Not like the telly

I got my first taste of live Cage Fighting in Bilborough on Saturday night.
It’s not like the telly.
And it’s certainly a far cry from Georges St. Pierre v Matt Serra, who were performing in front of 21,390 screaming fans in Montreal’s Bell Centre.
Nevertheless, with names like Ian ‘M-16’ Butlin, Matt ‘12 Gauge’ Thorpe and Mark ‘Manslaughter’ O’Toole you expect some fireworks.
But there was nearly as much action in the long queue to get into Harvey Hadden, which resulted in the show starting almost an hour late.
When the real action did finally get underway, it was all a bit of an anti-climax.
Sean Folan and Brent Crawley did a lot of hugging - granted it was manly hugging - and there was a lot of rolling about on the floor.
Blink and you missed Butlin v the German mosquito. It was all over in 25 seconds.
Because of the late start, many fans had gone home and missed top-of-the-bill Dan Hardy demolish ex-Marine Chad Reiner at around 11pm. That was brutal. So was Pete McGurk, while I liked the look of Dean Amasinger and Lee Livingstone. These lads from Team Rough House ain't half bad mum.
The fans were a mixed bunch - young and old. Blue inked as well as blue rinsed, which was good to see. Bit like the old wrestling days (but look what happened to wrestling).
The atmos was ok. The sound system was a bit scrambled, but re-playing the action on the big screens was a good idea.
But £5 for a programme?