Saturday morning, we went for a late brunch at the Court of Two Sisters. The food was great, but I can't say it was worth $25. We walked around Jackson Square and returned to the hotel before heading out to pick up the car.
A friend of the dh was going to be having his debut mixed marital arts fight at the Imperial Palace in Biloxi, Mississippi at an event called Reality Combat. DH found out two days before we left and asked if I would be willing to go. A casino and the opportunity to scratch one of the few states in the union that I haven't been to off my list. Sure, I'll go.
I had made mention of this plan to a friend who had spent some time in Pascagoula for business. Biloxi was described to me as the "Redneck Riveria" by this person, who was so right!!! It was just insane. First, everyone in Mississippi smokes. I am convinced of that. Never in my life have I seen the air so thick with smoke and lit cigarettes in everyone's hand. Of course, there is no obvious restriction on where people can smoke in casinos or convention centers. It was foul, completely nasty.
We found the fighter we had come to see about an hour after arriving at the casino. KC is a baby faced airman who trains MMA in the evenings. He's also 6'7," but when he came out to greet us, he looked like this gangly kid of 23 who still has braces. Yes, braces. Why get your teeth fixed if you get beat on in your spare time. We also spent a long while talking to Angel Espino, this fighter from Houston. Another guy who looked less menacing, but was obviously a well trained athlete.
We sat through almost all the fights Saturday night. KC was on the undercard, the last fight on the undercard. He lost, but in his defense, he lasted the longest of the losers. He make it almost all five minutes of the first round and was (in terms of scoring and dominance) winning the fight until his opponent racked him with a low blow. An unintentional low blow. Okay, it was the third unintentional low blow, but the only one the ref called as such, since KC was crumbled on the mat. Ladies, what do I mean by a "low blow"? He was hit in the nuts. Hard. Not once or twice, but three times. That he lasted as long as he did was insane. The opponent finally got a choke on him and submitted him late in the first round. Angel, the guy we had talked to earlier, fared much better. He won his fight, I think in the first round, by submission. It was great to see him win.
After a bite to eat, we got back on the road to New Orleans. I was relieved. I never want to go back to Mississippi. Why? Well... There was this whole Texas versus Louisiana theme to several of the fights, the theory being that the Louisiana fighters were the hometown boys and the Texas fighters were the visiting team. When the Louisiana fighters were announced, they were warmly received. The Texas fighters were less so. The white Texas fighters received a smattering of applause. The few Texas Latinos that fought however, like Angel, met with some low booing or complete indifference. Made it all that much better when Angel won, in my mind. Of course, there was a black fighter. The crowd was mixed, but predominately white. When the black fight was getting pounded in the cage, there was some drunk local behind me yelling "Beat that n-." Seriously. And there was a black woman sitting three people over from him who was pissed. And he knew she was there - he said it anyway. Didn't care a lick who he offended. We (being myself, the husband, and the kids from New Orleans who we befriended and sat with) all turned to look at him. He was like "what, I said that out loud?" (like he didn't mean to say it.) Then he added "I'm an American. I have the right to free speech." I so wanted to turned around and say, "Sir, if you can read, which I doubt, I don't think you have ever taken the time to read either the Constitution or the Bill of Rights." He wasn't the only one booing or making comments about the non-white fighters... it was, in my opinion, just ugly. It reinforced my notion that the Deep South is a very ugly place that I want no part of.
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