Lesnar, GSP, Hendo, Fitch, Belcher

Nate Diaz-Joe Stevenson: Sure the size discrepancy is huge. But Joe Daddy’s got the tools and experience to overcome this…likely by submission.

Chris Lytle-Kevin Burns: Chris Lytle by decision. Likely Fight of the Night.

De Marques Johnson-James Wilks: I only got to watch a few episodes of TUF 9, so there is minimal basis for this one.  But Johnson was kind of a likable character on the show, so I’d probably pull for him.

Ross Pearson-Andre Winner: Almost the same as Johnson-Wilks, but I saw in Sherdog that they recently fought a common opponent. Pearson got a loss, while Winner got a draw.  So I’d say Winner.

My favorite part is Apollo Creed’s facial expression, as if he is conveying the message  “Look at me! I am giving birth to a massive USB device!”

Honorable mention to Clubber Lang’s expression; I think that’s how a normal person would react if they suddenly discover a two-by-four rushing down their pants.

The Franklin-Silva main event easily lived up to the billing, although there were times when both were being too tentative.  Velasquez-Kongo meanwhile, was a massacre, although at least for a few seconds, Cain’s chin got severely tested. Davis-Hardy was close, and I actually thought Davis won.  Fisher-Uno was boring, and Swick-Saunders also was until the flurry that led to the knockout.  Finally, Cro Cop did dispatch Al-Turk easily, though with the help of an inadvertent eye poke.

The biggest story of UFC 99 though, came after the event.  It turns out that Cro Cop was not intent on returning to the UFC after all, as he reneged on the verbal agreement he had with UFC President Dana White and informed him that he just signed a contract with rival Japanese promotion DREAM.  This, after publicly claiming how he wants to make a run at the heavyweight championship and proving all his doubters wrong, and–according to White–talking about “honor” and those kind of stuff.  This was to say the least, a ballsy move, which is amusing because Cro Cop just got one of his dislodged in his body in a his fight with Alistair Overeem.

Speaking of which, couldn’t there be any more brutal welcome encountered by a new UFC fighter than the one Mustapha Al Turk had?  First, he gets ballblasted by Cheick Kongo’s knee and this eyeball got “Overeemed” by Cro Cop’s fingers.  That was nasty!  Next time: Ultimate Finale predictions.

To the untrained eye, MMA may look like just a bunch of shirtless men engaged in highly chauvinistic displays of manly agression, to show who’s the “better man”. But there is more to that, as the said highly chauvinistic displays of manly aggression also involves wearing index card-sized trunks and mounting one another in rather uncomprosing positions, with no irony whatsoever.

As is the tradition in similar spectacles such as boxing and professional wrestling, the ultimate goal in MMA is to win a belt. This is just as well a bit ironic, because since the participants have been lugging themselves in the ring in only their trunks, there seems to be a pressing need for them to fight for a more practical article of clothing, like a shirt. But this tradition has been upheld for years without question. So let’s just be thankful that the people who came up with this idea did not end up with anything worse. It would have been awkward if, for example, they would have fought for say, a championship thong.

Okay, I hope that brings you up to speed with regards to the sport! Now here are the some of the fighters slated to compete tomorrow:

Fighting in tomorrow’s main event is Rich “Ace” Franklin (24-4). He is a former math teacher and former UFC middleweight champion. His monicker was derived from the fact that he resembles actor Jim “Ace Ventura” Carrey.

Across the ring is going to be Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva (33-9-1). He is a former Pride (a now-defunct rivaling promotion) middleweight champion. His monicker was derived from the fact that he is the most angelic-looking fighter in the sport, and coining him “The Axe Murderer” would be funny and ironic because that would be in stark contrast of what one would think upon seeing his face. That was sarcasm. There is a 50% chance he might have actually chewed off his own umbilical cord right after birth.

Wanderlei Silva eats babies for breakfast.

Fighting in the co-main event is heavyweight contender Cheick Kongo (14-4-1). He has no monicker yet, but the label on his shirt is very appropriate. He has made a legitimate strategy out of using kicks to trying to put an end to the bloodlines of his opponents right there in the ring. His opponent is undefeated prospect Cain Velasquez (5-0).

In an amazing coincidence, the two most prominent victims of Kongo’s ballblaster kicks are fighting each other: Mustapha Al-Turk (6-4) and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (24-6-2).

Kongo Declares That Al Turk Shall Have No More Babies From Now On

No more Cro Coplets for you!

Cro Cop, in particular has a penchant for being in the receiving end of such a move. He suffered a similar fate in a fight he had last year against Alistair Overeem. Here’s a snippet of what happened in the contest:

Later on in the round Overeem landed at least three illegal knees to the groin–one of which wasn’t caught by the referee. After the last one Cro Cop was in obvious agony. The words that came out of Bas Rutten’s mouth when the bout was getting waived off and called a no contest will haunt men around the world for a long time:

“We just got informed by Mirko Cro Cop’s corner that his right testicle is inside.”

