Tachi Palace Entertainment Coordinator Jeremy Luchau with the Tachi Palace Fights girls.

“So what if the stream ‘sucked’, you suck…”

By: Jeremy Luchau

Just kidding…

But I do understand your frustration and it’s not like we weren’t all sitting there scratching our heads during the fights or pulling our hair out or pointing the fingers at each other.

The stream once again might have been a bit of a failure in some peoples’ eyes. I understand that it cut in and out a few times throughout the night and most people didn’t catch the last bout between Ian McCall and Darrell Montague, which was epic.

And really all I can do is apologize. We made some major upgrades with our IT team at the casino following the May show to hopefully resolve these issues and obviously there’s a larger problem and as expected the first time, it seems to be an AT&T problem and has nothing to do with Sherdog.com or Tachi Palace Fights.

And that’s not to pass the buck, we still didn’t deliver on a product that we promised and that’s ultimately my mistake and I take full responsibility and IF we decide to stream again, I have to do a much, much better job.

But as a fight fan, I’d say cut us some slack. There’s no need for the Sherdog and Tachi Palace Fights bashing… it’s free MMA and we aren’t making a dime off of streaming the show. It’s something we try to do for all the fans and streaming is actually a pretty steep expense.

Yes, the exposure is great for the fighters and for the brand, but really is it worth all the trouble? I’m starting to really question myself about that.

Other than the stream, things really went smooth at the fights. We had a pretty decent crowd once the sun started to set (no one likes that 100 degree weather) and the action was great, from knockouts to submissions I think that all the fans were pretty pleased with the level of MMA shown Friday, Aug. 5.

I heard some say it was one of the best cards ever at Tachi, which is singing some pretty high praise.

Some of the behind the scenes issues that ran me ragged on fight day included bikinis of all things and traffic jams.

It was one of the weirdest events that I’ve ran, just for the fact that all the issues I normally had didn’t come about, but everything I’ve never had trouble with seemed to be a problem.

Prior to weigh-ins, fight manager Jason House brought up a box from Hostility Clothing with the Ring Girl outfits and shirts for the staff. Once I cracked the box open I noticed that there was only three bikini tops (four ring girls) and no bottoms… the mad scramble begins.

House shoots a call down to So Cal to get the proper gear lined up for the ladies and for the weigh-ins, if you watched them, the girls opted to wear some jean bottoms and Hostility shirts… Needless to say the girls were not happy with that at all.

It seemed like on fight day my biggest concern was if the bikinis were going to make it on time. House had one of his guys bringing them up and I actually delayed the show 10 minutes just to get them in my hands. Well we delayed the show for that, and because we were still waiting on a couple CSAC officials to arrive from So Cal. Not really sure what was more important, really.

Finally the box is here, I run it over to the girls in the dressing room and two minutes later I get the call again that there was a problem… not enough bottoms.

We ended up going with our old swimsuits to avoid any more frustration.

A minute later I get the text that the officials arrived and we are ready to start the fights.

I guess there was some major construction on the I-5 North going over the grapevine that held everyone up from making the fights on time, including referee Herb Dean and judge John McCarthy and our Ring Announcer Joe Martinez, who actually showed up 30 minutes before show time and got dressed backstage instead of his hotel room. Martinez made the best out of a tough situation and really showed his true professionalism on this show, which makes him one of the very best in the business.

I don’t think anyone could tell all the commotion that was going on backstage as we literally were waiting for all these people to arrive last minute. Good thing we had DJ MakJ doing his thing and keeping the crowd hyped for the fights.

It was an exciting night to say the least and I was proud of all the people that put all that hard work into the event from our Event Lighting team to our Video Team and all the way to the Ring Crew and Event Staff.

I was able to sit back and watch most of the action without little bother. The show was on cruise control and I was able to be a fan for a little bit.

I sat back and watched Kenny Ento, who was my first MMA interview when I was a writer at the Hanford Sentinel newspaper, knockout Phil Collins.

I saw a good friend Ulysses Gomez pick up a big win over a very big and strong Drew Bittner.

And saw future stars like Jorge Lopez and Ian McCall really put on spectacular performances. Both I feel are UFC bound very shortly.

All my friends were there to witness the “carnage”… the media guys which I’ve grown to love and respect… guys like Jon Motsenbocker of Cageradio.com, Chris Ronquillo of FUNews.net, Jeff Gallion of MMAKO.com and Spencer Lazara with MMAInterviews.tv.

Plus my best friends in the game, matchmaker Richard Goodman and my mentor at Tachi Jacob Jeff.

And last but not least, I get to share all the fights with my lovely fiancée Lauren “The Ring Card Girl”.

I probably forgot tons of names, but right now I really don’t care. I really just want to sit back and take a breath, re-watch the fights and correct mistakes for the Dec. 2 show.

I was thinking I would keep up with this blog every week through the next show and continue to give you all an inside look at Tachi Palace Fights and MMA… that is if you don’t mind.

I promise I won’t cut out on you like the stream!

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Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeremy.luchau
Twitter: @TheProject23
Email: [email protected]

Special Thanks: Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino (www.tachipalace.com), Fairtex (www.fairtex.com) and Hostility Clothing (www.hostilityclothing.com).

The Project Files” by Jeremy Luchau is a weekly blog series here at ProMMAnow.com which gives readers an inside look into the life of an MMA promoter. It is part of our ongoing series of exclusive content written by individuals involved in the mixed martial arts industry.

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