Cage Warriors 47 - Sonic Blastman

I'm not one to throw around the obvious and the cliche when they're not required but I feel justified by writing what I'm about to write.

Cage Warriors 47 was the most intense show I have ever worked in my entire life.

It was my seventh show for Cage Warriors and before I got there I was faced with arguably the shortest flight on record.

The event took place in Dublin and as soon as I was afforded the opportunity on the plane, I put on my headphones and my Ipod picked me Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

The song finished and as it did I saw a shape enter my peripheral vision. It was the stewardess telling me to take my headphones off as we were preparing to land. I've had good cups of tea that last longer than that flight but I'm certainly not complaining you understand. It made a nice change.

We got to the hotel, which was nice in an understated kind of way, and found out we'd be staying in an adjacent house because there was a wedding this weekend at the hotel.

It'd be Dean, Rich, Tony and myself which, as it happened, was a perfect cocktail for tea, trash talking, the occasional coffee for Dean and all kinds of merriment.

The fight night came round fast and as soon as the first bout started I could sense something different. The crowd, although still growing, was gloriously vocal and I truly wasn't prepared for what was to come.

Then this happened.

Photo by Dolly Clew/Cage Warriors

I've never ever seen a place erupt like that in a very short time before. I've seen many displays like that but not for a second was there a sense of danger in these proceedings; there was nothing but intense celebration from the Irish fans.

This wouldn't be a weekend recap however, without a bullet point list and a niche videogame link so here's both for you good people.

• The mental game is so overlooked by some people in mma but I'm fast realising that it's probably the most important part of the whole puzzle somehow. It's like having a 1000bhp engine but no clutch. You can't translate that power and ability into anything without it.
• If you're all about The Young Ones metaphor in that house then I think I was Rick Mayall, Dean was Vivian, Tony was Neil and Rich was Mike.
• Train rides are really underrated somehow. If they weren't so expensive I'd do more of them.
• I started reading my dad's book last night briefly. I really hope I've got that in me somewhere.
• UN Squadron with anyone apart from Greg Gates is unfeasibly hard.

Why Sonic Blastman?

As a kid growing up the noisiest machine in any arcade was the Sonic Blastman machine. You'd get crowds of would be tough guys surrounding it trying to hit that pad to get the biggest score, or headbutt it which I saw once, to impress whoever was watching. There was a special noise that surrounded that machine. It was crystal clear yet ear splittingly loud.

“There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.”- Jack Kerouac