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After a few hours he was at the weight he wanted to be and we all headed back to the hotel. We all hung out in his hotel room before Joe had to leave for the weigh ins. He had to get there pretty early, so we dropped him off and I hung out with some of his friends. A lot of people came down from Boston to watch Joe fight. It was cool because they are all good friends and are pretty tight. I grabbed some Chipotle with them while we waited for the weigh ins.
The weigh ins went by pretty quickly and soon Joe was back in the van and we were off. After the weigh ins the whole group (or clan as one of his friends calls them) went out to Longhorn Steakhouse for some dinner. We all headed back to the hotel after dinner where Joe showed three techniques (check the videos), and his friends grappled a bit in one of the conference rooms. Check out the hilarious video of Joe playing roshambo with his friends Chuck and Guido.
By time we were done filming technique videos and goofing around it was pretty late, so I said goodbye to Joe and headed to my friends apartment. My friend had an apartment full of people staying over, so I slept on his jiu jitsu mats and actually slept pretty well :)
On Saturday I got up late and then made my way back to Joe's hotel for one last video. I didn't want to bug him too much, because I know fighters have so much going through their minds the day of the fight. After I was done with Joe I called up Tracy Lee to see what she was up to. She wanted to go to Gasparilla, and since I had nothing to do I agreed. It was crazy getting down there because there were so many people, but we managed to find a parking space not too far from the event. Gasparilla is a Mardi Gras type of event, but just not as crazy...more family oriented, at least from what I saw. So Tracy, my manager Keith, and I hung out there for about an hour or so and then drove back to hotel. The fights were held at the USF Sundome, which was like a 10 min drive from the hotel.
We arrived at the arena and parted ways because Tracy had to get in and take pictures of the fights. I got to my seats and later found out I was right by Joe Lauzon's buddies. All the fights were amazing. The only thing I don't like about the live events are the people who boo after like 10 seconds of the fight starting...I get super angry haha. When Joe's fight started we all illegally moved down to a lower section, since we were super high up for the other fights. The fight started and Joe was relentless. He definitely has that killer instinct and won by submission in the 2nd round. The crowd went crazy and we were all happy. I took some video at the fights with my point and shoot still camera that you will see at the end of this video. This is part 3 of 3 documenting my trip with Joe.
After the fights Tracy, Keith and I went to grab something to eat and then went back to the hotel to get ready for the afterparty. All of Joe's friends took a party shuttle but I drove separate because I had to get back to Orlando that night. The party was held at Prana in Ybor City. Not going to lie there were a lot of people and it was pretty damn hot in there. I had fun though and hung out in Joe's section while sipping on some vodka haha. I eventually had to leave, so I said my goodbyes and made my way back to Orlando.
It was a great trip and I want to thank Joe and his friends for being really cool and letting me film.
