I spent over $1,125 to go to UFC 268 at Madison Square Garden

Was it worth it? | Week 45 of 52

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Yeah, that hefty chunk was just for ticket price + fees. Then I paid for my flight and hotel. The round-trip ticket between LA and NY was COVID-low, $250. Hotel for two nights was about $600 after taxes.

But like, I had to do it. Since working on UFC as an ad agency intern over the summer, I’ve become an absolute diehard. As in, watching hours of UFC content weekly — fights every Saturday, commentary shows, fighter interviews, and then previous fights, to study for upcoming ones. You kinda need to know who’s behind the slugfest to care about the slugfest. I do this willingly, passionately.

What inspires me the most about UFC fighters is their relentless pursuit to win. This requires getting beat up by training partners for weeks leading up to fights.

I mean, I box, but I don’t intend to ever spar. I’m sure if I got punched in the head once, I’d be like, “That’s it. Career over.” By the end of a 15-minute match, fighters in the Octagon are often getting hit over 100 times — head, body, legs.

Yes, it’s objectively brutal. But they all love it so much. And when fighters hug it out at the end (except in cases of “grudge matches,” where the two people genuinely hate each others’ guts), you’re reminded, “Right. It was all a game.”