Saturday, November 15, 2008

MMA: UFC 91 Preview



Tonight is the biggest UFC fight in....well....EVER!!!

Tonight is the UFC return of Heavyweight Champion Randy "The Natural" Couture as he defends his title against monster MMA newcomer Brock Lesner.

Brock comes into this fight with just a 2-1 career record. His last fight came on August 9th when he dominated Heath Herring for 3 rounds on his way to the unanimous decision. The highlight of the match was when Brock started the fight with a punch to the face which caused Herring to do a backwards somersault. It was AWESOME! At the start of this match Brock will have close to a 50 pound weight advantage on the champion.

Randy Couture
is 45 years old and his last fight was against a scared Gabriel Gonzaga on August 25, 2007. It has been absolutely ridiculous that Couture has fought at this high of a level as long as he has, and sooner or later his luck will run out. I hope that happens tonight.

If I was booking this match I would build up Brock Lesner as the super awesome unstoppable babyface and future of the UFC Heavyweight division. Randy Couture is the obvious heel, the man who "retired" while UFC Heavyweight Champion because he wanted to go elsewhere(ie-Affliction) to fight Fedor. He sued the UFC to get out of his contract while the UFC filed a countersuit for breach of contract. THEN Couture appeared and was interviewed on the first Affliction pay-per-view. It was only after he made that stupid mistake that he renegotiated a new contract with the UFC at which point this fight was announced. I would paint Couture as a UFC turncoat. As a man who doesn't care about the company while he still holds the belt. I would build him up so that the fans will hate him and boo him relentlessly. All great fighters have to be able to work as a babyface as well as a heel.

But alas, Brock Lesner is a natural heel, so despite me wanting to see Randy Couture get knocked out in 30 seconds the fans will be chanting, "Randy, Randy!" Whatever.
Regardless of the winner this should be a great fight, and probably the best heavyweight fight that we have seen in a long time.

The most intriguing fight on the undercard is the lightweight matchup between Ultimate Fighter alums Kenny "Ken Flo" Florian and Joe "Daddy" Stephenson. Ken Flo has won 5 straight fights including his August fight where he completely shut down Roger Huerta in dominating fashion.
I hate Joe "Daddy" Stevenson. I hope that Ken Flo chokes him out in 30 seconds.

Other fights on the undercard:

-Nate Quarry vs Demian Maia
-Gabriel Gonzaga vs Josh Hendricks in a fight between two heavyweights that no one wants to see fight.
and Dustin Hazelett vs Tamden McCrory in a fight that is only on the main card because The Ultimate Fighter winner Amir Sadollah had to pull out of his fight due to an infection on his leg. The best thing that I can say about Hazelett is that he was knocked out in amazing fashion when he lost to Josh Koscheck.

Music: This Week's New Releases


The Flaming Lips- Christmas on Mars CD-DVD combo, with a MEGA DELUXE version available from their website which includes stickers and trading cards and popcorn, AMAZING!!! I am seeing this at the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle on November 21st. Tickets are still available, you should come to!

Los Campesinos!- We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed This is a CD/DVD combo from one of the most fun indie pop dance bands alive today. They only made a single run of CDs for the entire world, and they are only available through Rough Trade, which is in the UK which makes it more expensive to get it here in the states(bastards!). You can also get it via iTunes, but of course sans DVD.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Music: This Week's New Releases

I hope you voted.

Danielson- Trying Hartz

The Decemberists- Always the Bridesmaid: A Singles Series - Volume 2 (vinyl)

More pretty vinyl for the Decemberists fans. I won't be able to review it until all of them have been released and they send me the entire series. I just wasn't willing to pay so much for shipping, sorry.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

This Week's New.....Oh Fuck It

Go Vote, Go Vote for Obama!

This Week's New.....Oh Fuck It

Go Vote, Go Vote for Obama!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

MMA: EliteXC is Dead! (officially)



The last EliteXC show on CBS did a very good rating. A rating that the network and Showtime were both happy with. CBS began the discussions to buy the organization outright.

Two days after Seth Petruzelli knocked out Kimbo Slice he was doing media interviews when he said that he was paid a bonus to stand up with Kimbo. This launched an investigation by the Florida State Athletic Commission. You see, this is a mixed martial arts fight. People made bets on this fight in Las Vegas. You do not pay someone a bonus telling them to stand and exchange with Kimbo in hopes that Kimbo knocks him out. Unfortunately for Kimbo Slice and EliteXC, Petruzelli knocked Kimbo the fuck out.

Due to the ongoing investigation CBS declined to purchase the organization and later that afternoon EliteXC filed for bankruptcy and began firing office employees.

Seth Petruzelli's punch to the jaw of Kimbo wasn't the knockout blow that I had predicted for EliteXC, but his follow up interview certainly finished the job.

The North American MMA market is down to Affliction and UFC. Affliction is only a couple shows away from going under themselves. The first quarter of 2008 seemed like a promising time for MMA in this country, but here we are barely in November and we are just a short time away to being back to only having the UFC.

Music: This Week's New Releases

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals- Cardinology
Your best bet for a solid release this week is the 10th release from Ryan Adams and 4th with The Cardinals. I have this one already, but I haven't listened to it in its entirety. It seems solid enough though.
Bloc Party- Intimacy
The Cure - 4:13 Dream
This is the 13th release from a band that no one has cared about in at least 11 years. And I mean really, only 13 releases? Ryan Adams will probably release 13 albums next year.
Deerhunter - Microcastle
Eagles of Death Metal - Heart On Axl Rose once referred to them onstage as the "Pidgins of Shit Metal". Chinese Democracy comes out later this month, and I pray that it's the worst album of all time. We'll see who laughs last Axl.