Moving on …

Ouch!

Finally, another hype-worthy fight from this card is between welterweights Marcus Davis (16-4) and Dan Hardy (21-6). Davis is one of my favorite fighters, though I must point out that when he speaks, he sounds as if he has been sparring with Cheick Kongo a lot (think how Mike Tyson speaks). Davis and Hardy have been in a pro-wrestling-like war of words in the weeks leading to their fight. A sticking point to this feud (really) was when Hardy’s fans  (upon the prompting of Hardy) posted  photoshopped pictures of Davis that made insinuations about his gender orientation.  This one’s the funniest:

So for my predictions:

In the main event, I’m rooting for the math teacher, but my gut tells me “The Axe Murderer” is going to pull off a brutal TKO, probably in the first round.

In the co-main event, I’m predicting Kongo’s first low-blow to occur inside of three minutes. In the end though, Velasquez will pull through, perhaps with a second-round TKO via ground-and-pound.

Cro Cop with a nasty game-ending kick in the first round.

Davis will probably be goaded into a stand-up battle, but he’ll wise up and pull off a slick submission by the second round.  In the end, I predict both fighters will hug each other and act as if nothing happened, because that’s what usually happens.

In other main card fights, I expect lightweight Spencer Fisher coming up on top of returning Caol Uno, and Mike Swick easily dispatching Ben Saunders in welterweight action.

Can’t wait for tomorrow!

Don’t worry. I’ll put more content here from now on.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
Oh whop pine, it is to write in a wonder sofa’s lay, HEY!

“We don’t have money to buy Song Hits!” That’s the traditional Yuletide message that the carolers want to give to the people they sing to.  Ultimately, this message easily comes across, as the carolers do get money to buy a Christmas song book, making them get the lyrics of Jingle Bells finally right, which in turn, allows them to move on to more complex Christmas tunes (“Joy to the world, Dolor is gone; Let Earth receive Berting!“).

Anyway, since we are on the topic of Christmas Songs Whose Lyrics are Consistently Butchered by the Human Race, our discussion would not be complete without the mention of the song Twelve Days of Christmas, which tells the tale of a person whose true love has this tendency of giving her a boatload of gifts, none of which, unfortunately, is remotely useful.  I mean, seriously, what good use would one make out of a lord-a-leaping (let alone ten), other than, quite possibly, target-shooting practice?  Or what about the pear tree? Was it really necessary, in gifting the partridge, to include the humongous biological organism to which it was attached?!

The main characteristic of Twelve Days of Christmas though is that it has a flow that is repetitive and simple–kind of like the children’s song Old McDonald (“Old McDonald had a farm, and Bingo was his name-oh, E-I-E-I-O“)–which makes it easy to remember and understand.  This enables it to become the perfect song that people choose, in case they are suddenly imbibed with the Christmas Spirit and feeling the urge to break into a Yuletide tune:

“I am suddenly imbibed with the Christmas spirit and feeling the urge to break into a Yuletide tune!” these people say to themselves.

“I know!” they reply, to their own statements. “What about Twelve Days of Christmas?” they suggest.  “I think I remember the lyrics of that song.”

It is actually actually true.  They do remember the lyrics of the song, in the sense that they know it contains the numbers “one” to “twelve”.  They might also remember how each stanza begins with the singer saying which Day of Christmas it was and that her True Love sent a bunch of gifts.  What they do not remember however, are the actual gifts.  This causes three possible eventualities–that would happen at some point during the song–for those who decide to sing it nonetheless, namely:

a.) They will mix up some of the words with those also found on the song (“On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, six geese-a-milking…“).

b.) They will mix up some of the words with those not found on the song (“On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, ten lords-a-leaking…“).

c.) They will mix up some of the words with those found on a completely different song (“…three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a wonder sofa’s lay, HEY!“).

And this goes on and on and on, with more and more people doing it every Christmas season, with no remorse whatsoever.  But who am I to stop them.  This is after all a Cherished Holiday Tradition, much like the Tradition of Gift-Giving, the Tradition of Putting Up the Christmas Tree, the Tradition of Noche Buena, the Tradition of Gaining Fifteen Pounds Overnight, the Tradition of Putting Up the Christmas Tree After it Toppled  to the Floor Because It was Standing on a Cheap Christmas Tree Stand, the Tradition of Kris Kringle, the Tradition of Having One Week of Kris Kringle Dedicated for the Category “Something Long and Hard”, the Tradition of Putting Up the Christmas Tree, the Tradition of Skipping the Gift Deadline for Kris Kringle, the Tradition of Feeling Bummed for Not Receiving a Gift in Kris Kringle, the Tradition of Putting Up the Christmas Tree,  the Tradition of Simbang Gabi, the Tradition of Putting Up the Christmas Tree, the Tradition of Putting Up the Christmas Tree, the Tradition of Promising Yourself that You Would Attend All Nine Masses of Simbang Gabi, the Tradition of Oversleeping by Two Hours on the First Morning of Simbang Gabi, the Tradition of Promising Yourself that You Would Attend All Nine Masses of Simbang Gabi Next Year Instead, and the Tradition of Finally Putting Down the Christmas Tree (which happens around March).

