NEW YORK – It’s been an inauspicious start to "Fight Week" for AKA head coach/owner Javier Mendez. An insomniac, he had to show up in Manhattan on Wednesday on just an hour-and-a-half’s worth of sleep. He hadn’t slept because his sleeping pills were in his luggage. His luggage was lost at the airport. He looked like hell warmed over. These are the kinds of things that a coach endures.
Still, Mendez held pads for Luke Rockhold through the pageantry of the open workouts, which were conducted at the UFC Gym in SoHo. Fans stood by as Rockhold thwapped the pads while Mendez suffered through.