{"id":81137,"date":"2014-12-29T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2014-12-29T17:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=81137"},"modified":"2014-12-25T14:42:13","modified_gmt":"2014-12-25T19:42:13","slug":"weighing-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/29\/weighing-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Weighing In"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re out until January 5, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2014 while we\u2019re away. We hope you enjoy\u2014and have a happy New Year!<\/em><\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Watching a cage fighter starve himself<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo: Jeremy Brooks<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cFour eggs,\u201d I instructed the waiter at the finest restaurant in the Palms Casino Resort.<\/p>\n

\u201cEgg salad?\u201d He was in a starched suit, pouring water into a delicately lipped glass.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, four hard-boiled eggs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFour eggs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The waiter returned with four eggs huddled in the slight depression of a sizable dinner plate, as if to further diminish the sad feast through a trick of scale. Each egg had been deshelled, which was, I supposed, the benefit of ordering hard-boiled eggs at the finest restaurant in the Palms. Erik was a few flights up in his hotel room, showering after a workout, but he had asked that his meal be ready when he descended, and I feared displeasing him.<\/p>\n

Though his mentor Duke, his roommate Pettis, and his manager could be found dispersed among the card tables and slot machines, not a single member of Hard Drive, Erik\u2019s fighting collective in Cedar Rapids, had ventured with us to Las Vegas. Following a momentous schism between him and his brother, Erik had been \u201cbanned for life\u201d from the gym and its environs.<\/p>\n

Banished, Erik had returned to Milwaukee, to his warm, fast-talking Italian American coach, to his potential as one of the youngest men in the most prestigious promotion open to men who weighed in at 155 pounds. From their offices in Vegas, connected people continued to call him in Milwaukee, and it was as if he had never made the mistake of going home. Would he like to be in the official UFC video game? They would fly him out to LA, take measurements, and then boys everywhere would fight their friends in the avatar form of Erik \u201cNew Breed\u201d Koch. Pettis was asked to be a judge for the Miss Wisconsin USA pageant and, in declining the offer, sent Erik in his stead. Erik met, at the event, the manager of a Jersey Shore <\/em>cast member. Would Erik like to be on an episode of DJ Pauly D\u2019s upcoming reality spin-off show? He said he very much would like that. He was unattached, alone, free to make commitments to as-yet-theoretical reality shows as he pleased.<\/p>\n

Erik at last arrived at the restaurant, sat across from me without a word, unrolled from the napkin his knife and fork, and began the surgical egg procedure with which I was, by then, familiar. I would have liked to discuss our surroundings, as it was my first encounter with a professionally run promotion and I had many astute observations on the subject, but he ate with an air of sacral solemnity I did not wish to desecrate by speaking. It was my twenty-ninth birthday and I had not told a soul in the world. Read More >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re out until January 5, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2014 while we\u2019re away. We hope you enjoy\u2014and have a happy New Year! * Watching a cage fighter starve himself. \u201cFour eggs,\u201d I instructed the waiter at the finest restaurant in the Palms Casino Resort. \u201cEgg salad?\u201d He was in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":757,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16464],"tags":[15664,17,15663,15661,11382,15655,9671,13737,115,5468,15659,15658,15665,15666,15660,15662,5961,15656,15657],"class_list":["post-81137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2014","tag-all-you-can-eat","tag-books","tag-buffets","tag-cage-fighting","tag-eating","tag-erik-koch","tag-excerpts","tag-fighting","tag-food","tag-las-vegas","tag-mixed-martial-arts","tag-mma","tag-the-rio-carnival-world-buffet","tag-thrown","tag-ufc","tag-ultimate-fighting-championship","tag-walmart","tag-weighing-in","tag-weight-classes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWatching a Cage Fighter Starve Himself<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The first of a two-part excerpt from Kerry Howley\u2019s new book, \u201cThrown,\u201d the essayist insinuates herself into the life of cage fighter Erik Koch.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/29\/weighing-in\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Weighing In by Kerry Howley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 29, 2014 \u2013 We\u2019re out until January 5, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2014 while we\u2019re away. 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