But of course, it is not enough for us to simply stick with the notion that Christmas is just a time where we perform age-old traditions.  Rather, we should always bear in our minds and our hearts that Christmas is that time of the year where we remember that fateful night in a manger, some two thousand years ago, where a motley group of Wise Men, shepherds, and livestock, witnessed the birth of the child who would later on change the world and deliver salvation to mankind.  Berting.

Merry Christmas!!!

The Mantis Shrimp.

More from this link.

NATO airstrike “accidentally” destroys a flock of sheep

“KABUL, December 4 (RIA Novosti) – NATO aircraft killed a flock of sheep in the Afghan province of Laghman, in a botched attack on Taliban gunmen, according to sources in the governor’s office.

Provincial police say the incident occurred on Wednesday night near the town of Mehtar Lam. Shots fired from NATO helicopters killed over 200 sheep belonging to local shepherds.”

“We thought they were Taliban in sheep’s clothing,” could have been a good excuse.

In other ungulate-related news:

Camels found wandering in Mexican border city

“Police tried lassoing the animals, which lunged at the officers with snapping teeth…”

Also:

Oh deer! Wild complaint made against pizza shop

“An Allentown pizzeria may be in hot water after a city health inspector caught an employee butchering a deer in the shop’s kitchen Tuesday afternoon.”

“A day after health officials removed the carcass, the pizza shop’s manager said it was a huge misunderstanding.”

“‘We thought they were Taliban in deer’s clothing,’ the manager said” I think!

So what we have left for the PCC is a UAAP-NCAA affair.  More than that however, is that we actually have a retro-NCAA Final Four that involves four of the most historic basketball rivalries in the Philippines, namely: La Salle-Letran, Letran-San Beda, San Beda-Ateneo, and of course, Ateneo-La Salle.  How cool is that?  Anyway, whatever happens in the Final Four match-ups, Monday’s 3rd place and championship games will bear witness to two of these rivalries being relived, as each of the final four teams is coincidentally in the opposite bracket as the two teams it shared a major rivalry with.  Ateneo takes on Letran, while San Beda takes on La Salle in tomorrow’s games.

Personally, I am hoping for an Ateneo-San Beda final match-up in the finals.  The UAAP champion versus the the NCAA champion, which is just what the organizers have been hoping for ever since the inception of this national championship.  That would also mean we’d have a La Salle-Letran 3rd place playoff, which would effectively turn Monday’s games into a UAAP vs. NCAA affair.  Actually, I’m kind of liking the war of attrition between the UAAP and NCAA in this year’s championships so far.  NCAA runner-up Jose Rizal University got upset in the first round by UAAP 3rd placer FEU, only to be avenged by NCAA rival Letran.  Anyway, if Monday’s games do take the UAAP vs. NCAA route, it wouldn’t surprise me then if we’d see Ateneo fans cheering for La Salle, and vice-versa, with San Beda and Letran fans doing the same for each other.

With that out of the way, let’s move on to an interesting storyline with yesterday’s PCC Elite Eight match-up, which is what the title of this blog entry is all about.  Apparently, Arellano University was doing double duty yesterday, as they faced Olivarez College for an NCRAA elimination round game in the morning, before playing against San Beda for their PCC Elite Eight match-up in the afternoon.  It turns out that the NCRAA holds its basketball season during the second semester, thus the weird scheduling.  Arellano’s 2008 championship was actually won way back in February.

As luck would have it, the Arellano-Olivarez match-up actually went into overtime, before closing out with the Chiefs on top, 93-87.  Arellano was able to race though to an early lead in the first half of their San Beda game, leading by as much as seven points, only to falter during the second half.  Central to both games was Chiefs star player Daroya, who scored 22 against Olivarez (10 in overtime), and 33 against San Beda.  Now if you think that wasn’t enough, it turns out that the day before, Daroya suited up for his PBL team Bacchus Energy Drink in an 83-72 loss against Magnolia Pure Water.  He likewise played a key role in the losing effort, scoring 13 points.  Talk about Iron Man performance.

By the way Arellano coach Leo Isaac was also doing a double duty of sorts.  That’s because he is also the coach of the NCAA’s Mapua Cardinals, who were ealier ousted from the PCC in their Elite Eight match-up against Ateneo.  Having to choose which side he would coach in case bothe teams would face each other wasn’t much of an issue, as bothe teams were on opposite sides of the bracket.  However, with talks of Arellano transferring to the NCAA next year, I wonder which team he would end up with.