ROUGH GUIDE - WARRIOR TC

We arrived in Vegas to film ROUGH GUIDE - 2 weeks of trekking the Vegas and LA area in search of the best MMA clubs we could train at!

After a 15 hours flight, we found the car rental desk at the airport and joined the que...
Alex in a tiredness induced hyper frenzy decided to wind up the girl behind the desk by telling her that Gaz and myself had just got married... to which she burst into \'congratulations\' saying we were so sweet...
As she was wiping the tears of happyness away, Alex then told her proudly that he was Gaz\'s boyfriend and had come along for the honeymoon. At this point the girl could hardly hold back her joy for us. We still didnt get the newly weds discount on the car rental though.

Picking the biggest truck we could find, we set off to find the hotel.
We pulled up and within 10 minutes, 3 Elvis\'s had wandered casualy past along with several other people who were supposed to be dead.
Welcom to Vegas...!

The next day, we set off to find out first days training at Xtreme Coutures!
That was the plan anyway...
After successfully getting lost, we pulled over a mail man who told us to follow him to that \'UFC place\'.
He pulled up at some building which had no signs of Xtreme Couture on it at all. I expected big Octagons and Coutures face everywhere. At least his name...

Not knowing where we had been led to, we said thanks and went in with camera rolling...
Turned out to be the Warrior TC (Training Centre) formely know ad th Xience Centre - sponsors of the UFC!

We introduced ourselves to the owner who welcomed us in and gave us a quick tour.
Great facilities, full matted area, boxing rind, another matted area, weight room the works.

We were told a grappling class was about to start and we were welcome to stay and join in. The instructor was a former BTT instructor so the standard would be high.

First fighter to walk through the door was Amir Sodullah! Semi finalist of the then current series of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF). The series was still running on TV and was just about to show the Semi so we didnt know if Amir would still be in or not at this point!

Then, another TUF fighter - Tim Credulah!
Both were welcoming and friendly, but didnt tell us if they were training for the finals or not - although the odd smirk did give us a clue! ;-)

Then who should walk in but Forrest Griffin!
Forrest was due to fight Quinton \'Rampage\' Jackson just weeks away for the UFC light heavy weight title and was well into his training camp - this was getting better by the moment!

Alex and Gaz joined the class while I worked the camera.
The class was more of a light grappling sparring session with some techniques thrown in instead of a full on class. All the guys there were realy welcoming and took us straight into their training session.
It was baking hot especialy having come from the back end of a British winter, and the dry heat was draining just holding the camera yet alone being on the mats with these guys!

Everyone got to roll with everyone and it was a great first session for the trip.

Check out some of the vids below!

Afterwards, Forrest got in the ring and started some pad work. I was filming but then after a while was asked not to as Forrest was working some stuff that he didnt want Rampage to see!
Lots of combo\'s followed by big leg kicks followed... (see Griffin V Rampage fight for the result...!)

After all the training, we all chilled for a while chatting around the ring.
I\'d got the impression that Forrest was a bit camera \'unfriendly\' from what I\'d seen on TV, cutting interviewers short and not realy engaging etc... but this was different!

I guess if you put a full camera crew, lights and a few million people in front of anyone, you get the TV persona.
Get on the mats with them and a single camera while \'chatting\', and you get the real person! This realy was \'as real as it gets!\'
Half hour chat about being KO\'d, Kimbo, Swearing and Forrests manhood... and we wound up our first episode of \'Rough Guide\'.

All in all, Warrior TC is highly recomended place to train. Great facility, great people, all good :-)

Vids and pics below...