Living Room Furniture VS. UFC Fighting

If someone had told me 20 years ago that I would have three boys, I would have laughed at them.  I always thought I'd end up with a herd of girls, not a herd of boys and only one precious girl!  Then, if they had told me that my boys would be into UFC fighting (I still don't know what UFC stands for!) I would have really laughed!  Then, if they then had said that instead of taking the money I had set aside for new living room furniture, that I would take it and allow it to be spent on plane tickets to Sacramento, a rental car, hotel rooms, and tickets to a UFC fight, I would have told them they were smoking something!

Well, that is exactly what happened and I'm not sure how I got blind sided by the boys.  Must have knocked me out in the third round of discussions regarding this subject and then somehow talked their (dumb) father into it!

Jordan, my 14 year old and second boy started wrestling last year and did quite well.  Being that I'm a "real" soccer mom (meaning I play and coach, not just drive my kids to soccer practice!) I didn't know anything about wrestling except that I thought it was a little on the gross side.  The sight of a bunch of guys wrestling around in those retarded outfits (I guess they are called singlets?)was never something that I wanted to be into. Well, leave it to kids to get you into something you detested as a cheerleader.....(roll them over- lay them flat, pin their shoulders to the mat.....Jr. year HS cheerleader.....oooh the memories....YUK!).  Okay, so on with the story.....Jordan's wrestling coach is the brother of a world famous UFC fighter Jens Pulver.  Mr. Pulver, the coach told Jordan he ought to get his Dad to take him to the fight in Sacramento.  Jordan lives and breathes Mr. Pulver (Mr. Pulver this, Mr. Pulver that.....)and his brother Jens.  Just so you know how bad it is, my DVR is filled with endless UFC fights, the background on my blackberry has a picture of Jens Pulver on it (he got ahold of it during sacrament meeting and downloaded a photo of Jens and now it's on there.....didn't even know you could do that so how can I get it off!)  He has t-shirts that he's ordered off the internet and now he not only thinks he's going to be the next world champion UFC fighter, but he also wants to take up Jujitsu and Boxing since they are part of the fighting along with wrestling.

So, off the boys went to Sacramento with my furniture money and they had the time of their life.  It ended up to be a great weekend.  Craig, who never imagined himself getting into this sort of thing actually had a great time.  Because Mr. Pulver was there, the boys got to "hang" with Jens and his group.  They had dinner with them at a Thai restaurant (oh yeah, Mr. Picky won't eat fruits or vegetables Jordan, ate thai food and now he pesters me everyday to go out for thai food since Jens and Mr. Pulver eat it??)  They got to meet the other fighters and me and the little ones watched the fight at home "live" hoping to see them in the crowd on TV.  

Craig said that he thought he'd go to the fight and be disappointed with the type of atmosphere it was but was pleasantly surprised.  The Pulvers were very gracious to the boys and treated them like gold.  They were part of the Pulver team.  They even posted a photo of Jordan and the Pulvers on some UFC website!  These Pulver guys grew up in an incredibly difficult situation and they are now role models to lots of people and bring class to a sport that is coming into it's own.  I still don't want Jordan to be a UFC fighter as I don't think I could stand to see him get beat up (he said he would win every fight....so much confidence!)  but I guess I'm glad he's got a great teacher and coach with Mr. Pulver and that he, Craig and Brit got to have a fun weekend together rooting Jens Pulver and his team on.......with my furniture money.........