Friday, November 25, 2011

Black Friday...is it so Black?

Okay, so it's been since the beginning of October since I've posted. I can explain why. I took up a gig as an MMA matchmaker. Many of you know that my son was born in April of this year also. I'm shooting more events, and more weddings now, so balancing everything has been quite...hectic to say the least.

I'll sum up being a matchmaker in 2 words. It sucks. Now I'll go into more detail. How hard can it be? Seems like just get a few people that agreed to fight a few other people on a given night, and put them on paper, right? Wrong. You've got people that are fighters up until you give them the chance to be a fighter. You've got people who get injured training. You have people who can't make weight. Others who have to coach baseball. You've got egos from people that think they are better than they are, and want more money than they should get.

I have such a new appreciation for every show that has fights now...because I know first hand how much crap you've got to go through. I'm not talking about Strikeforce or UFC or Bellator that have contracted fighters that they can cull from. I mean the promotions that put on PRO/AM cards and have to deal with there being absolutely no reprecussions for dealing with ammy fighters who want to back out (in PA, if a fighter says they will fight, but then they don't...no way to hold them liable).

It consumed me. My phone had texts and calls non-stop. I had no free time, and it was unfair to my wife, my son, and my business.

Not to mention, while not intentionally, management was difficult at times. He's learning the business now too, and it at times could be arduous. I wanted to say, hey, you're paying me to do a job, let me do that job. Don't second guess me. Don't run to someone else and ask them if my idea is a good one, then call me and say it's a good one. I know it was, I suggested it. However, it wasn't the promoter being a jerk or rude at all. He's new to the business and wants to do it right. He wants to learn it right and not lose a pile of money. So while it was frustrating, I could understand it.

Okay, enough of that. So I toyed with the idea of going black Friday shopping. I tried to go, but later in the day (like 1PM ish) and Ic ouldn't get a parking spot at Sears, so I didn't buy a snow blower. Then I didn't get a parking spot at Target, so I didn't buy a TV for our bedroom. Oh well, saved me some money. I went to the Logan Towne Center to buy a few items, but ended up spending 6 bucks on a cup of coffee...yeah...productive.

So since the last post, photographed a few fights. Was matchmaker for one of them. In no particular order of the fights, here's just some random photos, and as always, you can see full galleries at my website. There's a few other photos mixed in there as well.