If you’ve ever wondered what it would’ve been like to be only metres away from the gladiators in the Colosseum then get as close as you can to the cage at a UFC event.

I could hear every enormous kick, every big punch thrown and every body that hits the mat as I sat at my front row media bench at the most iconic venue in the world — Madison Square Garden in New York.

Every fighter — winner or loser — walks past me, all covered in sweat and many covered in blood with cuts that wouldn’t sit well with those who have a weak stomach.

UFC 322 was billed as the best card of the year from the world’s biggest mixed martial arts promotion and it was being headlined by a man from Western Australia — the state’s first ever champion in Jack Della Maddalena.

And for the five days I spent in “The Big

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