It was one wild day for UFC fans in Manila yesterday at SM Mall of Asia!
First off, this was generally bigger and wilder than Chuck Liddell's media tour 2 years ago. The number of crowd who waited to get a glimpse of the Rush and see him do his public training was 3x more! Every space with a vantage point in the area was packed, and i mean REALLY packed. In fact, coming from the back, from the bay area, you could already see the substantial amount of people present to experience the excitement. More fans got in to the exclusive areas by simply purchasing a copy of the maiden issue of UFC magazine Philippines, unfortunately there weren't enough for everyone. In a matter of minutes, the stock was sold out! Fans tolerated the lines so that they could buy shirts, and other GSP Hits Manila memorabilia. Man, this was totally a whole new level.
GSP's arrival was scheduled and announced to be at around 2:30pm in the afternoon, but hours before his arrival many of his fans were already there, stationed at the best position they could pick. It was a mix of mixed martial arts practitioners, fight fanatics, and sports enthusiasts who all-in-all were totally crazy about GSP and the UFC. Just by looking at them, you know that they were all true fans of the sport and of GSP.
Soonest as he arrived, the fans went really wild. Filipinos are not normally like this especially with sports icons, but yesterday was really different. You can see that they were all at a complete and trance-like awe at the Rush's presence. More so when GSP came out of the stage in between the huge LED backdrop in his big entrance. The crowd simply went wild. You could probably hear them chanting and shouting from miles away.
St. Pierre was a real charismatic crowd pleaser. He knew how to connect with them and make the fans happy. From his short speech after his introduction, to the public demonstration where he randomly selected a lucky boy to do a short training with Dam Shewin Surisuk, his Muay Thai instructor during this trip, while he padded up for the next part of the training, was a sign of how much he really loved his fans back and knew how much he wanted to make them happy.
When it was all over, you could see that all fans were satisfied and greatly inspired by what they experienced. You could see in their faces that they were wondering when the next Philippine media tour will be, and more importantly, who they will see next. Who knows, maybe two fighters will be coming in to the country next? I hope? Well, that's the only logical next step I see after this.
Is this an positive indication that we too, the Philippines, are ready to welcome and host one of Asia's UFC fights? If this happens, I can imagine how much of a tourism boost it could also be. Fighters and many of their fans from all over Asia, and even the world will be coming over to experience this.
All in the name of SPORTS entertainment.
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