road at midnight. Apparently, other things aren’t around at midnight either along Hwy 26, like an open gas station. Everyone slept for most of the ride home and I kept to myself about the gas situation. (Aside from the battle between Virgil & Oscar to take candid photos of each other while they slept.) But as the needle inched closer to the dreaded red section, I became anxious. Sammy was quietly sitting in the back seat and in view of the gauges, nervous, but also not wanting to give rise to the rest of the group. I starting imagining the wait along side the road in below freezing temperatures for, I’m not sure who, to come and get us. Luckily fumes got us to Sandy where I’m not sure I’ve ever been as happy as I was to see a 24hr AM/PM.

Even though we didn’t get the wins we were hoping for, everyone seemed to have a good time and fought hard. Good job guys! Keep up the training. Updates on future tournaments and the Regional Golden Gloves Tournament to follow. Check out the photos on Facebook!