you asked for it.

First let me introduce Team Voodoo USA.

GENE FIELDS
Gene is the old veteran who has had the broken bones. He uses his gut to judge people and situations. I think he has very good instincts. The best way for me to describe Gene is to say he has the intensity of Thom Harinck and the teaching skills of Johan Vos.

BEAR
Bear is Gene’s son and has been working as a corner man since he was 11 years old. He is extremely perceptive.

HIRO
I’ve never met anyone with more tattoos in my life. Super cool guy. Bear is going to stay with him for a while at see the sights of Harajuku. They are going to have a blast.

Thursday was the day of the photo shoot. Carter got oiled up and started posing. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but the tattoo on his right shoulder was touched up a lot and looked much better than before. In his early teens, Carter had a friend do the work and now he looks at the tats and is a little embarrassed after seeing the work Venetiaan has. Anyway, the camera man asks Carter to turn so he can take a shot of the other shoulder. There is a little silence as the cameraman observes the amateur work. “Forget it,” he says. The rest of Carter pictures are with him in the southpaw position. I wonder if he will have the other shoulder done in time for the K-1 USA.

Friday was the press conference and rules meeting.

I was early at the hotel for the conference but had just missed the team by about 20 minutes as they went to train with Pettas. I got to hang out with Ray Sefo for a while. His injury came from a misdirected spinning backhand that hit Ronny on the head. The elements power, direction and place on the forearm all came together to break the bone. If you had seen him, you would have realized exactly how much the show lost that day. Ray weighed 102kgs. He was a new man and was going to rock everyone’s world last weekend.

We talked a little about last year. I think he traveled around the world more than my wife, and she is an international stewardess. The doctors said that this was the likely cause of his health problems. He caught a flu that didn’t disappear in a few days as usual. It lingered for weeks.

The leg injury you saw at the Grand Prix? His health was so poor that he got that kicking a pad. That’s it. He checked the shin guards and they were fine. He couldn’t even hit pads without hurting himself and he fought Musashi. He spent the next 8-9 days in bed.

We talked about the difference between being popular in Japan and the US. In the US, guys he doesn’t know yell “Hey Ray! I kick ass with you on Playstation!” In Japan, he is afraid to go to places where large groups of people gather. He has been pinned to walls or swarmed by mobs.

When Team Voodoo got back from the work out, we all went out to lunch. Ray joined us. Carter really admires Ray and appreciated the opportunity to sit at the same table. They both like singing off key, so I see karaoke in their future.

The press conference was pretty uneventful. There was no staged nonsense. It was getting old anyway. Carter said that he was happy to have such a high quality opponent with a winning record. Alexei talked about joy and harmony or something like that. Seth Petruzelli won the smart ass award. He is a super cool guy who used his wit to get the better of Sapp.

After the press conference, Carter got to meet Ernesto Hoost. He was so in awe of the legend that he blurted out “Mr. Hoost is an honor to meet the 6-time Grand Prix Champion.” Ernesto paused a bit and said “No. Four K-1s and one K-2. I guess that is 5.” Bear later said that the press MC said Hoost had won 6 world titles or something like that. No matter, we had something with which to tease Carter mercilessly.

None of the teasing bothered Carter. He had a little trouble adjusting to one K-1 great after another coming up and saying he had a very bright future. He is humble kid who believes in himself but doesn’t like to discuss his potential so openly. He’s getting used to is a little at a time.

Next was the rules meeting. I will have to take some time to absorb what was said there. They obviously want to increase the quality of the shows but some the things that were implied about certain fighters stunned me. In the words of Forrest Gump, “that’s all I’ve got to say about that.”

Backstage at the event, we shared a locker room with Musashi, Botha, Nortje and Bajrami.

MUSASHI
He had hayfever and then a delivery person brought three huge bouquets of flowers. He is very easy going. He’s been in the game a long time and was calm and chatty. I think is was good for Carter to have been placed next to Musashi. I asked Musashi which hand he writes with. He uses his right. Carter, the other ambidexrous fighter, writes with his left.

BAJRAMI
Soft spoken guy until he opened the package and saw the color of his ankle supports, lime green. Xhavit knows how to swear. Trust me on that.

NORTJE
Jan is pretty calm all the time. He is always giving words of encouragement to Carter. After the event in the bar, he bellowed, “You are one dangerous motherfucker!” The girls at my table asked me to translate. I gave them a literal translation. They looked at Carter and said “Really?”

BOTHA
I can’t really get a good read on Botha. He is friendly but I just haven’t spent enough time with him to get an idea what he is thinking.

PETTAS
A fan told me that my Japanese was a good as Nick’s. I laughed pretty hard.
Nick is very intense. He loves the fight game and probably wishes he could come back. One thing I can say about Karate guys is that they mostly aspire to teach. Pettas certainly enjoys developing fighters. He was in Jan’s corner.

OTHER FIGHTERS
PETRUZELLI
His fight was weird. He beat the count but they stopped the fight anyway. It was his first K-1 fight and they decided to nail him with the fighting pose rule. Carter didn’t get his hands up on 8 either, but they let him continue. I have to give this guy props. He took a fight with Bob Sapp on a week’s notice. Sapp’s name on his record will certainly open many doors. Knocking BIG BOY down will open many more. The injury was odd. Sapp hit a nerve and Seth lost feeling in his right arm. The same thing happened in the Esch-Fujimoto fight.

You can be sure that Gene is at home now with an anatomy book on his lap trying to find that nerve. The man is a psycho.

SAPP
Big star. He had his own dressing room. You get to talk to him for about 15 seconds before a camera crew comes along to get him to do the spooky laugh.

GUR
I didn’t see much of him, but from what I did see he is very distant and nearly unapproachable. I know that sounds a little negative but like I said, I didn’t see enough of him.

IGNASHOV
Polite and courteous. I don’t think I heard him say two words until the press conference. He shakes hands and smiles. He signs autographs and smiles. I really can’t remember him talking.

When he and Carter met on the stairs after they had showered and dressed. Carter grabbed his crotch and shuffled by in a joking manner. Alexei got a little mad; “You too. You hit me low,” he said. He was smiling but it had a touch of bitterness in it. I thought he was bullshitting, so I checked the footage and Carter did clip him low once.

Carter wants another crack at Ignashov and may select him at the Grand Prix draw if the opportunity presents itself.

That was it for my weekend. I’ve probably forgotten a few people, but there you go.