Sorry it's taken me a couple of days to get the weekend stuff on here. There's less time during the holidays, but even less for the little things. Sorry if my intro is a little down, but unfortunately the topics for today's blog were a part of the most frustrating sports weekend I've ever had. There was its upsides, sure, but in the end I was so worked up that I vented about it to most everyone I discussed it with. So I will be keeping this brief so I don't get worked up again.
Saturday night was the start with The Ultimate Fighter Finale for season 8. What made the event interesting was that other than 2 fights on the card, every other fight featured fighters from the recent season of the show. This hasn't been done in quite a while.
The first fight was between lightweights Dave Kaplan and Junie Browning. Based on the show, I really came to dislike Browning, and hoped he wouldn't have a career in the UFC. Unfortunately, they gave him this fight against an easy competitor, and he won by submission in the second round by armbar. And afterwards he was awarded the Fight of the Night bonus, which made absolutely no sense to me since it was so one-sided.
Next was Wilson Gouveia taking on Jason MacDonald. At the weigh-ins the day before, Gouveia missed the middleweight requirement by 4 pounds, so it would seem that he would be out of shape and MacDonald should win provided he fight smart. But he managed to prove us wrong by charging at the well-known striker, and got KO'd in the first round for his efforts. Already this wasn't looking good as my picks to win weren't holding up.
After that was a welterweight rematch between Anthony Johnson and Kevin Burns. The first fight ended when Burns accidently poked Johnson in the eye, and Johnson fell to the ground, which led the referee to believe that Johnson had been knocked out. So this fight came, and some action filled the first two rounds until Johnson got justice, and knocked out Burns with a beautiful kick to his chin. Finally, the guy I rooted for won a fight!
Two undercard fights were shown before the two main event fights. Elliot Marshall submitted Jules Bruchez with ease in a rear-naked choke in their light heavyweight fight, and Krzysztof Soszynski submitted Shane Primm with a kimura in the second that nearly ripped his shoulder apart. Two more picks went my way thanks to these light heavyweights.
Then was the fight for the light heavyweight contract between Ryan Bader and Vinny Magalhaes. Most everyone had Magalhaes picked, but I was very confident in Bader. The surprise that came from this fight was that not only did Bader pick up the win, but he managed to KO Magalhaes with a right that was blocked, but still hard enough to send him to the ground. I jumped for joy when Bader was the winner, and hopefully we'll see him fight too.
Finally, it was time for Phillipe Nover to fight Efrain Escudero for the lightweight contract. Nover was highly praised on the show, compared to many great UFC fighters, and seemed to have the better skills than his opponent. So thinking about it, unless Escudero caught him by surprise, Nover should get the win, right? In the end, Escudero not only beat Nover, he dominated the first 2 rounds, and fought smart in the 3rd to get the unanimous decision. Almost seems illogical. After studying the results, I realized Nover, for all his talents, was not mentally prepared, and didn't have a gameplan for his fight. He got my hopes up, and then disappointed me. I can't say more.........
The weekend of course didn't end for me there. The big game between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys was on Sunday, and even though the Giants had clinched their division, they needed a good win to show they are still a team to be feared. After being 0-0 for most of the beginning, I missed a little of the game until the end of the second quarter, and saw that Dallas had pulled ahead 7-3. I wasn't worried as the game was close, and figured we had a chance as long as our defense could continue to hold, and our offense could maybe step up a little. That didn't happen right away, as Dallas scored another touchdown, and our offense starting to look like last week's, as Eli Manning was doing fine, but not only could their scoring players offer no help, but the players defending the QB couldn't keep their end of the deal. Dallas got up to 14-3. We got a lucky break in the forth quater with a touchback and a field goal, which meant all we need was a good touchdown for the win. Instead of holding Dallas, they scored an easy touchdown, making the score 20-8. With only two minutes left, I knew it was over, and stopped watching. That score was how the game ended.
Next Sunday we play the Carolina Panthers, the team right on our behind in the playoff picture. The Giants need to wake up in a hurry, as a win is needed to keep us in a good position in the playoffs. I can only hope our mistakes are corrected from these last couple of games.
Well, I need to talk about more pleasant things before my blood-pressure rises anymore. I recently finished LEGO Batman for the Playstation 2, and as much as I wanted to jump into Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, I think I'll wait until Christmas to see what games Santa throws at me.
That's my time for tonight. Until my TV wrap-up for the week, I think I'll start part 1 of my internal debate as to which new video game system I should get: Playstation 3, Wii, or X-Box 360? The feud in my mind will now be seen by all for your entertainment. Until then, I'm sure you can find something entertaining to read, watch, or participate in. I'll be using one of those forms to find entertainment right now.
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