Greetings from Las Vegas. I touched down this morning/afternoon and to quote George Bluth, “I’m having the time of my life!”

The NBA’s summer league is in town and I’ve already crossed paths with some no-name Laker rookies. After getting settled in – the room wasn’t ready until 3pm local – Bucktown Skins Fan and myself headed over to the weigh-ins where we used our extensive connections to go beyond the velvet ropes of the UFC and gawk at world class athletes from up close.

Of course the first fighter I saw in person was Anderson Silva, arguably the best pound-for-pound mixed martial artist in the universe. After that it made it a bit easier to digest Brandon Vera laying down on empty chairs behind me. And I wasn’t completely terrified when formerly-exiled-fighter Jesse Taylor sat down in front of me.

You know how on television it looks like some of these guys have no necks? Well, that’s inaccurate – none of them have necks. And they consume a whole lot of Pedialyte. I can’t believe none of these guys have an endorsement.

Anyway, as I mentioned, Bucktown Skins Fan is here and he had a far more interesting introduction to Vegas than I did. We’ll be checking in randomly throughout the weekend. Anyway, here are BSF’s initial thoughts:

“This trip has been pretty surreal thus far.

It started off with a wonderful plane conversation with Ed, a 24 year old Aussie on holiday. He had not gone to sleep the night before in NYC, and was showing it. We talked for the first half of an hour after takeoff, before he passed out. In that time, I learned a few things from my new friend about cricket and skiing in Australia, but the most interesting tidbit of trivia was the fact that the last country to win the Olympic gold in the sport of rugby was the United States of America. U-S-A! U-S-A! 1924 was a good year.

Upon landing in Vegas, I got into the Taxicab Confessions cab; I am not kidding. I recognized the driver as she got out to help me with my bags, and had my suspicions confirmed when I saw a black camera box, stuck to the windshield, pointed directly at me. I suddenly felt compelled to say something embarrassing. Thankfully I controlled my urges. Don’t look for me on any upcoming episodes. She was great though. It was one of the best cab rides I’ve ever had, and, man, that woman has some stories.

The Palms Place is ridiculously nice. Currently there are more TVs in our room than people. We also each have our own bathrobe if anyone is interested.

Regarding the weigh-ins:

Dana White is a rock star. The moment he came into the room, flashes started going off, and screams filled the room. His first move was to go over to the crowd and walk down the line, taking pictures with anyone who wanted one. There were a lot of people who did.

Mike Goldberg is flippin’ huge. He could probably crush a human head between his finger and thumb.

Hermes Franca had his hair dyed blue, and was wearing bright orange booty shorts for his weigh-in. He looked so ridiculous that I couldn’t even come up with something funny to say about him. Seriously…

Brandon Vera is very tall, and very skinny. If I saw him in everyday street clothes, “that guy is a fighter” would definitely not be the first thought to run through my mind. That said, he gained a lot of respect in my book when he got all excited with friend when a commercial for a MXC marathon popped up on the big screen.

Anderson Silva said that he wanted to show his support for the “UFC family” when he decided to bump up in weight classes and take on James Irvin at 205 lbs.* This was a “holy crap, he’s right” moment for me. Family is exactly what the UFC is; Dan Henderson is here with Jesse Taylor, Rory Singer is here with Cale Yarbrough, Forrest Griffin is here with Tim Credeur, Dean Lister, Scott Smith, Cung Le and the list goes on and on.

James Irvin weighed in at 207.5 lbs. Luckily, he took off all of his clothes, (CRM’s Note: Safe For Work – I promise.) including his underwear to do so. If not, he might have weighed in at 207.55 lbs. I’ve always wondered if the weight of a pair of boxer briefs can really throw off your weight that much, or if it’s just some sort of psychological conditioning or superstition. Regardless, Irvin had an hour after the weigh-ins to drop 1.5 lbs. (Or 1.55 lbs. if he keeps his underoos on.”

*Silva also mentioned that he took tomorrow’s fight to help prove that the UFC is the best fight promotion in the world – or something to that affect. The point was, “Eat it, Affliction.” This card was put together to bury the Affliction card and you have to hand it to the people at the UFC – they threw together a pretty damn strong lineup on short notice.

Pre-Post Update: Irvin did make weight sometime after 5pm local time. Not that it matters, because Silva destroys people no matter what they weigh. There is no word yet as to whether or not Irvin was nude.