Dan Ige learned to embrace fighting at the UFC APEX, but for him, there are definitely drawbacks to the entire experience.
It was during the pandemic that the UFC began holding cards at the promotion’s in-house arena in Las Vegas. The APEX remains a staple for live broadcasts even as the promotion starts to hold more and more cards in sold-out arenas across the globe.
Due to limited space, the crowds at the APEX cards are usually sparse, especially with tickets starting at $1,650 through the UFC VIP program administered by On Location (another Endeavor owned company just like UFC).
Ige, who lives in Las Vegas, said just hopping in his truck and driving 10 minutes to a fight is a huge convenience. Unfortunately, he’s also discovered a problem that stems from fighting in an arena where there are maybe 100 people in attendance.
“Every time I fought there, there’s one heckler guy,” Ige told MMA Fighting. “I’ve got to find this guy and give him a little slap or something. This guy is always heckling and I don’t know who lets him in!
“Because it’s $1,500 to get a ticket. This guy somehow gets in every time and he’s always yelling some s***. That’s beyond my control.”
With so few people in the APEX during these events, yelling and shouting echoes throughout the arena, and there’s not enough noise to drown out one particularly annoying voice.
According to Ige, his most recent encounter with the heckler took place back in January.
“When I fought Damon Jackson, in the first round he shot in on a single [leg takedown], and I hit him with a nice clean uppercut in the eye, and he called it an eye poke,” Ige explained. “It even showed in the replay I didn’t poke his eye or anything. It was a good clean shot, and he took his timeout. The referee gave him a timeout, so he got his five minutes or whatever, and I’m sitting there pacing, kind of upset, because I already knew it wasn’t an eye poke.
“This guy in the crowd was shouting ‘You cheater!’ Just yelling, trying to say s*** to get in my head. I wanted to jump over the cage so bad. Good thing, I had my brother there who was just like ‘Calm down.’”
As the shouting continued, Ige revealed it was Jackson’s head coach who finally decided to send a message to the heckler in the crowd.
“My opponent’s coach Sayif Saud yelled at the guy, saying, ‘Shut the f*** up! Give him respect!’” Ige said.
Ige eventually silenced the heckler himself when he delivered a brutal knockout to finish Jackson in the second round. As soon as the fight was over, Ige finally allowed his emotions to overflow, which included an extra outburst aimed directly at the person who wouldn’t stop shouting at him during the fight.
“I knocked out Damon Jackson, and I just remember walking over to the cage and yelling,” Ige said. “I was yelling in his direction. I didn’t know who he was, but I just remember yelling. I probably ruined his parlay at some point or something.”
At UFC Vegas 79, Ige returns to the APEX for his co-main event fight against Bryce Mitchell, and there’s no telling if the heckler will be back again or not.
Ige learned a long time ago how to block out noise during his fights, focusing on only what his coaches are shouting from the corner. But he admits the APEX makes it almost impossible not to hear everything else.
“When you’re in the moment, you’re not thinking about it, but when you’re in those little breaks, those pauses, you look around and there’s like seven people in here yelling,” Ige joked.
“It’s just disrespect. Like some of these guys come in just to say s***, and it’s like, shut up.”