My road trip to UFC 300 Posted On 17th September 2024 To Magazine & Stories

I’m sure a lot of us are well aware of the amazing, historic spectacle UFC 300 turned out to be, but this road trip was much more than just that one night…

Denver, Colorado

I began the drive to Denver, CO from Austin, TX on March 20th, 2024. I had dates with 2 world-class and world-renowned MMA gyms with some of the best male and female mixed martial artists on the planet, High Altitude Martial Arts and Factory X Muay Thai. On the drive to Denver, I had the idea of doing a portrait series on film of as many fighters and coaches as I possibly could during this trip, and of course, ILFORD film was my very first choice.

Anthony Smith | XP2 Super

Factory X

While shooting a training session at Factory X, I noticed a large window in the back of the gym, and I immediately thought to myself that was the perfect spot to place my subjects for the portraits. Once the training session was over, I loaded my camera with some ILFORD XP2 super, and asked each fighter as well as the head coach, Marc Montoya, to stand a few feet away from the window and choose their own pose.

Marc Montoya | ILFORD XP2 Super

Coach Montoya

Truth be told, I was absolutely delighted by the results, but the portrait of Coach Montoya was my personal favorite and stood out to me the most! I am incredibly grateful to both gyms and all fighters/coaches for allowing me in their sacred space to take snaps of them practicing their art. It was truly fascinating, and sometimes I had to catch myself just watching and listening instead of shooting.

Las Vegas, Nevada - UFC 300

We move on to Vegas! I arrived to Las Vegas on April 6th, 2024, two days before the start of fight week. I was there as UFC lightweight Bobby “King” Green’s personal photographer, who was set to face Jim Miller in the second fight of the night. Just a couple days after arriving in Vegas, ILFORD reached out to me about writing this blog. The timing was absolutely impeccable! I immediately searched up the nearest camera store and ran over to pick up a couple more rolls of film.

Sean Strickland & Eric Nicksick | DELTA 400

Bellator bantamweight champion Patchy Mix

Throughout the week when Bobby had private UFC events to attend, I made use of my time visiting the local gyms to buy a shirt and hopefully meet coaches and fighters. With a fresh roll of ILFORD Delta 400 in my camera, I headed over to Xtreme Couture MMA where I was fortunate enough to meet and photograph Bellator bantamweight champion Patchy Mix, former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland, as well as head coach Eric Nicksick. What an honor.

Patchy Mix | DELTA 400

UFC bantamweight champion Cody

On Wednesday, we made a trip to the UFC Performance Institute. It was there that I met former UFC bantamweight champion Cody “No Love” Garbrandt. WOW. I had to really make sure to keep my cool, as I have been a fan of Cody for years. We chatted about tattoos for a little while, and then right before his training session was to begin, I asked if I could take his portrait, which he obliged to. It was a good day.

Cody Garbrandt | DELTA 400

Bobby

Thursday was press conference day. Before the conference, Bobby hired a makeup artist to put face paint on him, inspired by Heath Ledger’s Joker from The Dark Knight. This was unfortunately short-lived, as after the paint was applied, the UFC informed him he could not show up to the conference with the face paint, for unspecified official reasons. However, we made the most of it and I took some portraits of him before he wiped it off, making me the only person in the world who was able to capture some snaps of him during those few moments the paint was still on. The portrait shown is my personal favorite from those moments.

Bobby Green | DELTA 400

Phoenix, Arizona - The Monday after UFC 300

After a victorious weekend in Vegas, with Bobby putting on a dominant showing in a unanimous decision win, I then arrived to my final stop, Phoenix, AZ, on April 15th, 2024.

I was here to take some photos at The MMA Lab. This one was more personal for me. I have been a massive supporter of this gym and its athletes since I was 15, primarily because of former WEC and UFC lightweight champion, Benson "Smooth" Henderson. My all-time favorite fighter and (in my opinion) the greatest lightweight MMA fighter of all time.

Benson Henderson | DELTA 400

John Crouch

I took more photos during this training session than any of the other ones I did. I recognized every single pro fighter there, and tried my best to capture as many photos as I could of each one of them. Fortunately, after the practice was complete, head coach John Crouch gathered the pros for me and asked them to let me take each of their portraits. THANK YOU COACH! What a super cool move by him.

John Crouch | DELTA 400

This concludes my journey and this blog. I am honored and extremely grateful to each gym I visited and each fighter that allowed me to take a photo of them! Also a special thank you to ILFORD for asking me to write this blog.

Alex Caceres | DELTA 400

Images ©Jackson Fillat Lones