Notes from FanHouse in Newark.Last weekend, MDS was in Vegas for UFC 84 and was blown away by the energy, crowd size and diversity he saw Octagon-side. There's a pretty clear difference in tonight's event at the Prudential Center in Newark.
For one thing, the size of the crowd can't compare. We're a little more than a half-hour from the start of the main portion of the card and the crowd isn't much fuller than it was for the start of the undercard. There are swaths of empty seats on all sides of the cage and I wonder how good that will look on CBS.
The crowd is throaty, though, and all the loud music, smoke machines and flashing lights are the same as last weekend. Without a full house, however, it's hard to get the same big event feel.
For another, MDS remarked on the amount of women in the crowd in Vegas. Tonight's crowd is much more representative of the stereotypical, young male demographic. There aren't many women here, outside of the somewhat cheesy girls dancing in hotpants in between matches. Popular with those young males, for sure, but something less than professional quality.
I'll be back with a recap of the undercard later.
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