UFC VEGAS 11 is in the Books: A night of star making victories and crushing defeats

I don’t follow sports, with the exception of MMA and occasionally Boxing. Saturday night was an impressive card of fights,  that ended for some with crushing defeats.

Two of the most talked up fights was Woodley vs Covington and Meerschaert vs Chimaev, and in both cases the old lions lost to the rising tigers. With Meerschaert losing in 17 seconds of the 1st round, and Woodley getting TKO’d (rib injury) in the 5th round.

Here is the thing, there is no shame in losing. It is a competition and victories and defeats come to all. Anyone who has the guts to get in there and compete with the best in the world, by default deserves the respect of us mere mortals, who are not doing that. Now that said, sometimes your mouth can talk you into embarrassment and ridicule.

And I get it, to get hit in the face for a living, to go in there and take abuse and give abuse, and be successful at it, takes a certain mentality. It is a belief in your own invincibility, bordering on delusion. And when that delusion… you make into fact, you are a hero. When you don’t, you leave yourself open to what Shakespeare called “being faced out of your way”.  In short bragging, and falling on your face rather than delivering.

That is the corner both Meerschaert and Woodley talked themselves into.

Woodley, coming off back to back defeats, and even before that victories that seemed lacking in ‘convincing style’ or ‘killer instinct’, spent the whole build up to the fight talking about how he couldn’t lose to his opponent, and making what should be a competition about two fighters, instead becomes about everything except the fight.  Woodley bringing a little bit of the circus Colby brings into his fight. 

However, Colby for all his trumpian “heel act”, to court controversy (a detestable thing to do for any reason, people will emulate your poison, not knowing you are doing it for the dollars– and the whole quagmire that is the world, sinks a little more because of it— but each to their own conscience answer), at the end of the day he is a top notch fighter, always bringing his ‘A’ game.

And Colby, even in defeat, has something I have not seen in any of Woodley’s recent fights, he has a killer instinct, he has the desire and pace to get his opponent out of there.

Woodley in his last few fights– no so much.

So coming into this fight and guaranteeing victory, and saying you ‘CAN’T’ lose to your opponent, it sets you up to be embarrassed. Especially against an opponent that has been fighting well and convincingly.

Do your talking in the ring. And then win or lose, you have not promised and failed to deliver. But this way, it is just a forever soundbyte of you claiming you are  not going to lose, followed by a clip of you, definitely losing. Again there is no shame in losing, but you cause shame for yourself in bragging and failing to deliver.

And honestly I think even Woodley’s comments to the media indicated a man who was talking about why he couldn’t lose, or perceived non-germane social media statements/stances, rather than a fighter who was working on how he will win. And while I would have liked for Woodley to win, there is nothing in his recent performances, or in his build-up to this one, that would lead one to believe he would beat Colby.

That to the side, congrats to both men for bringing what they had.

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Moving on Chimaev and Meerschert, again a build up filled with a lot of talking, mostly on Meershaert’s end about feeling disrespected, and derailing Chimaev, and win or lose leaving him in no condition for another quick turnaround fight. Again, no shame in losing. But to do all this talking about taking the new guy into the deep water, and instead getting ended in 17 seconds— you have created a ready made meme.

Do your talking in the ring.

Because only God can truly guarantee the fates of men.

All in all, another exciting UFC card, and I’m looking forward to the upcoming Adesanya/Costa fight, this coming Saturday! Both fighters have been talking much smack, the difference here being, both fighters have winning records, and have recently shown the heart and the victories to back up that talk. That should be a must watch fight!

 

CD of the Day (and strong contender for CD of the Year) Gregory Porter’s LIQUID SPIRIT


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I’ve been listening to a lot of music recently. Actual cds not mp3s, not rough compressions or rough approximations of the song, but the full CD sound spectrum of the song.

MP3s were never designed as a replacement for musical CDs, it is a sampling medium, great for helping you decide what is worth buying (or even audio books where for the most part all you are reproducing is a person’s limited conversational speaking range) but not suitable as a replacement for a full range music recording. MP3s get rid of extraneous info, the highs and the lows, the extremes, but oft I’ve found it’s those very pauses and extremes… that compression schemes such as MP3 would lose, wherein we are best found.

I’ve listened to everything from Rock to Rap, sampling all those voices from the near and far. And some of those CDs are very good, but only one recently has been inspired, has been revelatory. Revelatory as in revelation. Gregory Porter’s LIQUID SPIRIT is that cd. Not since stumbling upon the works of Terry Callier or Solomon Burke have I been so impressed with a new discovery. It’s not just his voice, or even the lyrics, which as stated are inspired, it is his phrasing, his delivery. Smooth and easy crooning, holding at bay… a night falling into day. It’s a very relaxed delivery, crooning to you, as the stars… dim.

Melancholy. That’s the word, there is a vein of melancholy in Gregory Porter’s Grammy acclaimed vocals, but melancholy that is tempered by a fervent romanticism. This is timeless music, as valid for an audience of 1920 as it will be for an audience of 2020.

This is today’s MUST BUY, not just the CD of the day, but a CD to enjoy from first song to last for far longer than a day. An essential CD.

In an age of Itunes when everyone is satisfied with listening to the distant echoes of music (mp3s) this is a CD that will prompt you to invest in, that nearly extinct device, a portable CD player.

However, it is the 21st century so thankfully we have alternatives to just having a portable CD player. You can, for a little more, buy a simple media tablet about the same size and weight as a portable CD player, but that allows you to play your MP3 cd-rs and cd-rws (as much as I rail against MP3 for music, for audio books or Old Time Radio it works just fine) as well as view DVDs! That folks is what we call… a win/win!

Price both the CD and a good portable media player-tablet, at the links below. You’ll be glad… for both.

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Liquid Spirit CD

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Coby TFDVD7009 7-Inch Portable DVD/CD/MP3 Player, Black – nifty portable media tablet… now it appears Coby Electronics has gone the way of the dodo, so you may want to pick up these low cost DVD/CD/media tablets while you can.

Enjoy the links. And if you purchase through the links, I want to let you know it is always appreciated, and helps keep this Blog going. Thanks and enjoy the items!!!

And for those looking to catch Gregory Porter in concert, he has a pretty lively 2014 touring schedule, He’s currently tearing through Europe, but has a few stateside stops as well, to include, PA, New orleans, Colorado, DC, and a few more. View the whole schedule here!